The University of British Columbia’s Critical and Curatorial Studies Program, in conjunction with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and Centre A present Fear in the Transnational Community: A Response by Artists and Curators a talk byShaheen Merali as part of the Curatorial Lecture Series.

Fear in the Transnational Community: A Response by Artists and Curators will examine issues and commentators who use language specific to the arts to address a major shift in perspectives taking place in the new millennium. This shift is marked by a desire to engage with the notion of reality, which has become complex and entangled, as have all other global concepts and beliefs. The rubric “fine art” no longer refers primarily to a series of catalogued works or objects but also to a set of practices. Despite this, the language of art practice continues to express specific concepts and beliefs, which are entangled within a system where potential spectators are not necessarily included. In the new century, artists and curators are charting the efficacy of adopted methods of curation in the condensed visuality of the globe. In trying to understand these concerns, questions are raised about diminishing resources, the role of diplomacy, and the move away from the notion of an abundant Earth and toward the notion of a world in constant provocation.

The talk will be concluded by an examination of Merali’s recent exhibition at the Kunsthalle Brot, Vienna, The Promise of Loss, An Index of Contemporary Iran.

The Curatorial Lecture Series presents lectures on contemporary curatorial practice. It is organized by the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery in collaboration with the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, the Museum of Anthropology, and the Department of Anthropology, with the support of the Audain Endowment for Curatorial Studies; and the Faculty of Arts at the University of British Columbia. This lecture is organized in collaboration with Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.