Looking for Clues - From Westkunst to All the Worldâ's Futures

When Erik Viskil was visiting Documenta 12 in 2007, he felt bitterly disappointed. The works he saw were often modest, even timid, and they didn’t seem to care much about the history of contemporary art. After he had been strolling around for one and a half day he suddenly realised that his opinion was changing. In order to understand these works, which came from all over the world, he had to look differently, and study them as if he had never seen a work of art before. In his lecture Erik Viskil will discuss his experiences with looking at art in a globalising world, in which artists from ‘other’ countries and cultures provide new perspectives, and even seem to change something in the rules of the game.

Bio - Erik Viskil is a researcher, writer, and advisor to cultural institutions. After receiving his PhD for a thesis in Argumentation Theory, he has worked for many institutes and schools in the field of art and design. He was a director at Rietveld Academy, and founder of its department of Writing, now called Image and Language. He guided the development of the mission and vision of the Royal Academy, and advised about the innovation of its departments. At present he is engaged with commissions from Design Academy Eindhoven, de Appel Art Centre, and PhDARTS, the doctorate programme of the Royal Academy and the University Leiden.