Seminar | Forces of Art: Protocols of Evaluation

• Online seminar on politically engaged, community-based art practices
• With many of the contributors to Forces of Art

What: Seminar
When: 4 April 2022, 17:00–18:30pm ET / 23:00–00:30 CET
With: Carin Kuoni (director of Vera List Center), Mbali Dhlamini and Phumulani Ntuli (members of the Johannesburg-based artist collective Preempt Group), Kabelo Malatsie (curator), and Rocca Holly-Nambi (artist and cultural producer)  
Where: Online
Organised by: Vera List Center for Art and Politics
Language: English
Entry: Free - registration is mandatory. Please register here

VLC (Vera List Center) Seminar 11
How do we sustain politically engaged, community-focused art practices in times of ecological crises, the pandemic, a seemingly global playing field, and the persistence of colonial legacies? Foundations and NGOs play an important role in this ecosystem through their financial support but also through metrics of success that unleash such support. In this VLC Seminar, we look for more holistic approaches to program evaluation that respond to urgent demands for more equitable organizations and offer protocols and tools to support them. 

The writers, artists, and curators of VLC Seminar 11 have all contributed to Forces of Art: Perspectives from a Changing World, a new critical anthology edited by VLC director Carin Kuoni that showcases broadly diverse evaluation practices today. Their conversation is anchored by The Case for a Panorama, a 360° VR tour presented by Mbali Dhlamini and Phumulani Ntuli, members of the Johannesburg-based artist collective Preempt Group, who are introduced by curator Kabelo Malatsie (Johannesburg/Bern). In conversation with artist and cultural producer Rocca Holly-Nambi (Nairobi), Carin Kuoni and Kabelo Malatsie expand further on artist-driven protocols of evaluation and reflection. 

When Visual Arts Network of South Africa (VANSA) was invited to evaluate a project in Peru for Forces of Art, they invited Preempt Group to run a workshop as a way of changing the direction of evaluation. In this new moment of evaluation, Preempt Group presents a workshop, looking at the technological present. The ten-minute presentation takes the participants through the principles of the panoramic image as if we are presenting a criminal case, borrowing the forensic approach of presenting evidence within a court of law. The presentation takes this stance to argue within and against panoramic images and various arguments around coding and decoding.

This seminar is supported by the Helen Shapiro Lectureship fund.

As for Protocols Seminar Series
Led by Vera List Center faculty and staff, each monthly seminar in this two-year series is convened with a partner organization, collective or independent curator to examine a particular aspect of protocols, among them those relating to aerial surveillance, platform cooperativism, and jazz and modernism, enacting protocols and ethics for collaboration. Building on last year’s collaboration with The New School faculty and conversations started in previous sessions, each seminar is centered by an art project and accompanied by readings. It is presented as part of the Barbara Jordan Lectures: The State of Democracy series.

The Vera List Center is committed to ensuring that our programs are accessible to and inclusive of all. As part of that commitment, this event features close captioning subtitles and ASL interpretation. Please let us know when registering if you need these or any other accommodations.

Image: Preempt Group, Performance Code Workshop, 2019 at Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa. Photo courtesy of Preempt Group.