I present my work in the context of public conferences, presentations and panel discussions with stakeholders from artistic communities, local politicians and administrators.
Video of #ABCare Launch, December 14
Interview with Pufendorf Institute on the Theme Public Art and the New Commons
Exhibition: “Das Kunst Oder Kann Das Weg: Curating Waste”, a collaborative exhibition by Friederike Landau-Donnelly and Kirsty Robertson, Cohen Commons, Department of Visual Arts, Western University.
Photo credits: Dickson Bou, 2022
In dialogue with concepts such as hydrofeminism and environmental (in)justice, the exhibited works trace our expeditions to different bodies of waters, including Deshkan Ziibing, the Rhine, and the Dutch Waal, as well as Lake Huron and the Atlantic Ocean. The individual pieces trace the disturbing presence of human-made plastics at beaches, showcasing materializations of an anthropogenic imprint in so-called “Neptune Balls” (entanglements of human-produced plastic threads and dune grasses). While the collaboration is ongoing, this assembly of texts, sounds, and matter together problematize the persistent politics of waste deeply embedded in both Canadian and Dutch lands.
Launch of #ABCare – An Alphabet of Care, by Work-Life-Balance Group of the Radboud Young Academy – December 14, 5.30 pm
Kick-Off Lecture of Research Residency in Lund, Sweden
I am honoured to have been invited to a research residency at the prestigious Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies in Lund, Sweden. My stay will take place from November/December 2022 to February/March 2023, engaging with Lund’s interdisciplinary research communities in the annual theme of “Public Art”. More details to follow.
Podcast Stadt.Raum.Frau* online, in Kooperation mit Argon LAB / AVE
WDR5 Tagesgespräch: Historisches Erbe: Erhalten oder abreißen?
Im live Dialog mit Anrufer*innen diskutierte ich über problematische Denkmäler und Skulpturen im öffentlichen Raum, die kontroversen Ab- und Anwesenheiten von anti-semitistischen Artefakten und den Möglichkeiten, schwieriges Erbe erfahrbar zu machen.
Keynote Activism at “The Future of Culture is Common” (June 1-3, 2022, Antwerp)
Commoning Urban Cultural Politics and Space
This exploratory keynote will discuss different modalities of commoning in urban cultural-political contexts in Berlin, Germany and Vancouver, Canada, situated on the unceded territories of unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. By straddling these two empirical contexts in which artists act as political agents who meddle in complicated urban cultural politics of public funding for the arts, belonging and diversity, Landau-Donnelly will unpack political claims-making practices, creative place-making tactics and engagements in multi-stakeholder cultural governance arrangements. The local artist-led associations or groups differently appeal to the creative collectivities they aim to represent, finding their representation in tension – who is being represented, by whom? Who is invited into public spaces to culturally express themselves, who is protected to stay there, who is shut out? By situating these real-life negotiations on cultivating art as a common good, Landau-Donnelly will aim to nuance commoning as a verb (rather than the noun commons) as an inherently conflictual practice. With a conflict-oriented lens to study artists’ activisms, Landau-Donnelly will foreground commoning as both a conceptual and everyday political tool that cautions us to (re)think the manifold inclusions and exclusions in urban cultural politics and policy-making.
ComMon
Come on, for yourself
commoning for yourselves
shelf lives of commonplaces
commoning for whose sake
commoning whose stakes
commoning ≥ ≠ ≤ collectivization
it’s a buttery space to share
knives going in
Programme and Zoom Link for “Conflictual Cultural Politics” Conference (January 28/29, 2022, online)
Konfliktuelle Kulturpolitik: Räume und Akteur*innen (radikal-)demokratischer Auseinandersetzung //
Conflictual Cultural Politics: Spaces and Actors of (radical) democratic contestation
for the Zoom link, please email us!
Research Grant (25,000 CAD) awarded to Curating Waste
The project “Curating Waste – Exploring Future-Oriented and Sustainable Museum Practices in the Netherlands and Canada” explores how museums can act as activism spaces that foster cultural sustainability and environmental justice. The idea arises from long-standing collaborative ties between the two project leads and their shared research interest in activist museums, contested public spaces, and environmentally and culturally sustainable practices of exhibition-making and archiving. The project promotes positive impact on the learning and teaching environments of both institutions. In short, the project offers a conceptually ambitious and practically motivated exploration to stimulate critical understanding of the multiple meanings of sustainable curation and collection.
Call for Papers: International Conference Conflictual Cultural Politics,
January 28/29, 2022, Vienna
Book Launch / Panel Discussion [Un]Grounding – Post-Foundational Geographies
November 8, 2021 @proQm
Plenary Lecture at RC21: Infrastructuring Activism: On Political Difference in Public Art (July 15, 12.00-13.30)
[Un]Grounding – Post-Foundational Geographies is out!
