The conference is devised as a forum of discussion and an investigation into art practices from the periphery, a territory perceived both geographically and conceptually as lying outside established systems.
It interrogates whether art practices from the periphery can contribute in mapping a space of criticality disenfranchised from hegemonic modes of cultural production and understanding and also project into the possibility of the text in informing and fermenting relationships in visual cultures between the work, its producers and its audiences.
The parameters of the discussion will take into consideration the claim that late 20th century capitalist culture is responsible for the withering of the space of criticality and the ossification of critical theory. The commodification of art experience in the west and the redundancy of art production to an object of exchange driven by a savvy market have turned the critical gaze eastwards.

• Does our newly gained “paracentral vision” of the periphery reveal new forms of resistance and alternative cultural trajectories?

• Can the peripheral paradigm help contextualize the contemporary experience beyond representation and not resort to centrifugal art practices?

• Are art critics an "endangered species"?

• What role does critical art writing have in the dissemination of knowledge around emerging art practices and can it contribute in creating a space of exchange, debate, translation and ultimately communication?

Curator: Pavlina Paraskevaidou
Speakers: Negar Azimi, (IRAN/USA) senior editor, Bidoun, Borut Vogelnik, (SLO) artist, member of IRWIN, Kestutis Kuizinas, (LT), director Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) Vilnius, Tom Morton (UK), curator, critic and contributing editor, Frieze magazine, Germain Roesz (FR), artist, theorist, lecturer at Marc Bloch University of Strasbourg (Arts Department).

Languages of the conference English, French, Greek.
Open to the public – Free Entrance