MARTHA ROSLER on "Creative Class: Art, Creativity, Urbanism"
Hermes Lecture
Sunday, November 14, 2010, 4:00 PM
The Netherlands
A talk about visual artists and the rise of the creative class
On 14November 2010 the American artist Martha Rosler will give the third Hermes Lecture in the Bois‑le‑Duc Room of the Province Hall of 's‑Hertogenbosch.
Rosler's Hermes Lecture will address the social and political position of visual artists in the context of Richard Florida's model of the “creative class” - a model that is increasingly embraced and adopted by local politicians and city governments. How will it affect the arts when the presence of artists in a city or urban region is primarily seen as a catalyst for economic growth? To what extent is the design-based model of the creative industry something in which the autonomous visual artist can flourish without problems? Does the triumph of the creative class stand for the long-awaited social emancipation of artists, or rather for their instrumentalisation and functional subordination?
Respondent: Jennifer Allen (art critic, Berlin)
Moderator: Bas Heijne (writer and columnist, Amsterdam)
Martha Rosler (Brooklyn, NY) is a renowned artist who since the early 1970s has created a rich oeuvre, consisting of videoworks, photo/textmontages, performances and projects on location.
The Hermes lecture is a “spoken essay” about the position of the artist in the cultural and social field and is given once every two years by an internationally renowned artist. Rather than discussing their own work, he or she will address theoretical and controversial issues such as: What is the relationship between visual art and contemporary visual culture? What is left of the critical role of the artist? Should visual art position itself in society or even show social commitment, and if so, how? What is the future of visual art as an independent discipline with its own critical discourse and specific intellectual tradition? For the Hermes lecture artists will be invited to speak who have demonstrated their capacity for theoretical reflection at the highest level. Immediately afterward, a co‑assessor will react to the lecture. The lecture itself is available to the audience in printed form as well.