August 27 2013

Time: 8:00 P.M.

Together with Galerie Martin van Zomeren, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam organizes a lecture of Joshua Simon on the occasion of his new book Neomaterialism (Sternberg Press, 2013).

Since the so-called dematerialization of currencies and art practices in the late 1960s and early 1970, we have witnessed a move into what can be called an economy of neomaterialism, where our role is to absorb surpluses. With this, several shifts have occurred: the commodity has become the historical subject, the focus of labor has shifted from production to consumption, and symbols now behave like materials. With, debt, rather than alienation, as the underlining notion forming our relation to things, the presentation and following will explore the language of those things through dialectical materialism and the dialect of material.

The lecture is followed by a discussion with the audience about Simon's ideas for contemporary art and also about his directorship of art center MoBY in Tel-Aviv. This evening is organized as part of the exhibition 'Unstable Media’, curated by Anne de Vries at Galerie Martin Van Zomeren. It is possible to visit the exhibition on the 27th, before the lecture.