Publication: Narrative & Knowledge
Manifold Modulations of History in Contemporary Art

Edited by Melanie Franke
Conversations with Micol Assael, Anri Sala, Kader Attia, Little Warsaw

The way the artists represented in this volume frame historical objects and events through their works challenges the viewer to pose questions about alternative views of history. Across a broad range of perspectives, a multifaceted picture emerges, acting as an invitation to reconsider and rethink complex historical narratives in art. Art is understood as an opportunity to develop a transgressive understanding that mediates between the disciplines to address the challenges of the present time. For the way we perceive the past governs how we will behave in the future — and how we will want to, be able to, or have to change.

Narrative & Knowledge
Manifold Modulations of History in Contemporary Art

Edited by Melanie Franke
Conversations with Micol Assael, Anri Sala, Kader Attia, Little Warsaw

Open binding, 23 x 16,8 cm, 192 pages,
85 ills. in color, 89 ills. in b&w

VFMK Verlag für moderne Kunst
Wien, September 2024

ISBN: 978-3-99153-104-3

Artist Talk with Uriel Orlow: The Memory of Trees

Artistic-historiographic fabulations and mythmaking

January 18, 2023, 9:45 CET

Uriel Orlow, The Memory of Trees, black and white photograph, 150cm x 120cm, 2016 © Uriel Orlow.

Event info
Zoom Link: https://uni-potsdam.zoom.us/j/68354292780
Meeting-ID: 683 5429 2780
Passcode: 94419276
Meeting point on site with the research team: University of Potsdam, Campus II – Golm, UP_2.24.2.08
Language: German

What can we learn from plants and their healing powers?
Artist Uriel Orlow talks about his explorations and intimate encounters with plants. He presents drawings, photographs, narratives, and series of works that invoke plant creatures, such as trees, as archaic and mythical witnesses and co-authors of history that store memories of past events. According to Orlow, they can remind us how the past lives on in the present. This artist talk will be followed by a Q & A with Prof. Dr. Melanie Franke, Verena Kittel, Ulrike Gerhardt and students.

Uriel Orlow lives and works between Lisbon, London and Zurich. In his research-based and interdisciplinary art he deals with the visibility of colonialism, spatial manifestations of memory and the political agency of plants. He studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London, among other institutions, and received his PhD in 2002. He received the C. F. Meyer Prize (2020), the Sharjah Biennial Prize (2017), the art award of the City of Zurich (2015), and three Swiss Art Awards from Art Basel (2008, 2009, 2012).