2019 Verbier Art Summit Newspaper by Verbier Art Summit

WE ARE MANY ART, THE POLITICAL AND MULTIPLE TRUTHS

2019 FRIDAY 1 AND SATURDAY 2 FEBRUARY The Summit welcomes anyone with a passion for art and innovation to attend the talks programme by our influential thought leaders at the W Hotel in Verbier. Register for free online at verbierartsummit.org The 2019 Summit speakers include artists Tania Bruguera, Latifa Echakhch, Grada Kilomba, Ernesto Neto and Rirkrit Tiravanija; art educator Naine Terena; curator Gabi Ngcobo; philosopher Federico Campagna; Tate director Maria Balshaw; Professor of Neurophysiology Wolf Singer; and Professor of Sociology Boaventura de Sousa Santos.

2018 Verbier Art Summit © Alpimages Verbier

Discover a new side of art through talks by influential speakers. The Verbier Art Summit connects thought leaders to key figures in the art world to generate innovative ideas and drive social change. Organised in partnership with Jochen Volz, the acclaimed museum director of Pinacoteca de São Paulo of Brazil, the 2019 Verbier Art Summit will explore the political power of art. In times of increasing uncertainty and the erosion of democratic principles through the manipulation and bias of social and conventional media, we are in need of a deeper understanding of the multiplicity of narratives around us. The 2019 Summit is cu-

rated to deepen the conversation around issues of inclusivity and collective action, subjects which have become increasingly urgent due to the current political landscape of intolerance and dogmatism. “I truly believe in the transformative capacity of art,” states Jochen Volz. “Brexit, the recent elections in Brazil and the political shifts in the US, once again prove our increasingly binary understanding of the world. At the 2019 Verbier Art Summit, we will explore art’s readiness to hold multiple truths, and search for new ways to apply this to other fields of public life.” The 2019 Verbier Art Summit brings together a diverse group of artists,

museum directors, activists and academics to engage in a critical reflection on our social and political responsibilities. Each speaker offers a unique perspective and experience, enriching the Summit with their insight on how to shape a progressive role of art in our uncertain society. In addition to the talks programme, the Verbier Art Summit presents a cultural programme throughout Verbier in collaboration with cultural partners, international organisations and academic institutions. The 2019 Summit partners include UNHCR (the United Nations Refugee Agency), EPFL+ECAL Lab, the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève and the Verbier 3-D Foundation.

The talks programme will be broadcasted live online via verbierartsummit.org

Broken Arm © Anette Aurell

Artist Rirkrit Tiravanija will hold the keynote talk at the 2019 Verbier Art Summit, demonstrating how to build a new culture of solidarity. See also page 4.

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A WEEKEND OF DIALOGUE On 1 & 2 February 2019, the Verbier Art Summit brings together a diverse group of artists, museum directors, activists and academics to explore the political power of art. Art has the potential to give voice to forgotten and silenced narratives, but also to envision new possibilities.

“We are many and we are very invisible. The narratives by the Terena indigenous people of Brazil are superimposed by hegemonic discourses that insist on making us extras of our own history.”

CURATOR GABI NGCOBO

PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY BOAVENTURA DE SOUSA SANTOS

To revisit the traditional construction of history and memory

To reveal social injustices through academic research

Naine Terena, teacher, researcher and art educator

To build a new culture of togetherness and solidarity

Ernesto Neto © Camila Coutinho

ARTIST ERNESTO NETO

“If cultural institutions like museums are to stay relevant in the turbulent times we live in, we have to learn how to hold an open space for the contradictory, ambivalent and multiple views that emerge from the encounters between art, artists and the communities of people we engage.”

“Phenomena such as free will, intentionality, responsibility, guilt, justice, and fairness are perceived as realities, but they cannot be deduced from the cognitive functions of individual brains.”

ARTIST TANIA BRUGUERA To support freedom, democracy and a society without borders

Wolf Singer, Professor of Neurophysiology

ARTIST LATIFA ECHAKHCH

PHILOSOPHER FEDERICO CAMPAGNA To explore strategies to free us from the present cultural and political impasse

ARTIST GRADA KILOMBA To decolonise knowledge and narratives

Grada Kilomba

To confront stereotypes as contradictions through art

Maria Balshaw © Hugo Glendinning

Maria Balshaw, director of Tate

“Together, we can shape and direct the things that are happening. Art can and should be a means by which to challenge prevailing thinking and spur individual and collective action.” Jochen Volz, director of Pinacoteca de São Paulo

All our events are free of charge. Reserve your tickets at verbierartsummit.org

UNHCR AMBASSADOR BARBARA HENDRICKS To understand how art transforms the lives of refugees

