AICA Congress 2024 is Now Open!

We are thrilled to announce the opening of the annual Congress of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) in Romania!

Between November 4-9, 2024, the Congress will take place in Bucharest and Iași, bringing together leading experts, art critics, and curators from around the world. This year’s event is a unique opportunity to welcome valuable voices in contemporary art to Romania.

The International Association of Art Critics is the most prestigious global organization in the field, founded in 1950 and affiliated to UNESCO, which includes more than 60 countries from all continents. The Romanian office of the organization, AICA-RO, was (re)established in 1993 and currently has 68 members, specialists of great value from all generations with a remarkable professional activity and a high public profile in Romania and abroad.

The theme of this congress, “Becoming Machine, Resisting the Artificial. Art in the Present Tense,” fully reflects the current realities of a world increasingly permeated by technology and has already aroused the enthusiasm of many people active in the cultural field here and abroad. 58 internationally renowned experts from all continents will be giving presentations and participate in debates.

Keynote speakers at the congress are recognized specialists with outstanding publications in the field of contemporary art: Joanna Zylinska (King’s College London), Jean-Paul Fourmentraux (Aix-Marseille University, France) and Paul O’Kane (University of the Arts London). The program includes a round table entitled “Becoming Freedom. Performance Art in the '1990s”, with the participation of art critics Kata Balázs-Miklós, Ileana Pintilie, Jurij Dobriakov, moderator: Małgorzata Kaźmierczak, president of AICA International.

The Congress will be hosted by the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest and the “George Enescu” National University of Arts in Iași. The last AICA International congress organized in Romania took place in 1967, in Târgu Jiu, coordinated by Dan Haulică. So, after many years, we hope that the attention of the entire cultural world in the field of visual arts - and not only - will turn to Romania in 2024.

The detailed program for the AICA Congress 2024 is available here. For speaker bios and abstracts, please visit this link.

Invitation to the General Assembly 2024

Dear Members,

You are cordially invited to our annual General Assembly on Wednesday November 6 & Friday December 13, 2024

All paid-up members may attend the General Assembly and take part in the voting.

November 6: Hybrid Meeting at 4 pm (Romania Time)

The first part of the General Assembly dedicated to Any other businesses is organized in a hybrid format during the 56th AICA International Congress organized by AICA Romania.

  • Online: meeting via zoom at 4:00 pm (Romania).

You will find more information about the 56th International AICA Congress in Bucharest and Iasi here .

December 13: Online Meeting at 2 pm (Paris Time)

The second part of the General Assembly is organised online and is dedicated to the Points submitted for voting.

You will find the detailed Agenda for both parts of the meeting here.


Invitation à l’Assemblée Générale: 6 November & 13 Décembre 2024 

Ch.e.è.r.e.s membres,

Vous êtes cordialement invité à notre Assemblée Générale annuelle qui se tiendra les mercredi 6 novembre & vendredi 13 décembre 2024.

Tous les membres à jour de leur cotisation peuvent assister à l'Assemblée Générale et prendre part aux votes.

6 Novembre : Réunion hybride à 16h (Heure de Bucharest)

La première partie de l’Assemblée Générale consacrée aux Points divers est organisée en hybride pendant la 56ème édition du Congrès AICA International organisée par AICA Roumanie.

Vous trouverez plus d’information sur la 56ème édition du Congrès AICA International qui se tiendra à Bucharest et Iasi du 4 au 9 Novembre ici.

13 Décembre : Réunion en ligne à 14h (Heure de Paris)

La seconde partie de l’Assemblée Générale est organisée en ligne et sera consacrée aux Points soumis au vote

Vous trouverez l’ordre du jour détaillé des deux réunions ici.


Invitación a una Asamblea general - 6 de Noviembre & 13 de Diciembre 2023

Estimados/as miembros,

Nos alegra invitarles a una Asamblea General el 6 de Noviembre & 13 de diciembre.

Todos los miembros que hayan pagado sus cuotas pueden asistir a la Asamblea General y participar en las votaciones. 

