We are delighted to announce that Monika Szewczyk is the inaugural guest of the fORUM series, a monthly series of talks, lectures interviews and screenings at Mercer Union, a centre for contemporary art, open to all and with free admission.

'how to hold a conversation'

Conversation is a somewhat fragile thing. It is something that we forge, but also something that is very difficult to grasp, hold on to, control, even as its effects are visceral and lasting. Yet, despite or perhaps because of this fragility, an abstract good called the conversation is increasingly offered for our consumption. How many times have we heard BBC or CNN or CBC imploring: "join the global conversation!" While not wanting to fall into the trap of fetishizing the global conversation or for that matter the local one, it may be interesting to consider how difficult it is to have a good conversation in these hyper-connected and ber-communicative times. Drawing on ongoing research and experience, Monika Szewczyk shares some thoughts on the matter and some slides, proposing tangibility as the crux of the matter. If in the process, a conversation unfolds at Mercer Union

Monika Szewczyk is the Visual Arts Program Curator at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago. Previously, she was Head of Publications at the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, where she coedited more than twenty publications ranging from monographs, through artists books to critical readers. Her curatorial career began at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia and the Belkin Satellite in downtown Vancouver, and developed at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Throughout, she has been teaching at art academies including Emily Carr University in Vancouver, the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, the Bergen National Academy of the Arts and currently at the University of Chicago. Szewczyks writing has appeared in numerous catalogues and in journals such as Afterall, A Prior, Mousse, e-flux journal online, F.R. David and Frieze.