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THE UNITED NATIONS REFUGEE AGENCY AND THE ROLE OF ART UNHCR is glad to join forces with civil society initiatives such as the Verbier Art Summit to contribute to a crucial debate. The unprecedented number of 68.5 million forcibly displaced worldwide as at the end of 2017 is a dire reality. Such figures can be overwhelming and make us lose sight of the individual stories and of the extraordinary sufferings borne by many refugees. This is where art can play a pivotal role, as a medium which allows us to continue the discussion with other words – and other means. Art also often acts as a bridge between different lives and cultures. It can foster the integration

of refugees at the local level, and it also enables them to communicate the unthinkable, converting their drama and their losses into words, colours, movements and emotions. Therefore, art can be tremendously beneficial in bringing us together, fostering a spirit of unity and solidarity, giving wake-up calls and signalling the major issues affecting the contemporary world in a unique and powerful fashion. It reminds us that refugees are not only forcibly displaced people or victims: they are artists, doctors, engineers, cooks, nurses or teachers – and they strive to be acknowledged, to be able to rebuild their lives, here in Switzerland as elsewhere, and to contribute to the prosperity of their host societies. UNHCR Honorary Lifetime Goodwill Ambassador Barbara Hendricks visits refugees © UNHCR | Paul Wu

Biennale de l'Image en Mouvement, Exhibition view, 2018. Photo © Mathilda Olmi. Courtesy CAC, Ginevra

BIENNALE DE L’IMAGE EN MOUVEMENT A special film programme and talk at the Verbier Cinema in collaboration with the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève. Continuing their cultural partnership, the Verbier Art Summit and the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève present an exclusive multimedia artwork selected from the screening

programme of the 2018 Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement. Remarkably curated by the acclaimed director of the Centre Andrea Bellini and the Senior Curator of International Art (Film) of Tate Modern Andrea Lissoni, the 2018 Biennale explores the status of the moving image and its exhibition format. It builds on the idea that the era of projection onto screens is coming

to an end, emphasizing the innovative potential of new languages connected to the evolving status of film productions. Actuality, politics and dystopian worlds are the key themes of the 2018 Biennale, which aims to create an intelligent critique of our dim political climate and an intimate survey of our social history through powerful movies which seem to live outside

their screens. On Friday 1 February 2019 at 22.30 at the Verbier Cinema, our 2017 Honorary Member, the Swiss artist Tobias Madison, will present O Vermelho do Meio-Dia, a film where conflict and sense of community interlace on the background of Brazil on the edge of political abyss. The film will be followed by a lively debate between Andrea Bellini and Tobias Madison.

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Artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, Broken Arm © Anette Aurell

RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA: RECREATING LIFE AROUND ART “It is not what you see that is important, but what takes place between people.” Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija now works and lives between Chiang Mai, Thailand, and New York, US. After a lifetime divided between continents, Rirkrit came to question borders and frontiers, both real and theoretical. Following these experiences, he developed an artistic

language capable of blurring the traditional boundaries between art and life. Rirkrit values the power of solidarity and collective action. Experimenting with different forms of social engagement, he decided to shift art from objects to actions, orchestrating artistic situations which demand our cooperation to release their potential.

human interaction as the primary fuel. Often revolving around the act of cooking and eating, he uses food as a catalyst for sociability and collective experience. Sharing the act of producing and consuming something collectively, the audience actively participates in the creative process: liberated from their status as viewers, participants are transformed into actors and makers.

In the nineties, Rirkrit started to create unexpected encounters, using

Through Rirkrit’s art, people can find themselves in a shared moment of

All our events are free of charge. Reserve your tickets at verbierartsummit.org

true togetherness. An effective answer to our times of progressive alienation and superficial globalisation, where everyone seems to be everywhere, but never really ‘there’. Rirkrit’s intimate social encounters ask us to be present and to relate to our neighbours with new eyes, requalifying the meaning of human interaction on more spontaneous, more innovative terms.

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RESEARCH: INFORMATION IN THE AGE OF UNCERTAINTY Can art improve our perception of information? In our tumultuous landscape of contradicting information, data and sources, a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of information is becoming one of the key challenges for the future of democracy.

La Porte des Savoirs © Joël Tettamanti. Courtesy of EPFL+ECAL LAB | ALICE studio EPFL

EPFL+ECAL Lab fosters innovation at the crossroads between technol-

ogy, design and architecture. At the 2019 Summit, the Lab will invite the Summit audience to learn about and give input to its latest project in the making: an 'immersive environment of information', researching a better understanding of information and its many sources. Join the interactive research experience of the EPFL+ECAL Lab at the W Hotel Verbier from 13.15 to 14.00 on both 1 & 2 February 2019.