6 de noviembre: Reunión en Hybrid a las 16:00 horas (Romania)

La primera parte de la Asamblea General dedicada a los Asuntos varios se celebrará como una reunión híbrida durante el 56 Congreso Internacional de AICA organizado por AICA Romania.

Puede encontrar más información sobre la 56ª edición del Congreso Internacional de la AICA en Bucharest y Iasi del 4 al 9 de noviembre aquí.

13 de diciembre: Reunión en línea a las 14:00 horas (París)

La seconda parte de la Asamblea General se organiza en línea y está dedicada a los Puntos sometidos a votación.

Encontrará el orden del día detallado de ambas reuniones aquí. 

WEBINAR: Ruptured Histories: In the Shadow of Russia

Uncomfortable Heritage in Post-Soviet Art, Public Space and Museums

DATE: Friday 13 September 2024
TIME: 15.00 (CET); 09.00 (EST)
DURATION: 2 hours

Speakers

Nikita Kadan – Ukrainian artist works with installation, sculpture, painting, graphics, often in interdisciplinary collaboration with historians, architects and human rights activists.

Yevheniia Moliar – Ukrainian art historian working on the cultural heritage of the Soviet period, in particular monumental art.

Dr. Kinga Siewior – Historian and assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology of Literature and Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Polish Studies at Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

Sabina Shikhlinskaya – Azerbaijani artist, educator, and curator of the first Azerbaijani exhibition pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennial.

Lali Pertenava – Art historian, researcher, and curator based in Tbilisi, Georgia. Her primary area of interest is socially engaged/public art.

Moderator

Arkadiusz Poltorak – President of AICA Poland

RUPTURED HISTORIES is a series of Web Symposiums presented by AICA International (International Association of Art Critics) on the initiative of the Fellowship Fund Committee. This fourth iteration of Ruptured Histories has the support of AICA Poland and AICA Netherlands.

Ruptured Histories is open to AICA members and non-members, students and academics worldwide. There is no charge for attending.

After the moderated discussion between the speakers and the respondents, there will be time for the audience to raise issues, present questions and discuss points with any of the speakers.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

To subscribe to the Web Symposium please send an e-mail to:

aicainternational.webinar@gmail.com

You will receive a link 24 hours before the event.

RUPTURED HISTORIES: IN THE SHADOW OF RUSSIA

Uncomfortable Heritage in Post-Soviet Art, Public Spaces and Museums.

For our upcoming Ruptured Histories Webinar, we have invited Ukrainian artist Nikita Kadan, Ukrainian art historian Yevheniia Moliar, Polish historian Dr. Kinga Siewior, Azerbaijani artist, educator and independent curator Sabina Shikhlinskaya and Georgian art historian and curator Lali Pertenava. They will discuss the difficulties faced by artists in post-Soviet regimes in their attempts to engage with issues related to cultural memory. Monuments, museum collections, urban planning and architecture are interfaces through which contemporary artists establish relationships with the 20th-century past – and especially that of the Soviet era. However, these relationships are rarely optimistic and are not grounded in a sense of continuity between today’s culture, institutions, and social rituals, and those of the time. Taking Ukraine as an example, the forms of social life typical of Soviet Ukraine appear to be imposed from above – as testaments to political and cultural violence, the renewed manifestations of which Ukrainians recognise in Russia’s contemporary behaviour towards its neighbouring countries. In the light of the ongoing war, traces of the Soviet past often amount to undesirable heritage. As such, they are subjected to active censorship and defacement on the one hand, and cultural elaboration in the light of present interpretations of the past on the other. If war provides a strong impetus for such processes, it should be noted that they have persisted longer than Russia’s military aggression itself. They are not endemic to Ukraine either. The dialectic of tabooism and reinterpretation of the Soviet legacy takes a different pace and course in different areas of the former USSR but remains recognisable in the culture of all post-Soviet countries. How widely does the ongoing war in Ukraine affect culture and art across the former USSR? Do common strategies for constructing cultural memory emerge in the art of diverse post-Soviet societies, despite significant differences? Is the ongoing defacement of Soviet monuments simply a manifestation of epistemic justice and the ‘levelling of accounts’ with the historical perpetrators? Or, following Sharon Macdonald’s writings on Germany’s ways of dealing with its Nazi past, can the traces of the Soviet past be regarded as a ‘difficult heritage’, bearing witness not only to the experience of oppression but also to the shared responsibility in sustaining it?

