Venues
INTERDISCIPLINARY TALKS
Courtesy of Zurich Art Weekend 2023. Photo by Lee Yellosno.
Initiated in 2018 as the Art + Science Talks, the Zurich Art Weekend Talks seek to generate unconventional exchanges between creative thinkers who are active at the highest level of excellence in the arts, the natural sciences, and public life. Organised on the occasion of ZURICH ART WEEKEND June program and kindly hosted by schwarzescafé / Luma Westbau, we delve into the current conversations and exchanges surrounding art and science, celebrating the vastness of interdisciplinary work by leading artists, curators, writers, scientists, and researchers who bridge the gap between these fields. We encourage “out of the box” discussions, shared perspectives, and lively debate.
Since 2018, the talk series, moderated by a journalist or philosopher, pairs leading scientists /academics with an internationally acclaimed contemporary artist. They aim to tease out crossovers in research of supposedly opposing disciplines. Alongside our team, the talks are curated by Daniel Baumann (Director Kunsthalle Zurich), Jacqueline Burckhardt (Art Historian and Editor) and others. Speakers of our extensive archive include: Phyllida Barlow & Prof. Frank Ruschitzka and Laurie Anderson and Corine Mauch (Mayor Of Zurich).
Limmatstrasse 270
8005 Zürich
After a decade of pioneering artists experimenting with the possibilities and potentials of AI, AI has suddenly become a major issue for artists and creatives everywhere. Many worry about the impact of AI on many artistic disciplines, raising serious questions about human creativity as much as problems of copyright and intellectual property. But how might artists - and art institutions - positively engage with AI, as it becomes an increasingly significant part of contemporary culture.
REFIK ANADOL, born in Istanbul and based in Los Angeles, is a leading media artist and pioneer in machine intelligence aesthetics. His studio focuses on innovative data narratives and immersive environments. Anadol's work, often site-specific, uses data to create dynamic, visually striking experiences.
ALISTAIR HUDSON is a curator and museum director with broad-ranging international experience. He combines contemporary curatorial expertise with a profound knowledge of the relationship between art, technology and society.
JJ CHARLESWORTH is a writer and art critic and one of the editors of ArtReview. JJ studied fine art at Goldsmiths College, London, and holds a doctorate in art history from the Royal College of Art. Alongside his written reviews, articles and commentaries for ArtReview, he has written for publications including Time Out London, The Daily Telegraph, art-agenda, artnet news and CNN Style. His book Criticism, Art and Theory in 1970s Britain: the Critical War, was published by Routledge in 2024.
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04 ZAW Art + AI from Tibor Lörincz on Vimeo.
AGNIESZKA KURANT (Łódź, Poland, 1978) is a conceptual artist investigating collective and nonhuman intelligences and the exploitations present in digital capitalism. She is the recipient of the 2020 LACMA A+T Award and the 2019 Frontier Art Prize. Her solo shows include Mudam Luxemburg (2024), Castello di Rivoli (2021-2022), Hannover Kunstverein (2023) and Sculpture Center (2013). In 2015 she realized a commission for the façade of the Guggenheim Museum, and in 2021-22 a permanent commission for the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge. Her works were also exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Centre Pompidou and Palais de Tokyo, Paris; the Biennale of Sydney, Istanbul Biennial; Milano Triennale; Dhaka Art Summit, the SFMOMA, Kunsthalle Wien, Witte de With; Whitechapel Art Gallery, the De Young Museum, Gamec, Bergamo, CAPC Bordeaux, Louisiana Museum, Denmark; Villa Medici, Rome; Nottingham Contemporary, Moderna Museet; the Kitchen, Bonner Kunstverein; Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw; Frieze Projects, London and Performa Biennial. In 2010 she co-authored the Polish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture (with A.Wasilkowska). Kurant’s monograph Collective Intelligence, co-edited by Stefanie Hessler and Jenny Jaskey was published by Sternberg Press/ MIT Press in 2024. Kurant was an artist in residence at the Berggruen Institute (2019-2021), a visiting artist at MIT CAST (2017-2020), and held a fellowship at the Smithsonian Institute (2018).
OLIVIER ZEITOUN is associate curator at the Design Department of the National Museum of Modern Art / Centre Pompidou. He was co-curator of the exhibitions "La Fabrique du vivant" (2019), "Worlds of Networks" (2022), at the Centre Pompidou and "Mimesis, a living design" (2022) at Centre Pompidou-Metz, and co-edited the accompanying catalogues. Graduated in philosophy, art history, and social sciences, he is the author of numerous cross-cutting articles and essays on issues related to the digital field in art and design.
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