A CONVERSATION WITH JOCHEN VOLZ “We are many and we can shape and direct the things that are happening.” Partnering museum director Jochen Volz (JV) of Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil, discusses the creative thinking behind the 2019 Verbier Art Summit with Summit Founder Anneliek Sijbrandij (AS). AS: What inspired your choice of the 2019 Summit theme We are Many. Art, the Political and Multiple Truths? JV: In times of increasing uncertainty, we are in need of a deeper un-

derstanding of the multiplicity of narratives around us. Art has the potential to give voice to forgotten and silenced narratives, but also to envision entirely new possibilities. The ways we now access information, form our opinions and choose our actions seem to be challenged more than ever before. We should turn to the arts to learn about fiction, and individual and collective imagination. Summit Founder Anneliek Sijbrandij © Frederik Jacobovits Photography

AS: What is the potential of thinking towards a multiplicity of truths? JV: More and more we share a sensation that in the arts – different than in current politics and mass-media

– binary categories are no longer suitable to describe the complexity of our times. Art allows us to envision alternative realities, where a multiplicity of truths is a given. AS: How do see the connection between art and politics? JV: The urgencies of our times and of our societies feed naturally into the production of an artist. She or he joins thinking with doing, reflection with action. Often a work touches on politically urgent matters; more often not. Sometimes it lends visibility to specific causes; many times it does not directly. The question whether art should address politics remains rhetoric as long as we believe in and defend the liberty of the arts. It is not the responsibility of art, but it is the obligations of everyone who wants

to change society. It is necessary to ask ourselves whether and to which extend, for example, gender and racial equality and cultural diversity, inform our decisions in a private and in a professional dimension. For me, political debate informs my work much less on an abstract, theoretical or strategic level, but rather through a continuous interrogation of the selective information that fuels my own decisions. AS: What do you hope participants will get out of the 2019 Summit? JV: I hope the 2019 Verbier Art Summit will be a place to collectively learn about ‘difference without separability’, to use a beautiful term coined by Denise Ferreira da Silva. Together, we will explore the transformative capacity of art.

Museum director Jochen Volz © Photo de Christina Rufatto | Pinacoteca de São Paulo

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ART COMMUNICATING WITH NATURE Experience art in the “museum without walls.” The Verbier 3-D Foundation is dedicated to creating contemporary art to promote environmentalism, education, and culture. As part of the 2019 Verbier Art Summit, they will present two events to experience art on the mountain tops. On Friday 1 February, the Summit audience is welcome to attend an adventurous walk in the snow, participating in a guided art tour to explore the Verbier 3-D Sculpture Park, situated at 2300m on the path between La Chaux and Ruinettes.

On Saturday 2 February, join an afternoon of experimental sculptural demonstration (test run) of AERO CAB, a work by the British artist James Capper. Developed during his 2018 artist residency with the Verbier 3-D Foundation, AERO CAB creates a modern platform for viewers to consider solutions in fragile natural environments such as Verbier. For both events, please meet at the bottom of the Medran lift at 13.00.

At the 2018 Verbier Art Summit, participants take a snowy tour of the Verbier 3-D Foundation Sculpture Park. © Frederik Jacobovits Photography

Tania Bruguera, 10,142,926, 2018, installation view, Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London. Hyundai Turbine Hall commission. Courtesy of Tate

TANIA BRUGUERA: ART IN ACTION “It’s not about the visual. It is about feeling something.” For the Cuban artist Tania Bruguera, being an artist is an ethical and civic mission: her artistic career centres around the importance of social engagement. In her practice, art is a synonym for activism, an agent for social change.

Until 24 February 2019, Tania’s work can be seen at Tate Modern, London. In response to the crisis in migration, she focusses on the status of the neighbour and what it means to act and interact locally. She worked with Tate’s neighbours to create direct action: institutional changes took place, including the temporary renaming of part of the museum. She stimulates collective action by

covering the Turbine Hall floor with a dark, thermo-reacting surface, inviting individuals to leave temporary imprints: only the collective heat of the audience reveals the hidden portrait of a Syrian migrant. In addition, in a white room, visitors experience forced empathy when a chemical compound provokes uncontrollable tears. The two spaces form a complex installation which reflects on the

All our events are free of charge. Reserve your tickets at verbierartsummit.org

epochal tragedies in refugee and migrant experiences and on the insufficiency of our moral response. Poetically yet provocatively, Tania demands visitors to show solidarity, compelling them to act, share and feel together.

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ANNUAL PUBLICATION Discover the 2018 Summit publication, edited by museum director Daniel Birnbaum and MoMA curator Michelle Kuo.

The multidisciplinary perspectives come together through the innova-

tive book design of Irma Boom. Distributed by Koening Books London, the Summit publication series is now available at art bookshops across the globe and online via Amazon and the Koening Books website.

