CALLFORPAPERSConceptualism–IntersectionalReadings,InternationalFramings:BlackArtists&ModernisminEuropeafter1968PresentedbyBlackArtists&ModernismincollaborationwithVanAbbemuseumConvenors:DrSophieOrlando,DrsusanpuisanlokandNickAikensFriday8thandSaturday9thDecember2017VanAbbemuseum,Eindhoven,NetherlandsCallforPapersDEADLINE:31stMarch2017

Nil Yalter, C'est un dur métier que l'exil / Exile is a hard job, 1976/2015, exhibition view "Nil Yalter, 1973-2015", La Verrière, Fondation d'entreprise Hermès, Bruxelles. Photograph by Isabelle Arthuis (2015), Mixed Media TheBlackArtists&Modernism research project is pleased to announce the forthcomingconference, Conceptualism – Intersectional Readings, International Framings, incollaboration with Van Abbemuseum. The conference will take place from Friday 8thDecembertoSaturday9thDecember2017attheVanAbbemuseum,Eindhoven.Conceptualism-IntersectionalReadings,InternationalFramingsisacollaborationwithVanAbbemuseum, Eindhoven, as part of the three-year AHRC-funded research project BlackArtists&Modernism(BAM),ledbyUniversityoftheArtsLondon(UAL)inpartnershipwithMiddlesexUniversity.The2017conferenceat theVanAbbemuseumwillelaborateon thedialogues that were initiated at BAM’s 2016 symposia The Work Between Us (Bluecoat,Liverpool, January2016)andNow&Then,Here&There (ChelseaCollegeofArt&Design,UAL and Tate Britain, October 2016), particularly those relating to close-readings ofartworks,displays,andtheexplorationofexhibitionhistoriesandmuseumcollections.

AcrosscontinentalEurope,theterm‘Black’hasnotcoalescedinthewaythatithasoperatedinBritain:belongingtoarangeofpost-colonialidentities;withoutaspecificartisticstyle;noranagreedspacewithinmodernism.‘Blackartists(descendantsofpost-colonialormigrationalcommunities– i.e.howthetermblackmightbeappliedinacontinentalEuropeancontext),andtheiraestheticchoiceshavetendedtobeexcludedfromcanonicalarthistorywithinhighmodernismbecausetheirworkistypicallyframedwithintheconditionsofproductionandreception’.TheConceptualism– IntersectionalReadings, InternationalFramings conferenceseeks toaddressthiswithafocusonConceptualism,whichisalltoooftenassociatedwithresistingidentity politics. Intersectionalism, however, is associated with a feminist approach(Combahee River Collective, 1978) that acknowledges differences between ‘universalist’feminismdevelopedwithinthecontextoftheUSA(KimberleW.Crenshaw–1989,PatriciaHillCollins–1990),andtheBritishcontextinwhichnumerousindividualshavebeenquicktodebatetheinter-relationbetweenrace,class,genderandsexuality,understandingpowerdifferentialsasco-constitutedandco-constitutive(Lutz,VivarandSupik,2014).Feministarthistorians (Pollock, Robinson, Deepwell, Kokoli, Tawadros and Cheddie) have also beennegotiatingthesesituatedpositionswithintheUKsincethemid-1980s,throughlinkstoNewArtHistory,CulturalStudiesandBlackfeminism.This conference will open up new understandings of Conceptualism produced in Europeafter thepolitical and socialupheavalsof1968,especially across theNetherlands, France,Germany, Belgium, the UK, Spain and Portugal to question how artworks can be readbeyond biographical and sociological context of the artist, and instead return to thematerialityofthework,itsconditionsofdisplay,interpretationandconsumption.ThefocusonConceptualisminEuropeafter1968aimstohighlightthe limitsofdiscourseson ‘Blackness’ and ‘Conceptualism’, through a shift in perspective beyond British andtransatlantic frames. To that end, the conference adopts Luis Camnitzer’s definition of‘Conceptualism’asa“widearrayofworksandpracticeswhich,inradicallyreducingtheroleof the art object, reimagined the possibilities vis-à-vis the social, political, and economicrealitieswithinwhichitwasbeingmade”(1999). Intheground-breakingexhibition,GlobalConceptualism: Points of Origins 1950-1980s (1999), Camnitzer, Rachel Weiss and JaneFarverestablishedanewframeworkforthinkingaboutthedevelopmentandmobilisationofan internationalconsciousnessthatgaverisetospecificartisticpracticesaroundtheworldbetweentwoperiods,from1950to1973,andfromthemid-1970stotheendofthe1980s.LookingparticularlytotheNetherlands,France,Germany,Belgium,Spain,andPortugal,theconference objectives are two-fold. Firstly, to open up debates around intersectionalreadings of artists’ practices and artworks that shift the interpretative paradigm from thequestion of how they represent identity politics, to how they arguably produce identitypolitics.Secondly,byacknowledgingthewaythatarthistoryhasbeenrevisedandbecomecontingent on diverse perspectives (see Iris Dressler and Hans D. Christ (2009) or HelenMolesworth (2012)), the conference seeks to question howwemight begin to differentlysituateConceptualartisticpracticesinEuropeintermsofintersectionality.

RESEARCHMETHODSANDQUESTIONSThe Conceptualism – Intersectional Readings, International Framings conference will beprecededby a series of closed seminars focusedon specific artworks in public collectionsthathavebeendevelopedinpartnershipwithvariousmuseumsandorganisationsintheUK(Iniva), France (Frac Lorraine,Mac Val) and theNetherlands (Stedelijk). The seminarswillinformcommissionedcasestudies,comprisingclose-readingsofartworksbyartistsincludingNil Yalter, Stanley Brouwn and David Medalla, and reflections on their curatorial andmuseologicalframingswithinEuropeancollections.Thesecasestudieswillbepresentedattheconferenceaskeyfocuspoints.Weinviteproposalsfromartists,academicsandcuratorsthatfocusonaspecificartworkorartisticpractice,toaddresstheindicativethemesandquestionsbelow:● How do artists like Nil Yalter, David Medalla, and Stanley Brouwn, amongst others,

approachandengagewithConceptualism?● Howareformationsofrace,class,genderandsexualityaddressedthroughConceptualist

art practices in Europe after 1968 and among emerging contemporary artists such asMathieuKleyebeAbonnenc?

● How can Conceptualism be understood anew through intersectional readings andinternationalframings?

● Howhavepubliccollectionscontestedmainstreamwhitemale-dominateddefinitionsofConceptualisminEurope?

● How does the term ‘Black’ resonate, if at all, within discourses of Conceptualism andmodernismacrossspecificEuropeanregionsandcontexts?

SUBMISSIONSPleasesubmitproposalsbyemailasasingleWorddocument,comprisinganabstract(max500words)andashortbiography(300words)byFriday31stMarch2017.Proposalsshouldbesentto:blackartistsandmodernism@gmail.com

KeyDates• SubmitproposalbyFriday31stMarch2017• Successfulapplicantswillbenotifiedby31stMay2017Ifyouhaveanyqueries,pleasecontactSophieOrlandoatblackartistsandmodernism@gmail.comFormoreinformationabouttheBlackArtistsandModernismproject,pleasevisithttp://www.blackartistsmodernism.co.uk/FormoreinformationabouttheVanAbbemuseum,pleasevisithttps://vanabbemuseum.nl/en/