Emmanuel Lambion, curator and producer of over 120 exhibitions and projects, based in Brussels, will present different virtual sphere projects as a place for joint meetings, idea exchange and discussions in the lecture “Virtual Public Spheres” on December 21 at 1 p.m. in Klaipeda Cultural Communication Center.
The traditional urban conception of public space naturally brings us back to the square as a local idea of exchanges and transactions – commercial, political and intellectual – which, in turn, leads to ancient prototypes of the agora in Greece and the forum in Rome.
It is curious that this terminology, previously relevant to archaeologists or historians, has now returned to everyday speech for naming spaces for discussion and exchange on the Internet. This significant change in consumerism reveals an important social, economic, psychological and sociological evolution, which inevitably leads to a revision of the very nature of the public sphere concept.
The projects presented in the lecture are or have been related to websites, which, sometimes structuring/expanding their very concept, not only served as communication platforms, but were also used to build relationships with potential audiences and create communities. The a priori utopian aspect of these projects, which basically sought to arouse critical imagination, sometimes led to concrete changes. The lecture will be held in English.
About Emmanuel Lambion
During his 24 years of curatorial activity, Emmanuel Lambion has prepared and curated approximately 124 exhibitions and projects dedicated to the public sphere.
Lambion is the founder and artistic director of Bn Projects-Maison Grégoire, the main curatorial base in Brussels, and the author of project ideas for the public sphere. A couple of them: B-1010/be-DIX_TIEN – a postcard program born of a non-existent postal code, which E. Lambion turned into the code of the imaginary 20th district of Brussels; Park58 in Brussels, PIETRO Beaumont (France), public order conceived and implemented together with Christophe Terlinden and Iwan Strauven under the program les Nouveaux Commanditaires.
Basically, his artistic practice revolves around the concept of eliminating exclusion, questioning norms and codes that he creatively reactivates.
E. Lambion is a member of the International Association of Contemporary Art Curators of ICT (www.iktsite.org); ABCA/BVCC – President of AICA Belgium (http://www.aica-be.org). Former exhibition manager of the cultural complex “Le Botanique” in Brussels, deputy director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts; until September 2021, he headed the Centre de la Gravure et de l’Image imprimée, the French-speaking Belgian museum in La Luvière, dedicated to graphics and print.
