EMANUEL LICHA / EXHIBITION AND CONFERENCE / HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW?

EMANUEL LICHA
09.09 — 22.10 / 2011

Opening reception : Friday, September 9, 2011

17h

How do we know what we know? The studio journalist addresses the special envoy who was unable to access the conflict area mentioned in the report he produced from amateur images. Only a few years ago, we could still hear that it was the media that decided when a conflict began, as soon as journalists went there. The multiplication of images shot by the protagonists themselves, coupled with their almost instantaneous diffusion, modifies this equation. Do we still need the journalists?

Images are tools and weapons for the conduct of wars. This is not new in itself, but what is probably more new is the multiplication of their sources. This is therefore a good time to question “classical” journalistic work, which is based in particular on the rarely contested testimony of war correspondents. All the equipment surrounding this media coverage already seems a little outdated and may soon be obsolete: special envoys, film crews, satellite trucks, war hotels, “flash info” and other “breaking news”, the dramatic jingle of the newscast… What is a “good” conflict image? Where are they made and how will they be built tomorrow? How to criticize it with other images? Media production and dissemination create devices in which we are caught, and to which we contribute more or less voluntarily. It is the details – sometimes seemingly benign – of these devices that we can try to describe, so that we can think about them and perhaps get away from them.
E.L.

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Meeting with the public on Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 2pm.

Jacko Restikian, artist and doctoral student in arts studies and practices at UQÀM.

Alexandre Shields, journalist at Le Devoir.

Moderator: Philippe Langlois, professor of philosophy at the Cégep de Sherbrooke.

Round table of 14h – 15h followed by questions / comments from the public

A round table activity inspired by Emanuel Licha’s How Do We Know What We Know? Licha’s installation questions our relationship to the media image and raises the question of the construction of images, particularly conflict images.

For the occasion, we bring together Jacko Restikian, doctoral student in arts studies and practices at UQÀM, who will discuss the artist’s position through his images and our relationship to his installation device, and Alexandre Shields, journalist for LeDevoir, who will discuss the construction of information from the perspective of his profession.

Free entrance

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By considering exhibitions as platforms allowing the convergence of different disciplinary issues, the programming committee determines a theme based on the work presented in the room, and brings together various stakeholders to explore the targeted issue from various disciplinary angles. Sporobole thus encourages contact with different fields of knowledge and allows the artists exposed to it to situate their work within transdisciplinary reflections.

Sporobole thanks the City of Sherbrooke for its support.

 

Vidéo : Patric Lacasse

Photos : Jocelyn Riendeau