"Sanhedrin" - Conference at the Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon

Wednesday and Thursday, June 18-19, 2008 14:00 – 20:00

The "Sanhedrin" conference wishes to question the connection between the museum and the nation state, through the examination of divergent museum models, at a time when the status of the nation state is being undermined by influences of neo- liberal economics. We wish to ask: how do museums function as distributors of political ideology in this paradigm shift between national and neo- liberal economies? How do museums construct a representation of the past while the present stands in ideological contradiction to it (especially in former communists countries)? In what manner can museums be critical of the state or the politics of corporate funding, and is this mode of institutional critique from within the institution is relevant today? This questions was the starting point and framework for this conference.

Participants include:

Mordechi Omer, the general director and curator of the Tel- Aviv Museum, a senior professor at the Tel- Aviv University, and the initiator and director of the University Gallery. Charles Esche, the director of the Van AbbeMuseum in Eindhoven and co- editor of "Afterall" books and journals. Ana Jenevski, curator at the MOMA Museum, Warsaw. Ariella Azoulay, lecturer of contemporary philosophy and visual culture at the Hermeneutics and Cultural Studies Program at Bar Ilan University, and a curator and documentary filmmaker. Galia Bar Or, the director and curator of the Museum of Art , Ein Harod. Zdenka Badovinac, the director of the Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana. Rona Sela, a curator and researcher of local photography. Nina Montmann, the head of the History and Theory Departnent at the Royal Academy for Art , Stockholm and independet curator and critic. Dalia Levin, the director and curator of the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art.

The Israeli Center for Digital Art, 16 Yirmiyahu St. Holon

Free entrance

It is strongly recommended that you sign up in advance by email or telephone: info@digitalartlab.org.il | 03- 5568792