Some Limits of Reason: (Can art be transgressive?)

Joshua Decter will share some thoughts about if/how/when/where art might still be transgressive. This is based on the premise that art has been transgressive at certain moments in the past. What do we mean by transgressive today? What criteria do we use to determine whether an artwork is transgressive? Transgressive in relation to what?

The title of Decter’s talk is a modification of the title of an exhibition of paintings and sculptures by Julião Sarmento – “Some Limits of Reason” – that took place at the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York in 2005. The show explored various notions of transgression, in relation to Foucault’s reflections on Bataille’s concept of transgression. Decter will consider what artistic transgression might mean in the 21st Century… particularly since ‘god’ died long ago (Foucault speaks of the death of god in relation to Bataille).

Duration: 45 minutes + 15 min Q&A
Time: 6 pm

Please note that attending the talks requires a valid admission ticket. For ticket information please visit the Pavilhão Julião Sarmento website.

Pavilhão Julião Sarmento: Av. da Índia 172, 1400-207 Lisbon

Joshua Decter is a writer, curator, and art historian whose books include Art Is a Problem: Selected Criticism, Essays, Interviews and Curatorial Projects (1986-2012) published by JRP|Ringier in 2014, and Exhibition as Social Intervention: Culture in Action 1993, published by Afterall Books, also in 2014. Decter writes for Artforum, and has contributed to Art Review, Mousse, Umbigo, Texte zur Kunst, among other journals and magazines. He has authored exhibition catalogue essays for numerous artists since the late 1980s, including Catherine Opie, General Idea, On Kawara, Mel Chin, Monica Bonvicini, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Fred Wilson, Keith Haring, Joan Jonas, Anton Vidokle, Isa Genzken, Luisa Cunha, Jonathan Horowitz, Rick Lowe/Project Row Houses, and Amy Sillman.

His book Art Is a Problem encompasses seven chapters: Institutional Critique® and its Discontents; Aporia (art as politics, the politics of art); Everything is Social; Convoluted Cities; The (Un)De-definition of Art; What do we want from exhibitions?; On the Curatorial Road. By bringing together a selection of older and newer writings, Decter considers art’s paradoxical condition as both a historical and contemporary condition: i.e., art problematizes things, but it also has intrinsic problems. From this standpoint, Decter analyzes art’s various definitions, redefinitions, and functions; its ethical entanglements; its societal aspirations; and its cultural contradictions. The book considers examples of historical and contemporary art, architecture & urbanism, the interrelationship between museums and the critique of institutions, and curating considered as a language/practice that demands rethinking— in relation to various ideological, public, discursive, and social milieus. His other book, Exhibition as Social Intervention, is a deep dive into Mary Jane Jacob’s groundbreaking 1993 exhibition, ‘Culture in Action,’ which was a key moment in the rethinking of traditional museum curation and the conventions of public art. The book examines how this exhibition project – which took place within various urban sites throughout Chicago – helped to accelerate the transition from traditional notions of art in public space towards socially-engaged art and social practice.

Decter has curated exhibitions at PS1 (MoMA PS1), The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Center for Curatorial Studies Museum at Bard College, the Kunsthalle Vienna, Friedrich Petzel Gallery, and Apex Art.

He has taught art history, art theory, curating, and exhibition histories at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, the School of Visual Arts in NYC, The University of Southern California in Los Angeles, The Cooper Union in NYC, Bennington College in Vermont, The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, New York University, UCLA, and Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He attended the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program in 1984-1985.