Irma Boom

Ed Atkins drawing at the 2018 Summit

tions by the Summit participants and off-stage conversations between the speakers.

The inspiring dialogue on More than Real. Art in the Digital Age began in Verbier in January 2018, and continues as a global conversation through the 2018 Summit publication. The publication presents the vision of the 2018 speakers, analysing how digitalisation and new technologies affect art and society. It features artist statements, essays, graphic works by Douglas Coupland, illustra-

ABOUT THE VERBIER ART SUMMIT Art changes minds. The Verbier Art Summit is a story of shared passions. Inspired by a love for art, and a love for connecting people, Anneliek Sijbrandij found Verbier to be the perfect location for deeper conversations. After two inspiring Summits with Beatrix Ruf of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 2017 and Daniel Birnbaum of the Moderna Museet Stockholm in 2018, the 2019 Summit will reach out to a global audience with the museum director Jochen Volz of Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil. With an aim to educate, provoke and inspire anyone with a passion for art and innovation, the non-profit organisation presents its talks programme for free. If attendance in person is not possible, the talks can be followed via live-broadcasting, viewed on YouTube, or read about in our annual publication. This ensures the Verbier debate can continue all over the world. The Verbier Art Summit has a unique set-up whereby the annual debate about critical themes is passed from one museum director to another. Its Member

2017 & 2018 Summit publications

community consists of international art world stakeholders from different backgrounds, including artists, museum directors, curators, collectors, art historians, art critics, gallerists, and art consultants. They actively join the rotating group of speakers in a debate on important social issues. The Summit team is run by the Founder and director Anneliek Sijbrandij and project manager Alison Pasquariello, currently strengthened by Swiss PR advisor Nicolas Bernheim, Summit intern Arianna Casarini, digital marketing advisor Simone Coscarelli, strategic advisor Fleur Greebe, and PR intern Manoela Hartung. The Board of Directors (Julie Daverio and Marie-Hélène de Torrenté) as well as the Board of Advisors (Pilar Albada Jelgersma, Marlies Cordia, John Slyce, Noepy Testa and Siebe Tettero) play a role in consulting with the Founder in relation to the content and direction of the organisation. Held in a unique location at an altitude of 1500m with views across the Swiss Alps, the Summit offers participants the best possible art talks and cultural programme. We wholeheartedly thank our Members, sponsors and partners for their ongoing support. An enormous thanks to Jochen Volz and our 2019 speakers, without whom the 2019 Summit would not be possible. Together we can drive social change!

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PROGRAMME FRIDAY 1 FEBRUARY 2019

SATURDAY 2 FEBRUARY 2019

Mid-day inspiration 13.15-14.00 Verbier 3-D Foundation – Art walk in the snow, meet at Medran at 13.00 13.15-14.00 EPFL+ECAL Lab – Interactive research experience, W Hotel

Mid-day inspiration 13.15-14.00 Verbier 3-D Foundation – Art walk and AERO CAB test run by artist James Capper, meet at Medran at 13.00 13.15-14.00 EPFL+ECAL Lab – Interactive research experience, W Hotel

14.30-18.00 14.30-14.35 14.35-14.45 14.45-15.05 15.05-15.25 15.25-15:45 15.45-16.00 16.00-16.30 16.30-16.50 16.50-17.10 17.10-17.30 17.30-17.45 17.45-18.00

Talks programme Verbier Art Summit, W Hotel Welcome – Anneliek Sijbrandij, Founder Verbier Art Summit  Introduction – Jochen Volz, Director Pinacoteca de São Paulo Grada Kilomba – Artist Federico Campagna – Philosopher Naine Terena – Art educator Q&A panel break Gabi Ngcobo – Curator Wolf Singer – Professor of Neurophysiology Ernesto Neto – Artist Q&A panel Closing remarks – Jochen Volz, Director Pinacoteca de São Paulo

14.30-18.00 14.30-14.35 14.35-14.45 14.45-15.05 15.05-15.25 15.25-15.45 15.45-16.00 16.00-16.30 16.30-16.50 16.50-17.10 17.10-17.30 17.30-17.45 17.45-18.00

Talks programme Verbier Art Summit, W Hotel   Welcome – Anneliek Sijbrandij, Founder Verbier Art Summit  Introduction – Jochen Volz, Director Pinacoteca de São Paulo Barbara Hendricks – UNHCR Ambassador Boaventura de Sousa Santos – Professor of Sociology Tania Bruguera – Artist Q&A panel break Latifa Echakhch – Artist Maria Balshaw CBE – Director of Tate Rirkrit Tiravanija – Artist Q&A panel Closing remarks – Jochen Volz, Director Pinacoteca de São Paulo

Evening programme 22.30 Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève – screening from the Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement: O Vermelho do Meio-Dia by artist Tobias Madison, Verbier Cinema