From October 2016, the Sursock Museum and ARP-ALBA will run a series of events designed as an introduction to contemporary artistic practices. The program, proposed by ARP-ALBA and implemented in partnership with Sursock Museum, is open to all. The initiative follows on from discussions that developed during the two institutions’ partnership during the 2015-16 season.1
The program proposes direct access to contemporary practices through the action of its agents: artists, but also curators, and critics. It is aimed at all those who wish to become better acquainted with contemporary artistic proposals, or take an active part. Access to the proposed events is free and open to all.
Public talks
A series of encounters with actors in the field of contemporary practices are scheduled. These events will first of all take an interest in these actors’ action, and their involvement in that of others. A close examination of the features of such actions will immediately engage with ethical and political questions surrounding artistic practice.
Participants will subsequently be better able to understand the intersections between different practices between art and politics in activism, for example, and better evaluate the consequences of transposing processes from one domain to another.
Discussions on history
These discussions will tackle pragmatically historical matter of interest to us, at the crossroads of cultural and social history. Observers of recent history are invited as guest speakers. The discussions will focus on regional history from the 1950s to the present day, and also consider key reference works on the subject of action.
This interest in artistic action opens up new pedagogical perspectives. Action in itself offers an intelligibility of its own within the collectivity in which it occurs. The program will thus contribute to the development of participants’ critical thinking skills, and to their capacity for discernment and intervention; and this within a Beirut context of an increasing number of artistic institutions, and an unprecedented choice of exhibitions.