Talk: Lucy Steeds

SALT Ulus

Critical Reflections on Exhibition Histories, Contemporary Art and Transnationalism

The parallel events organized for It was a time of conversation, a project that calls for a reevaluation of three exhibitions that took place in the early ‘90s in Turkey, concludes with a talk by Lucy Steeds. Steeds will mention two historically important projects which were arranged in the late ‘80s: Early editions of the Bienal de La Habana (1986, 1989) and the exhibition Magiciens de la Terre in Paris (1989). These two particular exhibition projects, with curatorial agendas that were radical in a way perhaps now hard to appreciate, presented contemporary art from around the world.

For the Exhibition Histories series Afterall published: Making Art Global (Part 1): The Third Havana Biennial 1989 and Making Art Global (Part 2): ‘Magiciens de la Terre’ 1989. The process of producing books on these shows for Afterall in London will be reflected upon critically in order to address issues of exhibition documentation and historiography. More broadly, Steeds will map out the emerging field of exhibition histories and discuss how exhibitions can be read as a privileged cultural carrier of contemporaneity, with the potential to resist the neoliberalism of globalisation.

It was a time of conversation is on view at SALT Ulus until June 2.

The talk will be held in English.


Lucy Steeds is Editor of Afterall’s Exhibition Histories series of books and co-Pathway Leader for MRes Art: Exhibition Studies at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London. She has a background in exhibition making in the field of contemporary art having worked at Arnolfini in Bristol and her previous teaching experience includes lecturing in art history and theory at the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford. She has a doctoral degree in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths College in London.