• Summer School As School 2016
Anne Barlow: The Politics of Listening
Summer School as School
3-18 July, 2016

Public Program
Saturday, 16 July 2016 at 20:15

Anne Barlow: The Politics of Listening

Venue: Boxing Club
Mark Isaku St. Prishtina
Republic of Kosovo


To coincide with the launch of Art in General’s publication What Now? The Politics of Listening? Anne Barlow will discuss how the publication, and the symposium it expands upon, examine the idea of listening as a political act, a pedagogical process, and a protocol for engagement.

Highlighting the work of artists and other practitioners interested in expanding dialogue beyond the confines of the art world, Barlow will present specific case studies from What Now? The Politics of Listening, offering perspectives on listening that are shaped and informed by diverse social, cultural, technological, and spatial considerations. These case studies examine how—in a world characterized by an onslaught of data—one can listen with agency and intent, as well as the often complex relationship between truth and fiction in relation to interpretative listening, media communication, and acts of testimony, translation, and redaction. Collectively, these case studies posit questions about what new possibilities might arise when listening involves a more expansive state of activity: How can we take the procedures of listening—which involve disciplined attentiveness and an active questioning—as a means to assist a constituency to find its own power and solutions to diverse sets of problems? How can working across disciplines, or rethinking the processes of how we learn, expand on and deepen our understanding of an issue—ultimately enabling us to listen, and act, with a more informed mind?

The What Now? symposium was initiated by Art in General in 2014 and to date, three editions have taken place: Collaboration and Collectivity (2014), The Politics of Listening (2015) and Future Identities (2016). This annual symposium is organized by Art in General in collaboration with the Vera List Center, New York, and is accompanied by a new publication series supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Anne Barlow is Director of Art in General, New York where she most recently launched its International Collaborations program and the What Now? symposium, and curated exhibitions with artists including Donna Huanca, Adelita Husni-Bey, Marwa Arsanios, Basim Magdy, Sara Greenberger Rafferty, Jill Magid, Shezad Dawood, Meriç Algün Ringborg, Anetta Mona Chisa and Lucia Tkácová. She has also managed and developed programmatic partnerships with arts organizations in Brisbane, Bucharest, Cairo, Holon, Lisbon, Manchester, Riga, Tallinn, Tbilisi, Vilnius. Warsaw and Zagreb. Barlow was formerly Curator of Education and Media Programs at the New Museum, New York, where she organized numerous exhibitions and initiated and developed its Museum as Hub program. She has published with the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds; The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Philadelphia; the New Museum; and Tate Modern, London, among others, and has lectured or moderated talks at organizations including ArteEast, New York; Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw; MUMOK, Vienna; IASPIS, Stockholm; and the Sharjah Art Foundation, for which she was also Editor of the publication March Meeting 2012: Working with Artists and Audiences on Commissions and Residencies (2014). Barlow was Curator of Tactics for the Here and Now, the 5th Bucharest International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania, 2012, and Co-Curator of North by Northeast, the Latvian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale, 2013.