Conference
Steven Watson and Artifacts at the End of a Decade
08 Jun 2022
The event is over
The Center Pompidou invites you to an exceptional meeting around the artist portfolio Artifacts at the End of a Decade. Recently joining the Bibliothèque Kandinsky collections, the portfolio will be exhibited until the 31st of July, in the reading room exhibition space.
Artifacts at the End of a Decade, a boxed multiple, contains the work of 44 artists. Conceived in 1979 and published in 1981 by Steven Watson and Carol Huebner Venezia, it includes works by Sol LeWitt, Laurie Anderson, Robert Wilson, R. Crumb, Lucinda Childs, Fab Five Freddy and other graffiti artists, John Ashbery, Betsey Johnson, Robert Kushner, Martha Rosler and others. A compendium of works suggesting the interdisciplinary inclusiveness of that moment in the art world, Artifacts presents painting, photography, sculpture, performance, craft, fashion, bookworks, design, dance, and prints. A diversely physical object, weighing 28 pounds, measuring 15 by 18 inches, the mediums include Corten steel, paper, glass, clay, photographs, Xerox, and prints. Edition: 100.
In his introductory essay to the catalog of Artifacts, John Perreault asks: “What exactly is Artifacts at the End of a Decade? I have referred to it as an artists’ book, an anthology, a work of sculpture, a print portfolio, a collection of multimedia multiples and even as an exhibition. Cannot it be all these things simultaneously?”
In the presence of Steven Watson, William Markarian-Martin and Lou Forster. Jane Comfort and Robert Kushner’s interventions will rhythm the session. The discussion will be moderated by Victor Guégan, in charge of contemporary printed matter at Bibliothèque Kandinsky.
Dr. Steven Watson is a cultural historian who is particularly interested in the group dynamics of the twentieth century American avant-garde. During his twenty-year career as a psychologist, he began writing books about the first American avant-garde, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Beat Generation. His most recent book is Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties. In addition to his writing, he has curated two exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery and created several documentary films, one of them broadcast on the Public Broadcasting System.
William Markarian-Martin is an award-nominated film director and photographer currently based in London. His work, spanning documentary, commercial and fashion film, has been featured at Oberhausen, Tate, and Dazed. He is the creative director of www.artifacts.movie, an upcoming online archive exploring the avant-garde, launching late 2022.
Curator and art historian, Lou Forster works at the crossroads of dance and human sciences. From 2014, he initiated an ambitious project around Lucinda Childs which takes the form of a monographic exhibition, and a doctoral research, currently in progress, at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris. Since 2018, he has participated in the “Choreographies” research program, as a researcher at the National Institute of Art History. In parallel with his personal research, he founded with Lenio Kaklea abd, a platform that develops projects at the intersection between dance and critical theory.
When
6:30pm - 9pm
Where
© D.R.