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Back to the Future: Histories of Exhibitions - A lecture by Jens Hoffman

Jens Hoffmann
November 27, 2017
All Day
Wexner Center Film/Video Theater

In his talk Back to the Future: Histories of Exhibitions, Jens Hoffmann will speak about how a number of historical exhibitions helped change established notions of art and art history, and where they intersected with the political, economical and cultural realities of their time to form larger histories and discursive shifts. The focus of Hoffmann's presentation will be the idea of exhibition-making as a dramaturgy of information beyond the display and configurations of objects in a gallery space. The talk will revolve around two historically path-breaking exhibitions, Primary Structures (New York, 1966) and When Attitudes Become Form (Bern, 1969), both of which Hoffmann explored through staging adaptations of these iconic exhibitions many decades after their original manifestations.

Jens Hoffmann is a writer and exhibition-maker based in New York. He is Director of Special Exhibitions and Pubic Programs at the Jewish Museum, New York and Chief Curator at Large at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. Currently he is also Co-Artistic Director of FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial of Contemporary Art (2018) and Artistic Director of the 2nd Honolulu Biennial (2019). He was Director of the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2007-12) and Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2003-7). He curated the 12th Istanbul Biennial (2011) and the 9th Shanghai Biennial (2012) among others.