• Tue 01 12 2015 •
Is Westkunst Weltkunst? Kasper König & Okwui Enwezor

with KASPER KÖNIG & OKWUI ENWEZOR

In 1981, curators Laszlo Glozer and Kasper König organized an extensive roundup of modern art in Cologne’s trade fair halls. The name of their exhibition, Westkunst, would become a term in its own right. It ironically describes an art with universal claims on the continuation of modernism, but at the same time uniquely local, shaped by the polarities of the Cold War. This local character became even clearer once the latter ended. Suddenly, there were many interpretations and rejections of the tradition that Westkunst had claimed for its own. What is the relationship between Westkunst and Weltkunst (World Art) now that the center of gravity has shifted? Should we believe the stories of the West’s former-ness? Or is Westkunst still a hidden neo-colonial horizon? Westkunst curator and former director of Cologne’s Museum Ludwig, Kasper König, elucidates these questions in a discussion with Okwui Enwezor, Director of the Haus der Kunst in Munich and Artistic Director of this year’s Venice Biennial.

19:00
English
Venue: Filmforum at the Museum Ludwig, Bischofsgartenstraße 1, 50667 Cologne
2.50 €, reduced 1.50 €
An event of the Academy of the Arts of the World in the framework of the KunstBewusst talks series organized by the Friends of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum and Museum Ludwig e. V. in association with the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.

An event in the frame of PLURIVERSALE III.