The focal point of the symposium will be a 2-day event attended by local and international art tutors, professors and students, supplemented by networking, study visits, keynote lectures, discussion panels and personal exchange opportunities.

We plan to welcome Universities, but also Museums and Art schools, to share about the theory and the experience of transmission all over the Human History and today. Examples of talks that will take place are:

• The Links Between Art, Esthetics And The Anthropologist Notion Of The Given, described in Marcel Mauss’ famous book “The Gift” in 1924. A talk by Jacinto Lageira (Portugal). Mauss’ essay on The Gift is the origin for anthropological studies of reciprocity. His analysis of the Potlatch has inspired Georges Bataille (The Accursed Share), then the Situationists (the name of the first situationist journal was Potlatch). This term has been used by many interested in gift economies and Open Source software.
• The Question Of The Signature In Classical African Arts. Today, curators of (traditional) African art are finally addressing the question of the signature of past Masters. Musée du Quai Branly in Paris recently promised to give back the art works stolen from African countries, after turmoil created by French President Macron. It is one of its main political and curatorial issues in today’s art world. This theme meets simultaneously the history of art studios on the African continent, in parallel with its traditional understanding born in the European Renaissance, but also the question of the restitution of art works.
• The Studio of A Contemporary Artist Today – The Case Study of Anish Kapoor – Talk given by Alnoor Mitha. With the growing of monumental installations or sculptures and the development of Art Market, the artists today all over the world come back to employ a large number of apprentices for their studios, which appear like new industries.
• The Artist as a Teacher, by Pascale Marthine Tayou, Cameroon. Pascale Marthine Tayou, one of the seven Masters of KAB18, will tell us his experience as a teacher at Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris and his recent exhibition project with his students at the Dakar Biennale, in May 2018.

Call for papers & Registration of Participants

National and International Universities with a standing reputation in arts and cultural studies will be called for papers and asked to delegate participants and speakers to the Symposium. The Symposium, titled ‘Transmission’ will take place in the first week after the KAB18 opening. The call for papers will be out in March 2018. International Universities that want to attend the symposium can register online. There will be attendance fee, inclusive of flights, accommodation and meals paid by either the universities themselves or through a sponsored grant.