Conference: Art, Access and Agency—Art Sites of Enabling

Art, Access and Agency—Art Sites of Enabling is an online conference-event presented October 7–9, 2021 by the School of the Arts, Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria in collaboration with the Transformation Directorate, University of Pretoria, South Africa. Contributions take several forms including papers, workshops, screenings and discussions and other spatio-conceptual interventions (digital, analogue). For the keynote event, "Flowers, sex, loss and labour," artists Willem Boshoff (South Africa) and Olu Oguibe (United States) will discuss social activism in contemporary artistic practice with artist/ academic Johan Thom (South Africa) by referring to the artworks Garden of Words (Boshoff, 1981–present) and Sex work is Honest Work (Oguibe, 2021).

Through this event we seek to raise awareness about difference, diversity and discrimination on and well beyond campus. In this regard our primary focus is upon the manner in which contemporary art and the myriad forms of practice and research associated therewith may act as a catalyst to enact change. Because we are living during a global pandemic that has further highlighted the incredible societal inequities that exist at every level of our society, there is an almost inexorable urge to turn to art and to ask: “How might the practices and forms associated with contemporary art and its institutions enable and produce alternate, shared and even wholly new forms of agency, access and participation?”

This conference-event seeks to rethink questions of agency, access and enablement by way of the expanded parameters of contemporary artistic practice, the sites of its production and its dissemination. As for the expanded definition of contemporary artistic practice, we take as a starting point recent (and some not so recent) developments in social and political praxis and thought including, but not limited to, debates surrounding the arts in relation to ongoing gender based violence and racial discrimination, decolonisation, social and community engagement and more discipline-specific issues surrounding the very notion of contemporary artistic practice as a form of (academic) research and its broader social function.

Presenters list: Prof Willem Boshoff (artist, University of the Free State, South Africa) / Prof Olu Oguibe (artist, USA) / Kristina Johnstone (School of the Arts, University of Pretoria, South Africa) / Prof Marth Munro (School of the Arts, University of Pretoria, South Africa) / Dr Tarryn-Tanille Prinsloo (School of the Arts, University of Pretoria, South Africa) / Dr Rory Du Plessis (School of the Arts, University of Pretoria, South Africa) / Dr Deborah Padfield (Institute of Medical and Biomedical Education, St George’s, University of London and Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, United Kingdom) / Associate Prof Dr Başak Şenova (Guest Professor University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria/Turkey) / Dr Johan Thom (School of the Arts, University of Pretoria, South Africa) / Dr Fiona Zerbst (Poet, South Africa) / Phillippa Yaa de Villiers (Creative Writing, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa / Prof Bronwyn Law-Viljoen (Creative Writing, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) / Kisito Assangni (curator, Togo/France) / Margaret Coleman (Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, USA) / Carolyn Jean Martin (Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, USA) / Prof Simonetta Moro (Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, USA) / Bongile Lecoge-Zulu (The Centre for the Less Good Idea, Johannesburg, South Africa) / The Centre for the Less Good Idea (Johannesburg, South Africa) / Dr Jacki McInnes (artist, South Africa) / Dr Barbara Adair (author and researcher, South Africa) / Prof David Medalie (Creative Writing, University of Pretoria, South Africa) / Dr Fatima Cassim (School of the Arts, University of Pretoria, South Africa) / Dr Andeline dos Santos (School of the Arts, University of Pretoria, South Africa) / Sean O’Toole (art critic and writer, South Africa) / Teboho Lebakeng (School of the Arts, University of Pretoria, South Africa) / Carla Crafford (artist and photographer, South Africa) / Gabi Ngcobo (Curator, The Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria, South Africa)

Please register here for the conference.

Attendance is free. Registration is compulsory. Zoom links will be provided before the start of the conference.