Full program available here.

Re-Evaluation in Feminism(s) and Contemporary Art

A hybrid one-day conference – Friday 13 September 2024, 10am -7 pm (GMT)
Location: Middlesex University London (The Burroughs, London, NW4 4BT) and Online
Organised by Katy Deepwell, member of AICA UK.

Tickets are free, but must be booked for in person or online participation, via Eventbrite

Keynotes: Jacqueline Millner (Australia); Oksana Briukhovetska (Ukraine); Ghazel (France/Iran).

 

36 speakers from many countries – artists, critics, curators, art theorists and art historians - are gathering for this hybrid event:  Karen Keifer Boyd; Irene Bronner; Sonja van Kerkhoff; Clara Zarza; Helena Reckitt; Anke Kempkes ;  Kimberly K Lamm; Amy Tobin; Suzana Milevska; Katy Deepwell; Maria Kheirkhah; Qingyu Shen; Alessia Cargnelli; Laura Leuzzi; Varvara Keidan Shavrova; Ala Younis; Sohaila Baluch; Anne Robinson; Jana Kukaine; paula roush;  Barbora Komarová  ;  Sabine Gebhardt Fink; Virginia Marano; Alexandra Kokoli ; Lisa Moravec; Fran Cottell; Valeria Mari; Barbara Mahlknecht; Pauline Barrie; Maria Photiou; Pedro Merchán Mateos; Karolina Majewska-Güde ; Ellen Suneson; Gabriela Traple Wieczorek ; Wiktoria Szczupacka ; Angela Maderna    

What do we mean by re-evaluation?

It could be said all new research contains a “re-evaluation” of past work, but this conference aims to re-evaluate feminist research and enquiry as it has developed over the last 50 years in relation to different local/global dynamics or about certain artists or artworks.  

There are many feminism(s), and many generations of feminist scholars, but the definition we intend here is based in politics, not identity. The conference aims to explore different strategies that have been attempted, while offering critique and fresh assessments. We have brought together many different voices and perspectives on feminist politics in relation to contemporary art from many parts of the world and diverse and different perspectives of critics, artists, curators and researchers.  

Feminism(s) aim to interrogate existing histories and provide significant corrections to what constitutes “history”.  Is re-evaluation of artists only a question of reputation and recognition; collective action or how they reference issues of social justice? How have feminism(s)’ challenges changed museums’ curatorial practices, critical writing and art history?  And how has feminism itself been transformed over time? What remains missing from the stories that we tell today about past and present feminist interventions in contemporary art? Are there contradictory effects, locally, transnationally and globally for feminism(s)?   Do re-evaluations reinforce or challenge the association of some women artists with exceptionalism, exoticism, marginalised identities, cultural difference or Otherness? 

See full program here

Statement against censorship in Turkey

AICA International is alarmed at the recent shutting down of the DÖN-DÜN-BAK exhibition scheduled to open to visitors at Tütün Deposu in Istanbul. This arbitrary act of censorship is a violation of freedom of expression and artistic rights of the people.

AICA has written a letter of protest to the Governor of Beyoğlu District Governorate , Istanbul, who is responsible for the ban. We urge him to follow the UNESCO Convention, to which the Republic of Turkey is a signatory.

All states that have signed the UNESCO Convention for Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions are expected to ensure that their citizens can express, practice, and share their culture without fear of censorship or persecution.

We hope these letters to the Governor and Representative of UNESCO will serve as a reminder that this action is against the professional rights of the art community and will have a long term impact in creating an environment of fear and oppression which violates human rights and artistic rights. 

Sincerely
On behalf of AICA
Malgorzata Kazmierczak, President of AICA
Niilofur Farrukh, International Chair of the Censorship Committee