Who Really Owns It? Thinking Through Ownership Of Contemporary Art And Cultural Heritage

Özge Ersoy in conversation with Marysia Lewandowska and moderated by Rose Lejeune.

As part of the public programme for Collecting as Practice, this discussion explores a radical notion of collecting that challenges conventional notions of individual ownership. Taking its departure point from research conducted by curator-in-residence Özge Ersoy, as well as recent examples of the destruction of historical artefacts, the discussion considers how social histories become embedded in the material objects of artworks. With reference to key artistic, archaeological and architectural practices, the participants will interrogate how it is possible to redefine our understanding of ownership to include concepts of immaterial presence, social knowledge and the communal.

Biographies

Marysia Lewandowska is an artist based in London who, through her collaborative projects, has explored the public function of archives, collections and exhibitions. Lewandowska has collaborated with Neil Cummings between 1995 and 2008, working on the borderline between art and theoretical research, critically reflecting on the mechanisms of producing cultural value through relationships between artists, institutions, the art market and the public. She is the co-editor with Laurel Ptak of Undoing Property? Sternberg Press (2013). Between 2003 and 2013, she was the Professor of Art in the Public Realm at Konstfack, Stockholm and 2014 and 2016 at the Chinese University in Hong Kong. Most recently, she has completed a residency at the Asia Art Archive and is currently preparing together with Esther Lu, Made in Public, a collection of writing and artists’ projects in collaboration with Taipei Contemporary Art Centre. Her future film project Rehearsing the Museum is supported by the Brown Foundation and the Norwegian Arts Council.

EVENT SUPPORTERS

SAHA Association and Delfina Foundation’s family of supporters