07 Sep 2012

The Matter of Contradiction: Ungrounding The Object

The Matter of Contradiction: Ungrounding the Object is the second event in a series of four focusing on the relationships between art and new forms of contemporary philosophy. The first event, Art Without Aesthetics, held at Rosascape, Paris in December 2011 introduced the series, attending to questions of the artwork beyond anthropocentrism. This second event, Ungrounding the Object focuses its attention on the renewal of the object as conceived outside of human access and the shattering of the 'space of critique'. It attempts to understand how art, philosophy, mathematics, geology and physics can collide, not just as a procedure of transdisciplinarity but through the intersection of their independent dynamics and collusion of their materials. Articulated as the disruption or collapsing of the ground on which we stand, we claim ungrounding is a cognitive and material process of evisceration. To this end, the correlation between thought and the object should be revised. We wish to explore the impact of objective reality within the realm of art practice, contending that we must understand the capacity of the (art)object to unground through its contingent materiality.

Ungrounding the Object is split in two parts. From Saturday 1st to Friday the 7th, Treignac Projet will host a workshop with a group of 15 participants (now fully booked). On the weekend of 8th and 9th September Le centre international d'art et du paysage de l'île de Vassivière will host a two day conference addressing the issues raised during the workshop.

Conference Schedule:

Saturday
10.00 – 10.15 Welcome and opening remarks
10.15 – 11.15 Introduction
11.15 – 12.30 LEVI BRYANT
12.30 – 13.30 Lunch
13.30 – 14.45 NICK SRNICEK
14.45 – 15.00 Break
15.00 – 16.15 TIMOTHY MORTON
16.15 - 16.20 Break
16.20 – 17.35 BERTRAND PREVOST
17.35 – 18.30 Open floor discussion

Sunday
10.30 – 11.00 Summing up from previous day
11.00 – 12.15 GABRIEL CATREN
12.15 – 13.15 Lunch
13.15 – 14.30 PATRICIA FALGUIÈRES
14.30 – 14.45 Break
14.45 – 16.00 GRAHAM HARMAN
16.00 – 17.30 Panel discussion and open floor
17.30 – 18.00 Closing remarks

Each speaker's allocated time includes 30mins of questions at the end. The opening and closing remarks and the Introductions will be given by the Matter of Contradiction team who will present the results of the week long workshop. The panel discussion is held between all participating speakers and chaired by the MoC team.

The conference is free. But booking is recommended.

Please email thematterofcontradiction@gmail.com to book
and
Sophie Anfray at info@ciapiledevassiviere.com for accommodation and transport enquiries

Conference address:
Centre international d'art et du paysage
île de Vassivière
87120 Beaumont du Lac Phone: +33(0)5 55 69 27 27

There will be catered food and drinks available for purchase on site throughout the weekend, to facilitate this, please let Sophie Anfray know in advance if you wish to purchase food and drinks.

More information can be found at lamatiere.tumblr.com

The Matter of Contradiction is a conference series organised by Sam Basu, Fabien Giraud, Ida Soulard and Tom Trevatt. The organisers would like to extend extra special thanks to all the speakers and workshop participants and the teams at Vassiviere and Treignac Projet without whom this conference would not have been possible