Historically, one of the functions of art history has been to provide models of periodization. Classical, romantic, modern, postmodern andcontemporary all have their origins as art-historical concepts, which became generalized to theorize wider cultural processes and thus being transformed, and reflected back upon its art-historical meaning, changing it in turn. Wherein lies the contemporaneity of contemporary art? And what does it have to tell us about our cultural condition more broadly? Peter Osborne addresses these questions against the background of the global dynamics of 'the contemporary' and the postconceptual condition of contemporary art.

Peter Osborne is Professor of Modern European Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP), Kingston University London, and a long-standing member of the editorial collective of the British journal Radical Philosophy. His books include The Politics of Time: Modernity and Avant-Garde (1995; 2011), Philosophy in Cultural Theory (2000), Conceptual Art (2002), Marx (2005) and El arte más allá de la estética: Ensayos filosóficos sobre el arte contemporáneo (CENDEAC, Murcia, 2010). His catalogue essays include contributions to Manifesta 5, Tate Modern, 2006 Biennale of Sydney, Walker Art Center Minneapolis, Office of Contemporary Art Norway, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design Oslo, CGAC in Santiago de Compostela, and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León.

Recent publications include: two essays in Gerhard Richter: Fotographie und Malerei – Malerei als Fotographie: Acht Texte zu Gerhard Richters Medienstrategie: Schriften des Gerhard Richter Archive Dresden, Band 8, Walther König, Cologne, 2011; The State of Things (co-ed. with Marta Kuzma and Pablo Lafuentes), Walter Koenig/OCA, Cologne/Oslo, 2012 – lectures from the Norwegian representation at the Venice Biennale 2011, of which he was a co-curator – and Spheres of Action: Art and Politics (co-ed. with Éric Alliez), Tate Publishing, London, 2013. His new book, Anywhere or Not at All: Philosophy of Contemporary Art will be published by Verso in April 2013. He is currently directing the Arts and Humanities Research Council project 'Transdisciplinarity and the Humanities' (2011–13).

Program including further events (as PDF)

Further Informations: www.spekulative-poetik.de

Contact: Armen Avanessian