The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Institute for Curatorial Research and Practice in collaboration with re:work the International Research Centre “Work and Human Lifecycle in Global History” at Humboldt University in Berlin are undertaking a multi-year research project on the subject of labor. This effort, led and curated by Daniel Eisenberg and Ellen Rothenberg, inaugural Faculty Research Fellows of SAIC’s Institute for Curatorial Research and Practice, aims to rethink and reimagine the representations of the changing nature of work, and reflect on the dislocating effects of globalization and technology that have created deeply unstable economic conditions and polarized our political moment.

The inaugural public event of this project will be the Re:Working Labor public symposium, which considers how artists, researchers, historians, and activists can come together to address such vital questions. The event will feature presentations by:

Mierle Laderman Ukeles
Gregory Sholette
Ramiro Gomez
Friederike Sigler
Cindi Katz
Jennifer Epps-Addison
Prabhu Mohapatra
Geraldine Pratt
Dipesh Chakrabarty
Andreas Eckert

PROGRAM

Dipesh Chakrabarty, Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor of History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and The College, University of Chicago, will open the symposium with an expanded frame, contextualizing human labor within the critical issues of climate change in the Anthropocene.

Two panels will then focus on:

The visibility and invisibility of labor—how are artists and researchers envisioning new images that represent work, and how might they empower labor both socially and politically?

Work and the social construct—what are our values around different kinds of work? Might we reimagine a world where the work-to-capital relation doesn’t drive the social contract?

Public Symposium Event Schedule

9:00 a.m. Arrivals and coffee
WELCOMING REMARKS
with SAIC Dean of Faculty Martin Berger and Faculty Research Fellows, Daniel Eisenberg and Ellen Rothenberg

AN EXPANDED FRAME
with Dipesh Chakrabarty, Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor of History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and The College, University of Chicago

10:30 a.m.
PANEL 1
Presentations and conversation moderated by Gregory Sholette, Professor in Sculpture and Social Practice, Queens College, City University of New York

Ramiro Gomez, Artist based in Los Angeles, CA

Friederike Sigler, Researcher at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. Editor, Work (MIT Press 2017)

Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Artist-In-Residence, Department of Sanitation, New York City; Faculty, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem

12:30 p.m. Lunch break

2:00 p.m.
PANEL 2
Presentations and conversation moderated by Cindi Katz, Professor of Geography in Environmental Psychology and Women’s Studies, Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Jennifer Epps-Addison, Network President and Co-Executive Director of the Center for Popular Democracy

Prabhu Mohapatra, Associate Professor in Labor History, University of Delhi

Geraldine Pratt, Professor of Geography, Canada Research Chair in Transnationalism and Precarious Labour, University of British Columbia

4:00 p.m.
CLOSING REMARKS
with Andreas Eckert, Professor, Humboldt University, Director, re:work, IGK Work and Human Life Cycle in Global History, Berlin

Reception to follow for all attendees

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: Andreas Eckert, Chiago, Cindi Katz, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Friederike Sigler, Geraldine Pratt, Gregory Sholette, Jennifer Epps-Addison, Loop, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Prabhu Mohapatra, Ramiro Gomez, Re:Working Labor, SAIC Ballroom, School of the Art Institute of Chicago