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Dé-coll/age: Wolf Vostell and the Archaeology of Violence

A section of street posters have been peeled away, revealing the many layers underneath.
Wolf Vostell, German, Fall and Rise and Fall, 1954. Décollage, assembled; paper, plexiglass, and posters. Collection Cremer, LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, Münster. © The Wolf Vostell Estate. Photo: LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster/Hanna Neander.

Lecture

In-Person
Harvard Art Museums, Menschel Hall, Lower Level
Enter at Broadway for evening programs

This event does not require registration; see further details below.

In this lecture, Kyle Stephan, curator of the exhibition Wolf Vostell: Dé-coll/age Is Your Life, will examine Vostell’s aesthetic philosophy of dé-coll/age, which takes an archaeological approach to mass media and urban environments. The practice restored an ethical purpose to art in the postwar years and innovated confrontational forms to challenge the psychological, social, and political mechanisms that enable collective complicity with mass violence and genocide. In particular, Stephan will explore how Vostell adopted this approach to generate consciousness of how past violence persists in the present and to provoke spectators into becoming critical actors in their lives.

This lecture is offered in conjunction with the exhibition Wolf Vostell: Dé-coll/age Is Your Life (January 20–May 5, 2024).

Speaker:
Kyle Stephan, 2021–23 Hakuta Family Nam June Paik Curatorial Fellow, Division of Modern and Contemporary Art, Harvard Art Museums, and exhibition curator

After the lecture, guests are invited to visit the exhibition on Level 3 until 8pm.

Free admission, but seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. The lecture will take place in Menschel Hall, Lower Level. Doors will open for seating at 5:30pm from the Broadway entrance.

Limited complimentary parking is available in the Broadway Garage, 7 Felton Street, Cambridge.

The Harvard Art Museums are now offering free admission every day, Tuesday through Sunday. Please see the museum visit page to learn about our general policies for visiting the museums.

This lecture will be recorded and made available for online viewing; check back shortly after the event for the link to view.

Support for Wolf Vostell: Dé-coll/age Is Your Life is provided by the Ernst A. Teves Memorial Fund and the Care of the Busch-Reisinger Museum Collection Endowment. Related programming is supported by the M. Victor Leventritt Lecture Series Endowment Fund. In addition, modern and contemporary art programs at the Harvard Art Museums are made possible in part by generous support from the Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art.

The Harvard Art Museums are committed to accessibility for all visitors. For anyone requiring accessibility accommodations for our programs, please contact us at am_register@harvard.edu at least 48 hours in advance.