Liam Gillick, Creative Disruption

Curator Nato Thompson speaks with artist Liam Gillick about the critical conversations that frame contemporary art, and our limited understanding of the present moment. Their discussion identifies a series of cultural impasses: an obsession with the very recent past among art critics and historians; a hesitation to implement structural change among political progressives; and a lack of general education in art and visual culture that might help broader publics to “decode the world.” Gillick addresses these critical themes from a historical perspective in four lectures, collectively titled Creative Disruption in the Age of Soft Revolutions, for the 2013 Bampton Lecture Series at Columbia University.

This program is part of a regular series, Forms of Life, hosted by Creative Time’s Chief Curator, Nato Thompson and produced for their online magazine, Creative Time Reports, in partnership with ARTonAIR.org. Guests are culture makers whose work posits new ways of looking at political realities. By addressing a wide range of issues such as alternative economies, calcified political structures, new forms of collective living, or simply being a thorn in the side of normality, Forms of Life interviews provide an opportunity to think counterintuitively about social conditions people face around the world.

•