June 25-26: Sam Durant

Friday: 7PM
Saturday: 12PM

Propositions is a public forum that explores ideas in development. Inspired by the scientific method of hypothesis, research, and synthesis, each two-day seminar explores a topic of current investigation in an invited speaker’s own artistic or intellectual practice. Over the course of a seminar session, these developing ideas are presented to the public, responded to, “researched,” and discussed to propel the ideas forward in unique ways.

The structure of Propositions is as follows:
Saturday, 4:00 PM – Initial proposition and lecture
Sunday, 12:00 PM – Guest speaker responds, followed by a lunch break
Sunday, 3:00 PM – Discussion

One Friday evening per month, an invited artist or cultural thinker will present on an idea in process—the hypothesis—as the seminar topic. This initial presentation introduces the seminar leader’s current thinking on a concept or idea as well as unresolved questions that remain. The next day, starting at noon, an “expert” lecture, screening, performance, or activity presents new perspectives or specific knowledge, followed by a lunch break. In an afternoon discussion, hypothesis, research, and public dialogue converge in an informal working session in the fifth-floor Museum as Hub space at the New Museum.

Propositions is part of the Museum as Hub initiative, a laboratory for art and ideas realized through a partnership of five international arts organizations that includes Insa Art Space, Seoul; the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City; the Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo; and the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. The initiative seeks to support art activities and experimentation; explore artistic, curatorial, and institutional practice; and serve as an important resource for the public to learn about contemporary art from around the world.

Sam Durant was born in Seattle in 1961 and studied at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. He has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2002) and the Institute of Visual Arts, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2002). His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions such as the 8th Bienal de Panamá, 2008; the Busan Biennial, Korea, 2006; and the Whitney Biennial, New York, 2004. In 2007, MIT Press published the monograph Reconsidered, Sam Durant: Scenes from the Pilgrim Story: Myths, Massacres and Monuments. Durant lives and works in Los Angeles.