Lesson thirteen: “It’s ‘concern’, not ‘preoccupation’: on doing and the thing that’s done”. Rivet

In 1931, Alfred North Whitehead picked up on the notion of ‘concern’ as it was used by the Quakers, to conceive of a dynamic, provocative, changing relationship between subject and object. Using this reference, Whitehead was able to propose sensitive relationships as the basis for structuring experience, which is only cognitively organised into a concrete form through the use of abstraction. The idea of concern destabilizes the established equivalence between subject/object, knower/known, understanding it as an event where the subject is not stable and the object not permanent, where effects are always caused by types of provocation. Knowledge between different entities is thus not only restricted to human beings.

Es ‘concern’ y no preocupación: sobre el hacer y lo hecho is a group reading of Whitehead’s essay, which will be interceded by three contemporary examples from visual culture and art to shake up, dynamize or call into question our understanding of what it is to do and to be done to, in order to generate dynamic frameworks through which to encourage speaking about artistic thinking.

This workshop is related to Thinking About It (Archive Books, 2014), a recently published book by Rivet with contributions by Janine Armin, Audrey Cottin, Sarah Demeuse & Manuela Moscoso, Brian G. Henning, Ajay Kurian & Larissa Harris, and Jonas Zakaitis, the central reference for which is Whitehead’s text. Manuela Moscoso, co-founder of Rivet, will conduct the workshop. Whitehead’s text “Objects & Subjects” will be distributed before the workshop to facilitate previous reading of it.

To take part in the session, which will run from 11:00 to 13:30, and be sent the selected bibliography, please contact bulegoa@bulegoa.org

At 13:30, at the end of the workshop, Manuela Moscoso will present the book Thinking About It.

Rivet
Rivet focuses on long-term work and growth with artists. It is made up of Manuela Moscoso and Sarah Demeuse. Rivet’s projects may take the form of events, lectures, workshops, exhibitions, publications, phone or Skype conversations, or a combination of the above. They work mainly from New York and São Paulo. They have riveted in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Mockup, Artium), Ghent (Esta Puerta Pide Clavo, Tatjana Pieters Gallery), Beirut (We are QQ, 98weeks), New York (Resonance, Goethe Institut, Resonance and Repetition, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts) and in Stavanger and Los Angeles (The Wilson Exercises, Rogaland Kunstsenter and RedCat). They’ve read or spoken in Mexico, Lima, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro & São Paulo and in New York. They have been running a publishing project since 2010 with Project Projects design studio, and are currently working on a monograph on artist Daniel Steegman Mangrané. They reside at http://rivet-rivet.net