Thematic Seminar: Cultural Entanglements: Politics, Power, and Artistic Exchange

Talks, lezingen en congressen

LUCA's cluster ‘Art, Space & Sound’ is delighted to announce their doctoral seminar, entitled “Cultural Entanglements: Politics, Power, and Artistic Exchange”, tackling issues regarding artistic exchange.

Please join us for the doctoral seminar and evening concert at De Koer in Ghent 🌱

Amani Yaquob

LUCA School of Arts and De Koer invite researchers and curious minds to explore questions regarding cultural appropriation, political instrumentalisation, exoticising and heritagisation of historically or/and culturally remote artistic practices, including traditional arts. The event will critically examine how such practices intersect with politics, power, and decolonial methodologies in contemporary art.

Practical Info 🎟️

Free lunch & dinner.
You can register for the day programme via the form.
Tickets for the evening performance are provided for LUCA/KU Leuven affiliates through the form above.
Other attendees are welcome to join. You can order your ticket via De Koer.

Programme

Day programme (10:30 - 18:30)

10:30-10:45 Coffee and welcome
10:45-11:00 Introduction
11:00-12:00 Keynote lecture by Cassandre Balosso-Bardin (KU Leuven) ‘Political entanglements of a musical instrument: The case of the Mallorcan bagpipe’
12:00-12:30 Anna Püschel (LUCA School of Arts) ‘Stimming the Space. Neurodivergent Liminality’
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-14:00 Dao Bachen (LUCA School of Arts) ‘Beneath the Floating Land’ (lecture-performance)
14:00-14:30 Bahar Kiamoghaddam (LUCA School of Arts) ‘When Symbols Turn Against Themselves: Femonationalism, The Hijab and the Reinvention of Meaning’
14:30-15:00 Matteo Gallo (KU Leuven) ‘Sampling indigenous music: Cultural appropriation and musical sovereignty in Kanaky New Caledonia’
15:00-15:30 Coffee break
15:30-16:30 Keynote lecture by Wendy Morris (LUCA School of Arts / KU Leuven) & Memory Biwa (University of Capetown) ‘Fieldguides for a Preternaturalist’
16:30-17:15 Fernanda Pitta (MAC USP) & Laurens Dhaenens (LUCA School of Arts) ‘Decay without mourning: future thinking heritage practices’
17:15-17:45 Xenia Benivolski (LUCA School of Arts) ‘Vespa’
18:30 Dinner

Evening programme (19:30 - 22:00)

Join us for two performances around the theme Cultural Entanglements: Politics, Power, and Artistic Exchange.

20:30 – ‘s Lands Welvaren

In ‘s Lands Welvaren, field recordings from Flemish folkloric festivals engage in dialogue with organic, free-form folk music. This interplay sparks a quest for a fictional past, often culminating in a peculiar kind of sonic neo-naturalism.
The ensemble consists of Glen Steenkiste (aka Hellvete), Steve Marreyt (Edgar Wappenhalter), and Simon van Honacker—two musicians and a sound artist/installer who dedicate their work to exploring traditional music from all corners of the world, with deep roots in pastoral Flanders. Independently and together in ‘s Lands Welvaren, they each explore the experimental qualities of folk, blues, Indian/Pakistani drones, and everything in between. Rather than striving to reproduce the past, they seek sound in the present—in archives and in their instruments. They capture a moment and guide the audience toward acoustic stillness, a dream, a trance.

21:30 – Maya Al Khaldi

Maya Al Khaldi is a musician from Palestine, based in Jerusalem. Maya’s work explores the voice and the music of the past and present, working with archival materials to imagine the future.