The Knight's Move: Suzanne Lacy

Thursday 28 November 2013, 20:00 hrs
Location: Hogewal 1-9, The Hague
Entrance fee: € 5,-
Language: English
RSVP: use form at bottom of this page

There is a fine line between art and political activism in the work of California-born Suzanne Lacy, one of the most important socially-engaged artist working today. She is best known for her performances, installations, videos and writings on social and urban issues. One of her most famous works is The Crystal Quilt, a performance with 430 older women, broadcast live on Public Television in America. In her lecture at Stroom Suzanne Lacy will talk about her experiences and practice as an artist and a 'social educator'.

Recently she gathered hundreds of women over the age of 60 to have a dialogue in The Tanks at Tate Modern about their role in activist movements. "No, it is not always easy to deal with Suzanne Lacy's creations - her issues of choice are certainly not always easy to digest, ranging from feminism over labor, immigration and poverty to rape - but in every single way her works function as a wake-up call for society, making it an enriching experience and invaluable.", according to Rebekka Keuss in an article on The Pop-Up City (19 November 2013)

In a recent interview in the New York Times Lacy said: "I believe the sharing of certain social experiences opens a window. If you put society - the audience - in the position of listening, they are going to start reframing their ideas." Click here for the full article.

Suzanne Lacy's work has been funded through numerous local and national foundations, including the National Endowment for the Arts and The Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Surdna, and Nathan Cummings Foundations.

Also known for her writing, Lacy edited the influential Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art, published in 1995 by Bay Press, a book that prefigures current writing on politically relevant performance art. She has published over 60 articles on public art.

Suzanne Lacy is the Chair of Fine Arts at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. From 1987-97 she was Dean of the School of Fine Arts at the California College of Arts, and in 1998 she became Founding Director of the Center for Art and Public Life. In 1996-7 she co-founded the Visual and Public Art Institute at California State University at Monterey Bay with artist Judith Baca.

Active in Oakland cultural politics, Suzanne Lacy was a member of Mayor Jerry Brown's education cabinet and an Arts Commissioner for the City of Oakland.
www.suzannelacy.com

On 19 October 2013 Creative Time and Brooklyn Museum in New York present the performance Between the Door and the Street, initiated by Suzanne Lacy. More information: http://creativetime.org

The Knight's Move
Survey lectures season 2013-2014
The Knight's Move is a series of lectures by eminent international speakers who stand out by their unusual, enlightening and inspirational visions concerning the city, urbanity, the public domain, and community. Just as the knight moves in an atypical and unusual way across the chessboard, Stroom Den Haag likewise wants to cut across all disciplines and thus stimulate rethinking the city.

Media partner of The Knight's Move 2013-2014 is The Pop-Up City.

The Knight's Move lectures are made possible in part by the Creative Industries Fund NL and the Haagse Bluf Fonds (part of Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds).

Archive The Knight's Move lectures 2009-present

PRESS
The Pop-Up City, 19 November 2013