Ben Davis, National Art Critic Artnet News, New York
Cécile B. Evans, Artist, La Plaine Saint Denis
Moderator: Dr. Jeni Fulton, Head of Editorial, Art Basel

Artificial intelligence and blockchain have already begun to change how we make, show, and value art, and led to the creation of entirely new cultural communities. Technology’s impact will only accelerate in the years to come, bringing radically new perspectives on questions surrounding creativity, originality, cultures, and values. This debate explores the pitfalls and upsides of expanding the boundaries of the traditional art world and speculates on how technology might revamp avant-garde artmaking and viewing.

Cécile B. Evans lives and works in La Plaine Saint-Denis. They have previously exhibited at Centre Pompidou, Tate Liverpool, Lafayette Anticipations, Whitechapel Gallery, Haus der Kunst, and Singapore Art Museum, among others. Evans’s films have been screened in festivals such as the New York Film Festival and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Evans’s work is held in public collections including the Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk; and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul.

Ben Davis is the author of 9.5 Theses on Art and Class (Haymarket, 2013), which ARTnews named one of the best books of the decade in 2019, and Art in the After-Culture (Haymarket, 2022), named an art book of the year by The New York Times and the Times Literary Supplement. He has been the national art critic for Artnet News since 2016. In 2019, Nieman Journalism Lab reported that he was the fifth most influential art critic in the United States.

The Art Basel 2024 Conversations program is curated by Kimberly Bradley.