The Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM), University of Westminster is hosting a two-day conference that will celebrate and critically explore the work and legacy of Chantal Akerman.

The event will mark the anniversary of the filmmaker’s death and also of the UK’s first retrospective exhibition of her installation work at Ambika P3, University of Westminster, which opened in October 2015.

Conference Dates: 4pm Friday 4 November - Sunday 6 November 2016

Conference Venue: University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London, W1B 2UW, and 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5LS

Confirmed Keynotes and Invited Speakers:

Janet Bergstrom (UCLA)
Sandy Flitterman-Lewis (Rutgers University)
Dominique Paini, (Paris)
Griselda Pollock (University of Leeds)
Adam Roberts (A Nos Amours)
Corinne Rondeau (University of Nîmes)
Jean-Pierre Salgas (Paris)
Marion Schmid (University of Edinburgh)

Akerman contributed greatly to challenging the perceptions of film and cinema. Her work explored themes that included the everyday, domestic labour, psychoanalysis, migration and displacement. She is seen as a pioneer in embracing the gallery space as a filmmaker and she contributed to the expanded cinematic form, experimenting with reflexivity, cinematic time and the frame. She worked across countries, sites and cultures as well as pre-defined conceptual, epistemological or political categories. Her method of working was distinctive in its blurring margins and crossing genres. She refused to be identified as any single ‘type’ of filmmaker, whilst contributing greatly to our contemporary understanding of film.

Speakers will critically explore both how Akerman disrupted the polemics of art and cinema and the lasting effects of her work. Papers will address Akerman’s work directly or explore work influenced by her, examining themes such as Fiction and Non Fiction, Archetypes, the Nomadic, Sound, Installation, Theory and Legacy.

Schedule

Please note different venues for Friday and Saturday/Sunday.

Friday 4 November 2016
University of Westminster, Fyvie Hall, 309 Regent Street, London, W1B 2UW

16.00 Registration

17.30 Welcome: Kerstin Mey, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Dean WSMAD; Rosie Thomas, Director of the Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM); Michael Maziere, Curator of Ambika P3 and London Gallery West, University of Westminster; and Adam Roberts, Co-Founder of A Nos Amours

Keynote: Janet Bergstrom (UCLA)

19.15 Reception

Saturday 5 November 2016
University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5LS

09.30 – 09.45 Late registration

09.45 – 11.30 Panel 1: Jean-Pierre Salgas, Jenny Chamarette, Ruth Novaczek and Heike Klippel

TEA BREAK

12.00 – 13.00 Keynote 2: Griselda Pollock (University of Leeds)

LUNCH

14.00 – 15.45 Panel 2: Carla Maia, Andrea Thoma, Nadine Boljkovac and Corinne Rondeau

14.00 – 15.45 Panel 3: Alison Rowley, Marion Schmid, Roberta Veiga, and Philip Cartelli & Mariangela Ciccarello

TEA BREAK

16.15 – 18.00 Panel 4: Dominique Paini, Sanghita Sen, Ros Murray, Anthony Paraskeva

Sunday 6 November 2016
University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5LS

09.45 – 11.30 Panel 5: Adam Roberts, Albertine Fox, Corina Copp and Hasmik Gasparyan

TEA BREAK

12.00 – 13.00 Keynote 3: Sandy Flitterman-Lewis (Rutgers University)

LUNCH

14.00 – 15.30 Panel 6: Adriana Cerne, Maria Walsh and Laura Staab

14.00 – 15.30 Panel 7: Jacqui Usiskin, Guilia Magno, Kate Rennebohm and Alexa Seligman

TEA BREAK

16.00 – 17.00 – Roundtable (details tbc)

Programme and Registration

This conference will take place from 4.00pm on Friday 4 November to late afternoon Sunday 6 November 2016.

Conference Tickets: £43 or £22 students & unemployed

Registration fee includes teas and coffees in the breaks, as well as the opening night drinks reception. Lunches and dinners will not be provided. These can be bought on campus or at the many food outlets near to both campuses.

Conference Team - Michael Mazière, Rosie Thomas, Lucy Reynolds, May Ingawanij, Treasa O’Brien, Aislinn White.

If you have any questions, please email har-events@westminster.ac.uk