William Kentridge, Beatriz Colomina, and Benjamin Bratton are among the speakers of Julieta Aranda’s debut program

The artworld’s carbon footprint, its gender pay gap, and other highlights from Art Basel’s Conversations program

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Since becoming one of Art Basel’s recurring staples in 2004, the&nbsp;
	<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/basel/conversations-show" target="_blank">Art Basel Conversations program</a> has welcomed more than 2,000 renowned participants from around the world to discuss topics ranging from philanthropy and education, to sustainable funding structures and the blockchain. For this summer’s edition in Basel, the Berlin- and New York-based artist and co-director of e-flux&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/news/julieta-aranda-art-basel-conversations-2019" target="_blank">Julieta Aranda</a> has taken the helm of Art Basel Conversations, curating a lineup that will not only provide deeper insights into pressing topics, but one which is also certain to spark important debates. This is a series of talks that should not be missed.


	


	 
	<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/9252/Premiere-Artist-Talk-William-Kentridge/5852" target="_blank">Premiere Artist Talk: William Kentridge </a>Wednesday, June 12, 10am to 11:30am


	Internationally-acclaimed South African artist&nbsp;
	<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7525/William-Kentridge" target="_blank">William Kentridge</a> will take the stage for a conversation with Josef Helfenstein, the director of Kunstmuseum Basel, where Kentridge's survey exhibition is about to open. The artist, known for his wide-ranging and continually-evolving practice, has worked with everything from painting, drawing, and performance, to fully fledged operas, large-scale installations, and multi-channel videos, confronting themes of colonialism, totalitarianism, and the apartheid regime. In this conversation, we can expect Kentridge to speak about his deeply personal and political practice, as well as his exhibition ‘A Poem that is Not Our Own’.

<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/9203/Artworld-Talk-The-Carbon-Footprint-of-Contemporary-Art/5803" target="_blank">Artworld Talk:&nbsp;The Carbon Footprint of Contemporary Art</a><a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/9203/Artworld-Talk-The-Carbon-Footprint-of-Contemporary-Art/5803" target="_blank"> </a>Wednesday, June 12, 5pm to 6pm


	Chances are you will arrive in Basel by plane. And chances are you have also touched down in cities like Hong Kong, New York, London, and Berlin since the start of the year. Such is the nature of the international artworld, but at what or whose expense do we jet from one metropolis to another? At what or whose expense do we tear down one fair just to build the next? Join Andrew Stramentov (Founder and CEO of Rokbox, London), Lucia Pietroiusti (Curator of General Ecology, Serpentine Galleries London, and Curator of the Golden Lion–winning Lithuanian Pavilion), Catherine Bottrill (Head of the Creative Green program at Julie’s Bicycle, London), and moderator Chris Hampton (journalist) as they address all these questions, as well as others dealing with the future of the artworld’s dangerously large carbon footprint.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/9206/Artist-Talk-Mechanisms-of-a-Surveillance-State/5806" target="_blank">Artist Talk: Mechanisms of a Surveillance State </a>Thursday, June 13,&nbsp;3pm to 4pm


	As technology has come to control nearly all aspects of our lives, so too has the internet rapidly grown beyond anything that could have been imagined upon its creation. While the increasing use of blockchain technology might offer decentralized ways of thinking and organizing, authoritarian powers have simultaneously developed ways to effortlessly monitor our daily movements, and the algorithms often know us better than we know ourselves. Through their work, this talk’s participants Benjamin Bratton (Professor at USC, San Diego), Carmen Weisskopf (artist),&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/8290/Trevor-Paglen" target="_blank">Trevor Paglen</a> (artist), and Doreen Mende (curator and theorist) explore notions of technology and surveillance; here they will discuss these topics, and their futures, within the context of the internet.

