Lecture

A new initiative co-organized with the School of Art, Media, and Technology and the Fine Arts Program Parsons, this lecture series captures the increasingly trans-disciplinary nature of scientific, academic, artistic, and cultural practices and, in particular, focuses on the complex cross-disciplinary settings for arts production in contemporary life.

In this conversation, artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle presents some of his recent works on climate change. In so doing, he raises the question of truth— political truth, scientific truth, and artistic truthfulness. How is an artist, a scientist, a politician to represent a situation truthfully, and what tools are available to him or her? Rather than focus on the visualization of empirical data—the most direct translation of fact into an aesthetic product—Manglano-Ovalle considers language as the shared medium between the three and asks who determines how the world gets represented.

Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle’s lecture follows a talk by scientist Kim Knowlton, Natural Resoures Defense Council, presented on October 5, 2010.

Often working in partnership or employing technical experts across multiple disciplines including engineering, architecture, genomics, and climatology, Manglano-Ovalle produces objects that are often technically complex, formally captivating, and conceptually engaging. Manglano-Ovalle lives and works in Chicago. He has had solo exhibitions at Mass MoCA (2009-10); The Art Institute of Chicago (2010); Krefelder Kunstmuseen, Krefeld, Germany (2005); and Museo Tamayo de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City (2003); among others. His work has also been included in group shows at the Musèe D’Art Contemporain Nimes (2009); Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (2008); Documenta XII (2007); and the Whitney Biennial (2000). He has received the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2009) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship (2001).