New

Marcel Broodthaers and America
A two-day conference organized on the occasion of the artist’s centenary

October 9–10, 2024

 

Princeton University
East Pyne Hall
Chancellor Way @ 122 Nassau Street
Princeton, NJ 08542
FREE and open to the public

I’m pleased to have organized Marcel Broodthaers and America, a two-day conference hosted by Princeton University in collaboration with Ghent University, Belgium. The conference has been organized in honor of Broodthaers’ centenary. In addition to scholarship from young scholars throughout North America and Europe, it will feature newly discovered publications and artworks related to the subject of Marcel Broodthaers and America that have never been presented before in the United States.
Indeed, for all the banal and erudite references used by Broodthaers—from mussel shells and industrial signage to Aesop and Mallarmé—America is the one oft-cited reference in his writing and artworks that he never experienced firsthand. This lack of empirical knowledge lends an element of fantasy to Broodthaers’ idea of America, and these speculations are the likely reason why it remains one of the least examined aspects of his work. Whatever the case may be, Broodthaers must have based his idea of America on something. This conference promises to critically examine, both explicitly and obliquely, new theories on what that something might be. The presentation schedule will be as follows:

DAY 1: Wednesday, October 9
4:30PM
CAROLIN MEISTER, “Marcel Broodthaers: Painting, Entertainment, and an Unknown Film”
East Pyne rm 010

6:00PM
Reception

DAY 2: Thursday, October 10
11:00AM
HANNAH BRUCKMÜLLER, “Marcel Broodthaers’ Father Figures”
SIMON WU, Respondent

12:00PM
Lunch

1:00PM
MARCEL BROODTHAERS AND AMERICA: A ROUNDTABLE
SAM SHAPIRO, “An Obedient Material: Marcel Broodthaers and American Art Museums in the 1970s”
MARGAUX VAN UYTVANCK, “Marcel Broodthaers and Jean Toche: Notes on a Transatlantic Friendship”
STEFAAN VERVOORT, “Marcel Broodthaers, Journalist”
JOE SCANLAN, Moderator
East Pyne rm 010

3:30PM
TREVOR STARK, “The Object of a Prohibition: Marcel Broodthaers at the Poem’s End”
East Pyne rm 010

4:30PM
RAF WOLLAERT, “Voyage Extraordinaire: Marcel Broodthaers in New York”
East Pyne rm 010

5:30PM
Reception

All lectures are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis, but do know that seating is limited. Train schedules to Princeton from New York Penn Station or Trenton Transit Center (Philadelphia) can be found on the New Jersey Transit website. A limited number of graduate and undergraduate students interested in attending the conference can have their roundtrip train travel expenses reimbursed with proof of current enrollment. If you are unable to attend the conference, you can sign onto an email list to receive eventual zoom links.
Marcel Broodthaers and America has been organized in collaboration with Kunst in België sinds 1945, a multidisciplinary research group at Ghent University. It is made possible with the generous support of Princeton University and the Humanities Council; the Department of Art & Archaeology; the University Committee for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences; and the Visual Arts Program, Lewis Center for the Arts.

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HANNAH BRUCKMÜLLER is an Assistant Professor of Art History at the New Design University, St. Pölten, Austria. CAROLIN MEISTER is Chair of Art History at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe, where she served as Vice Rector from 2017 to 2023. JOE SCANLAN is a Professor in the Visual Arts Program at Princeton University and Founding Director of the Broodthaers Society of America. SAM SHAPIRO is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. TREVOR STARK is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Calgary. MARGAUX VAN UYTVANCK is a Postdoctoral Researcher at New York University and a Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation. STEFAAN VERVOORT is a Postdoctoral Researcher and founding member of the research group KB45 (Art in Belgium Since 1945) in the Department of Art History, Musicology and Theatre Studies, Ghent University. RAF WOLLAERT is a PhD candidate at the University of Antwerp and a 2024-25 Fulbright Fellow. SIMON WU is a writer and PhD candidate at Yale University.