The Rise of Conceptual Poetics: Aesthetics within Ideological Constraints

Speaker: Shaheen Merali

March 12, 2011 | 6.30 pm
The Guild, Mumbai

Often aesthetic invention is given a secondary consideration within the current heightened discourse offered in exhibition-making, curatorship and collections. It is to the melodramatic effects that attracts arts increasing clientele and within which much of art and its speculative energy flourishes. The talk will look at these aspects related to the exhibition curated by Shaheen Merali, regarding Iran: the apparent acquiescence of conceptual poetics.

Shaheen Merali is a curator and writer, currently based in London. He was the Head of Exhibitions, Film and New Media at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin where he curated several exhibitions including The Black Atlantic; Dreams and Trauma, Moving images and the Promised Lands; and Re-Imagining Asia, One Thousand years of Separation. In 2006, he was invited to be the co-curator of the 6th Gwangju Biennale, Korea. Merali has edited several
publications, including Far Near Distance, Contemporary Positions for Iranian Artists (2004); Spaces and Shadows, Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia and About Beauty (2005); New York-States of Mind and Re-Imagining Asia (2007) and the seminal Everywhere is War (and rumours of war) (2008).