Lawrence Weiner's temporary mural on Greenway Wall, entitled A TRANSLATION FROM ONE LANGUAGE TO ANOTHER. Photo and mural from the partnership between The Rose F. Kennedy Greenway Conservancy and the MIT List Visual Arts Center.

Lawrence Weiner’s temporary mural on Greenway Wall, entitled A TRANSLATION FROM ONE LANGUAGE TO ANOTHER. Photo and mural from the partnership between The Rose F. Kennedy Greenway Conservancy and the MIT List Visual Arts Center.

As a 30th anniversary celebration, the List Center at MIT is presenting their annual Wasserman Forum: Public Art and the Commons. Public art has emerged as a crucial issue over the past decade. In response to conditions of intensifying economic and political precarity, artists have renewed a dialogue on those social and cultural resources held in common, including media, education, language, the environment, and housing. The 2015 Wasserman Forum will examine this development with a keynote address and three panels of practitioners from the visual arts, critical theory, and political activism. Speakers will consider contemporary public art from multiple perspectives: its role in recent revolutionary contexts, including Turkey and Egypt; its intersection with digital culture; and its purpose in an era of privatization.

The Forum will take place at the List Center, Bartos Theatre, Lower Level. Free and open to the general public – however registration for this event is required.  To register click here.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2015

12-1 PM – Tour
Lawrence Weiner’s A TRANSLATION FROM ONE LANGUAGE TO ANOTHER (2015)
Location: Dewey Square Park, Rose Kennedy Greenway, Boston

Keynote Address
Location: List Center, Bartos Theater

5 PM – Welcome
Paul C. Ha (Director, List Center)
Julie Burros (Chief of Arts and Culture, City of Boston)

5:30-7 PM – Keynote
Thomas Hirschhorn (Artist, Paris) on the Gramsci Monument (2013)
Includes a discussion with Erik Farmer (President, Forest Houses Residents Association, New York) and Yasmil Raymond (Associate Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, MoMA). Moderated by Jordan Troeller (Wasserman Fellow, List Center).

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2015

9:30-10:30 PM – Tour
Public Art Collection at MIT
Group meets in the List Center’s atrium-level lobby

Panel Sessions
Location: List Center, Bartos Theater

11-12:30 PM – The Square
Jasmina Metwaly (Artist and Filmmaker, Cairo)
Philip Rizk (Filmmaker and Writer, Cairo)
Hakan Topal (Artist, New York and Ankara; Assistant Professor, Purchase College, SUNY)
Moderated by Henriette Huldisch (Curator, List Center)

2-3:30 PM – The Network
Jodi Dean (Professor, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY)
Daniel van der Velden (Designer and Co-founder, Metahaven, Amsterdam)
Moderated by Gediminas Urbonas (Associate Professor and Director, MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology)

4-5:30 PM – The Institution
Bill Arning (Director, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston)
Lina Viste Grønli (Artist, Cambridge, MA, and Oslo)
Lawrence Weiner (Artist, New York and Amsterdam)
Moderated by Alise Upitis (Assistant Curator, Public Art and Exhibitions, List Center)