Thursday, January 22, 2009, 5:30pm | Center for Creative Photography 108
Lecture: In the Space of Art
Mary Jane Jacob is Professor and Executive Director of Exhibitions at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. One of the most nonconformist U.S. curators of the last 20 years, Jacob has critically engaged the discourse around art in public spaces with such innovative exhibitions as Places with a Past, Charleston (1991), Culture in Action, Chicago (1993), Conversation in the Castle, Atlanta (1996) and Evoking History, Charleston (2001-present).
Away from large-scale sculptures on public plazas, Jacob supports a form of art in public space that explicitly deals with the history and the current realties of the locations in which she works. With the book Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art, she has furthered her research into the nature of artmaking today and the forthcoming anthology, Slow: Experience into Art, will deal with the art experience and its relation to pedagogy.
Jacob’s lecture will draw upon her own practice as a curator; creating spaces and situations for art to be made and experienced in cities and communities, as well as in galleries. Importantly, she will ground her remarks in the work of artists who cross cultures, some following the Buddha, others reaching points of wisdom along other paths, and all of which move beyond national or ethnic identity to speak on universal terms. It will include the work of Marina Abramovic, Ann Hamilton, Alfredo Jaar, Kimsooja, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Bill Viola.