RESEARCH ASSISTANT WANTED (JANUARY-MARCH 2021)!
Job Opening: Research Assistant, all genders welcome
Ideal time frame: January 25 – March 19, 2021
40-50 hours over the course of mid-January to end of March 2021
at the level of junior or senior researcher
I am looking for somebody
who is interested in political theory & who dares a dance with conflicts and ghosts
I am looking for a part-time research assistant (m/f/other/Ø) to assist in the writing of a European Union-level research grant. The working title of the grant is Agonistic Public Spaces: Monument & Museum Matters (MoMuMa).The project will investigate the ways in which museums and monuments shape contestations in and about urban public spaces. In light of the multiple usages and meanings of public spaces, cultural artefacts positioned in the public realm leverage a variety of conflicts: as they might represent and remind of difficult legacies of colonialism, slavery, war, military rule, white supremacy, or patriarchy, situated in ethnically diverse cities, in which different political opinions, religious or ethnic background and cultural customs might produce tensions in everyday life.
For the multi-disciplinary and multi-locational five-year research project, I am looking for a candidate with an interdisciplinary background, drawing from disciplines such as geography, sociology, architecture, art history, museum and curatorial studies. An ideal candidate would have the following criteria:
- an interest and/or knowledge background in critical art, museum, or heritage studies (esp. memorials, monuments, or sculptures in the public sphere)
- preferably knowledge in ethnographic and creative methods
- preferably knowledge in new materialisms
- excellent project management skills (e.g. extension of existing data and reference base, systematic literature review, administering the acquisition of institutional project partners)
If you would be interested in opportunities for doctoral or post-doctoral employment in the context of the MoMuMa project, please indicate this in your application. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me at friederike.landau@fm.ru.nl. Please submit your application (incl. CV, max 1 page of motivation letter) by January 11, 2021 at the latest.
I am looking forward to diverse, creative applications.
Sincerely,
Friederike Landau
Project Launch AGONART
Agonistic Cultural Politics (University of Vienna)
Agonistic Cultural Politics (AGONART) – Case Studies on the Conflictual Transformation of Cultural Quarters approaches the field of cultural policy with an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on political and conflict theory as well as literatures on social movements and artistic activism. With a conflict-theoretical perspective, we study local cultural political constellations in Vienna, Graz and Linz, Austria, to identify specific local funding policies, priorities and guiding values.
In a systematic comparison, AGONART not only provides an empirically-driven overview of the contemporary landscape of urban cultural policy in Austria (gathering a data corpus including qualitative interviews, participant observation, ethnographic site visits, field observations, and critical policy document analysis), but conceptualizes processes of negotiation between independent, self-organized local cultural producers and policymakers through a lens of antagonism. Beyond the predominant focus on consensus and success of public policy research, AGONART considers local policy coalitions and networks as formations of ‘conflictual cooperation’, attending to the necessary and productive dimension of conflicts.
In the face of the ongoing global COVID19 pandemic, the project raises questions about the vulnerable infrastructures of independent arts and cultural production in all three cities and beyond. In sum, AGONART aims to theorize new modes of political agency and mobilization, drawing from real-life activism in the selected urban contexts.
Project Website: Research Projects (univie.ac.at)
Round table: A Role for Civil Society in Future Cultural Policies
An international panel discussion about urban cultural policies in and beyond the crisis, and potential of civic self-organization from the cultural field for better urban futures
Cultural Infrastructures of Vulnerability II – Cultural Institutions in (Post-)Pandemic Exposure i
Photo Credit: 06 San Francisco 2017/2018, Living Room © Jana Sophia Nolle
Cultural Infrastructures of Vulnerability – Reflections on Care during and after COVID-19
DISPUTE – Discussing Conflicts and Care in Museums in Times of Crisis
SFU Postdoc Pitch in times of COVID-19: The Politics of Public Art: A Three-Fold Conundrum
Guest Lecture: Spatializing the ‘Creative City’
Launch: Agonistic Articulations in the ‘Creative’ City – On New Actors and Activism in Berlin
Roundtable Participation on Fleeting / Instituting
Keynote: “Conflictual Collaborations”
From Left to Right: Thomas Krüger, President of Federal Office of Political Education, Wibke Behrens, Spokeswoman Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft, Friederike Landau,
Photo Credit: Regina Liedtke
Keynote: “Stages of the Political”
Keynote “Conflicual Cultural Politics”
Lecture Series, Dresden, May 2018