<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/9254/Sonic-Lecture-The-Church-the-Hall-and-the-Shebeen-The-Song-that-Became-the-Organiser/5854" target="_blank">Sonic Lecture: The Church, the Hall, and the Shebeen – The Song that Became the Organiser </a>Thursday, June 13, 6:30pm to 7:30pm

	For the first sonic lecture to be part of Art Basel Conversations, Keleketla!Library – an interdisciplinary, independent library and media arts project based in Johannesburg – will investigate links between sound, space, and text, using the structure of a church service as a metaphor. Through this setup, they will address questions such as whether the aural can be seen – or heard – as resistance to textural hegemony; if the aesthetics of sound can be defined; or if sound can impact the function of specific spaces.&nbsp;


 
	<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/9256/Artist-Talk-Artists-Influences/5856" target="_blank">Artist Talk: Artists' Influences </a>Friday, June 14,&nbsp;1pm to 2pm


		In the series ’Artists’ Influences’, conceived by this talk’s moderator, Hans Ulrich Obrist, artists are placed in conversation with individuals who have had significant influence on the direction of their practice and artistic output. Here, artist Dora Budor will speak with architecture historian Beatriz Colomina and architect Jacques Herzog about their work, as well as how they have influenced her own.

<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/9209/Art-Market-Talk-Mind-the-Price-Gap-It-is-a-Gender-Thing/5811" target="_blank">Art Market Talk: Mind the (Price) Gap – It is a Gender Thing </a>Friday, June 14, 3pm to 4pm

	It’s 2019 and while women’s voices may be heard more often, and across all platforms, we still have a long way to go in terms of equality – particularly when it comes to pay. In this discussion, moderated by the Financial Times’s art editor, Jan Dalley,&nbsp; influential women including&nbsp;Valeria Napoleone (art collector and philanthropist),&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1309/Susanne-Vielmetter-Los-Angeles-Projects" target="_blank">Susanne Vielmetter</a>&nbsp;(gallerist,&nbsp;Susanne Vielmetter&nbsp;Los Angeles Projects)&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/12054/Candice-Breitz" target="_blank">Candice Breitz</a> (artist) will speak about the recent surge of all-female exhibitions and the ways in which these shows have gone beyond mere visibility: have they impacted the market, for example, or the behavior of collectors? What more can, and should, be done to overcome the gender gap when it comes to price?

 
	<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/9258/Art-History-Talk-Reminiscence-of-a-Journey-The-Legacy-of-Jonas-Mekas/5860" target="_blank">Art History Talk: Reminiscence of a Journey – The Legacy of Jonas Mekas </a><a href="https://www.artbasel.com/events/detail/9258/Art-History-Talk-Reminiscence-of-a-Journey-The-Legacy-of-Jonas-Mekas/5860" target="_blank"></a>Saturday, June 15, 5pm to 6pm


	The final day of Art Basel Conversations will pay tribute to Jonas Mekas, a pioneer of avant-garde cinema. Before the screening of Mekas’s film ’Out-Takes From the Life of a Happy Man’, Michel Auder (photographer and filmer),&nbsp;
	<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/8513/Douglas-Gordon" target="_blank">Douglas Gordon</a> (artist), and Lolita Jablonskienė (curator) will come together for a talk, moderated by Art Basel’s Film sector curator, Maxa Zoller, to reflect on Mekas’s lasting legacy. As companions of the artist, they will speak on his revolutionary influence on post-war culture, as well as his founding of the Anthology Film Archives in New York, his cult magazine Film Culture, and much more.

Discover the full Conversations program at Art Basel in Basel 2019&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/basel/conversations-show" target="_blank">here</a>.Top image: Moderator Elvia Wilk and artists&nbsp;Julieta Aranda,&nbsp;Hannah Weinberger, and Sandra Mujinga at the panel discussion ‘<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4bNawk7oYI" target="_blank">Sexism in the Artworld</a>’&nbsp;during last year's edition of Art Basel in Basel.&nbsp;

Ahead of the Conversations panel ‘Reminiscences of a Journey – The Legacy of Jonas Mekas’, Gordon recounts some of his impressions of the influential Lithuanian filmmaker

Always seated, always dancing: Douglas Gordon on Jonas Mekas

Arthur Jafa, Laure Prouvost, and Hito Steyerl are among the standouts

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