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The Family of Man in the 21St Century Reassessing an Epochal Exhibition

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The Family of Man in the 21St Century Reassessing an Epochal Exhibition THE FAMILY OF MAN IN THE 21ST CENTURY Reassessing an Epochal Exhibition Liège Clervaux Namur/Bruxelles Trier International Conference THE FAMILY OF MAN 19-20 June 2015 STEICHEN COLLECTIONS Clervaux Castle Clervaux Castle, Clervaux, Luxembourg Luxembourg B.P. 32 L-9701 Clervaux Tel. : + 352 92 96 57 Alfred Eisenstaedt, Time & Life © Getty Images Alfred Eisenstaedt, Time [email protected] Dudelange www.steichencollections.lu Thionville/Metz www.steichencollections.lu THE FAMILY OF MAN Conference Program IN THE 21ST CENTURY FRIDAY 19.06.2015 SATURDAY 20.06.2015 10:00 10:00-10:45 Conference Welcome Kerstin Schmidt (Catholic University Reassessing an Epochal Exhibition of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, Germany) 10:15-12:00 Places of the Human Condition: Aesthetics and Jean Back, Anke Reitz (CNA, Luxembourg) Philosophy of Place in Steichen’s The Family of Man Guided Tour of the Exhibition The Family of Man With more than ten million viewers across the The conference wants to reassess and discuss 10:45-11:30 globe and more than five million copies of its the exhibition’s appeal and message, launched 12:00-14:00 Lunch Break Eric Sandeen (University of Wyoming, catalogue sold, “The Family of Man” is one of against the backdrop of Cold War threat of Laramie, WY, USA) the most successful, influential, and written atomic annihilation. It also wants to indicate 14:00-14:30 The Family of Man at Home about photography exhibitions of all time. It new ways in which the exhibition, as an artis- Bob Krieps (Director General 11:30-11:45 Short Coffee Break introduced the art of photography to the gen- tic response to a historical moment of crisis, of the Ministry of Culture) Welcoming Remarks eral public, one critic noted, “like no other pho- can remain relevant in the context of 21st-cen- 11:45-12:30 tographic event had ever done.” At the same tury challenges. For the first time in Steichen Gerd Hurm (University of Trier, Germany) Introduction to the Conference Miles Orvell (Temple University, time, the meanings and impact of “The Family criticism, the scholars at this interdisciplinary Philadelphia, PA, USA) of Man” remain highly contested among histori- conference will discuss a 1958 essay on “The 14:30-15:15 Et in Arcadia Ego: Death in the Family ans and critics of photography to this day. First Family of Man” by the Frankfurt philosopher Shamoon Zamir (New York University 12:30-14:00 Lunch Break presented in 1955 to a record audience at the Max Horkheimer. Horkheimer’s appreciative as- Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE) One World: The Family of Man as a Global Phenomenon Museum of Modern Art in New York, the trav- sessment of the cultural value of the exhibition 14:00-14:45 elling exhibition is now on permanent display in the post-war world runs forcefully against the 15:15-15:30 Short Coffee Break Ulrike Gehring (University of Trier, Germany) as a UNESCO Memory of the World document grain of the critical dismissals that have come The Family of Man and Post-War Debates at the CNA exhibition site in Clervaux Castle in to dominate accounts of Steichen’s project ever 15:30-16:15 about American Art Clervaux, Luxembourg - the native country of the since the publication of Roland Barthes’s well- Gerd Hurm (University of Trier, Germany) 14:45-15:30 Why Barthes Was Wrong: Reassessing the show’s inventor and curator, the Luxembourg- known review from 1957. The conference will Early Reception of The Family of Man Winfried Fluck (Free University Berlin, American photographer, painter, and exhibition offer reconsiderations of the achievement of Berlin, Germany) designer Edward Steichen. “The Family of Man” and it will try to reassess 16:15-17:00 The Family of Man and Challenges of Visual Recognition the potentially radical role of the exhibition in Ariella Azoulay (Brown University, intercultural communication in the historical Providence, RI, USA) 15:30-15:45 Short Coffee Break The Body Politic contexts of both the mid twentieth and early 15:45-16:30 twenty-first centuries. 17:00-19:00 Coffee Break ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION 19:00-20:30 Gerd Hurm, Miles Orvell, Eric Sandeen (Panel) Emile Eicher (Mayor, Clervaux) Max Horkheimer and The Family of Man: Welcoming Remarks New Historical Perspectives PUBLIC LECTURE 16:30-16:45 Organized by: Werner Sollors (Harvard University, Anke Reitz, Shamoon Zamir Centre national de l’audiovisuel (CNA) Cambridge, MA, USA) Closing Remarks University of Trier Looking at the Photographs Now and New York University Abu Dhabi Remembering a Visit in the 1950s.
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