Tonight it’s the very last lecture of the Eindhoven Caucus. There are a few participants and a lot of new faces in the full auditorium. Annie introduces the last speaker, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. She is a professor at the Columbia University in New York and will speak about Alter globalization and conceptual art. Continue Reading »

The panel of Sunday-afternoon starts of with a relaxed atmosphere and a busy room. Dieter Lesage unfortunately couldn’t be here, due to illness. Gerald Raunig however, is the first to admit that due to Lesage’s illness he can give a longer presentation. Phil Collins (not the Phil Collins, as Charles Esche pointed out in his introduction) admits his nerves about talking in front of an audience. Nevertheless it proves to be an entertaining afternoon. Continue Reading »

This last Sunday begins with a conversation between Kobena Mercer and Nikos Papastergiadis. The subject, and they keep to it quite well, was Face and Facelessness and Place and Placenessless of the Other. Both got the opportunity to state their opinion about this before Charles Esche would, as he hoped, shape it into a dialogue.
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Paul Gilroy is the keynote speaker today. He is a lecturer on the London School of Economics and a sociologist. The title of his lecture is Multiculture and Conviviality in Postcolonial Europe. The auditorium is completely booked out. It is noticeable that had lectured before. He talks in a nice clear voice, enthusiastic but under control and pauses sometimes. The transparency was welcome, because his lecture is full of information, which passes in a steady rhythm.
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“After yesterday’s lecture I started reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” Ólafur Ólafsson points at a small pile of papers on the table. “I was thinking about reading a few articles to you. Although of course you already know it by heart, don’t you?” This witty remark allows the audience to laugh. But only few people chuckle softly. I wonder if the rest of them really do know it by heart.. Continue Reading »

A digital image is an invisible file, it’s a digital code, until we bring it to life by, for instance, a computerscreen. According to Boris Groys, the visualisation of this invisible file has the character of a religious ritual. It’s a miracle, speaking in the words of the Bible. Groys even refers to the body of Jesus that was brought back to life.

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Can we own a piece of the moon? This question was raised yesterday at the panel with the duo Bik van der Pol and the duo Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar. Interestingly enough both duo’s gave a presentation that in some way related to each other. Both were more or less about the question of ownership. When can we call something our own? Continue Reading »

A museum can’t just be a collection of objects anymore. That’s a station that’s already passed, is what the audience learns from Charles Esche, during the opening of the third weekend of the Caucus. Again, the director of the Van Abbemuseum explaines what the Caucus is about. “With Be[com]ing Dutch we have to develop new relationships”, Esche says during his openingspeech.

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Iets later dan gepland begint de workshop ‘Pre–emptive power’ gegeven door Otolith Group kunstenaars Kodwo Eshun (1967) en Anjalika Sagar (1968) dan toch. Zaten er eerst nog maar zes participants in de discussieruimte, nu zijn de stoelen - oud en vertrouwd - allemaal bezet. Er wordt nog even geschoven met tafels en laptops maar met de drie beamers die al klaar staan wordt er een leuke en leerzame presentatie verwacht. Continue Reading »