“space + time + agency ” – Maria Hlavajova (BAK, basis voor actuele kunst)

C. Smith & Son, Stream of Time, 1849 (Source: David Rumsey Map Collection)

Just think along: in (western) modernity, simply put, artistic production was characterized as innovative, creative, and original—thus clearly distinguished from non-creative, repetitive, industrial work. In so-called contemporary art, it could be said, this distinction has been eliminated; just take the example of “creative industries.” If artists have today lost the position that separated them from the society this way—a position from which they could observe society as a whole as it were—they concurrently “gained” complicity and solidarity with the conditions of this very society. I would like to think “complicity” as a possibility in these times of devastating interconnected crises, without loosing sight of its negative connotations (such as in complicity with the capitalist “democracy” descending into authoritarian populisms at present). I would also like to ponder on the role of the art institution in this current predicament, and think the role of art beyond its utopian dimension by discussing cultural practices moving across and beyond the borders of artistic and intellectual enclosures.

Maria Hlavajova is an organizer, researcher, pedagogue, curator, and founding director of BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht (since 2000). Between 2008 and 2016, she was research and artistic director of the collaborative research, exhibition, and education project FORMER WEST, which culminated in the publication Former West: Art and the Contemporary After 1989(which she co-edited with Simon Sheikh, 2016). Hlavajova has instigated and (co-)organized numerous projects at BAK and beyond, including the series Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2024), Future Vocabularies (2014–2017), New World Academy (with Jonas Staal, 2013–2016), among many other international research, education, exhibition, and publication projects. Her curatorial work includes Call the Witness, Roma Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennale, Venice, 2011; Citizens and Subjects, Dutch Pavilion, 52nd Venice Biennale, Venice, 2007; and Borderline Syndrome: Energies of Defense, Manifesta 3, Ljubljana, 2000. Publications she has (co-)edited include: Fragments of Repair (with Kader Attia and Wietske Maas, 2025); Toward the Not-Yet: Art as Public Practice (with Jeanne van Heeswijk and Rachael Rakes, 2021); Deserting from the Culture Wars (with Sven Lütticken, 2020); Propositions for Non-Fascist Living: Tentative and Urgent (with Wietske Maas, 2019); Posthuman Glossary (with Rosi Braidotti, 2018); Marion von Osten: Once We Were Artists (with Tom Holert, 2017); We Roma(with Daniel Baker, 2013); and Rabih Mroué: A BAK Critical Reader in Artists’ Practice (with Jill Winder, 2012), among others. She is a lecturer at HKU University of the Arts Utrecht. In addition, Hlavajova is co-founder (with Kathrin Rhomberg) of the tranzit network. Hlavajova is a member of the supervisory board of the Academy of Visual Arts, Prague and of the advisory boards of Center for Art and the Political Imaginary, HDK-Valand, Gothenburg and Kungl. Konsthögskolan, Stockholm; Bergen Assembly, Bergen; Art and Culture Program at Free University, Amsterdam; and IMAGINART, Imagining Institutions Otherwise: Art, Politics, and State Transformation, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam. In the recent past, Hlavajova served on the supervisory boards of European Cultural Foundation, Amsterdam and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Hlavajova holds honorary doctorate from University of Gothenburg. She lives in Amsterdam.

Suggested Reading (to be sent to participants upon registration)

• Athena Athanasiou, “Performing the Institution ‘As If It Were Possible,'” in Former West: Art and the Contemporary After 1989, Maria Hlavajova and Simon Sheikh, eds. (Utrecht and Cambridge, MA: BAK, basis voor actuele kunst and MIT Press, 2016), 679-691).

You can register for this seminar here, please note that this event will take place in Johanna Huddiggebouw instead of our usual location. This session is part of the Transmission in Motion seminar (2024-2025): “Implicatedness” To stay updated with more seminar sessions, please subscribe to our newsletter.