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Contemporary art is rarely considered in purely physical terms but also seen in relation to the specific social field it creates. This means that it is increasingly implicated in questions of ethics.
In this conversation, artist and writer Walead Beshty discusses the relation of ethics to aesthetics, evaluating how this encounter has become central to the contested space of much recent art. He is joined in conversation by artist Renzo Martens and Eyal Weizman, Professor of Visual Cultures and director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London.
This event launches Ethics: Documents of Contemporary Art, published by the Whitechapel Gallery and MIT press. See the full series of books here.
Walead Beshty is a British-born artist and writer based in Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited widely internationally and is currently included in All the World’s Futures, curated by Okwui Enwezor, 56th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy. He is Associate Professor at Art Center College of Art and Design, Pasadena.
Renzo Martens is a Dutch artist living and working between Brussels and Kinshasa. He is internationally known as the founder of The Institute for Human Activities, a research project at KASK – University College of Ghent. Martens’ work has been exhibited widely, including the 6th Berlin Biennial; 19th Biennale of Sydney; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Institute for Contemporary Arts, London and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
Eyal Weizman is an architect, Professor of Visual Cultures and director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London. Since 2011 he also directs the European Research Council funded project, Forensic Architecture – on the place of architecture in international humanitarian law. Since 2007 he is a founding member of the architectural collective DAAR in Beit Sahour/Palestine. Since 2014 he is a Global Scholar at Princeton University.
