16 Beaver at The Contemporary in Baltimore
Cira Pasqual Marquina asked us to participate in an exhibition at the Contemporary confronting the topic of Nationalism and Patriotism. The funds devoted to producing a small catalogue for the exhibition were instead given to us to produce something on print. This is our first effort intervening in such a space and it is interesting to imagine that we may be able to intervene or participate in an exhibition only by taking up a portion or entirety of a catalogue. Free copies of the reader entitled "Act Patriot Act!" are of course available in Baltimore at the Contemporary as well as in New York at our space. We have also organized a couple of events in Baltimore for the last weekend of April. We hope some of you are able to make it or pass the invite on to a friend who can make it.
Below is the invite for our event:
CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM EVENT
Saturday, April 30, 4 pm
WHAT'S LEFT OF PATRIOTISM?
3. Martha Nussbaum: "Can Patriotism Be Compassionate?" Dec. 17 2001
The liberal-Kantian philosopher suggests that in the aftermath
of 9-11,
Americans need art that can "extend their imaginations"
to others beyond the
parochial affective sphere of patriosm.
4. Emma Goldman on Patriotism (1911)
5. Herbert Spencer on Patriotism (1902)
A program organized in conjunction with Patriot, on view
at the Contemporary Museum through June 11, 2005
Jesal Kapadia and Yates McKee and of the New York-based collective
16 Beaver Group will facilitate a discussion on nationalism and patriotism.
Texts will be posted online at www.16beavergroup.org/patriot <http://www.16beavergroup.org/patriot>
. Participants are encouraged to read these texts in advance, and
if they choose, to bring other articles and artifacts that may be
pertinent to addressing the viability of patriotism as a form of political
identification.
Rather than affirm patriotism as a "healthy" form of community
(as opposed to the supposedly regressive forces of nationalism), or
simply condemn it as a mere ideological illusion (as many on the left
tend to do), we will attend to it as an enduring though problematic
structure of feeling whose meaning is up for grabs. Because patriotism
is an irreducibly aesthetic phenomenon, a museum of contemporary art
is an especially relevant site for such a discussion.
Some relevant questions:
1. One nationalism or many nationalisms?
2. What is the difference between nationalism and patriotism?
3. How is the nationalist subject gendered?
4. Is the nation-state reaching its historical closure, or morphing
into a more virulent form?
Contemporary Museum
100 Centre Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Tel: 410 783 5720
Hours: Thursday – Saturday, Noon – 5 pm
