Global Pop symposium

This two-day symposium explores Pop beyond the mainstream. Organised in collaboration with the Royal College of Art, London, this event engages with new research in different fields and geographies to rethink orthodoxies as well as develop new interpretations of ‘Pop’.

Of particular importance is the often critical nature of these global engagements with Pop. Reacting to the increasing dominance of the American post-war economy and media around the world, Pop art sometimes took the form of a destabilizing reversal of the normative messages associated with American culture and consumerism. This dialectic was effectively and memorably put to use by feminists, political groups and independence movements in order to simultaneously critique the hegemony of the West while drawing on its aesthetic mass appeal and graphic clarity.

To date, the history of Pop art has tended to affirm the hegemonic position of New York. In an attempt to challenge the simple linear trajectory of influence that has dominated most accounts, this symposium will explore Pop beyond the mainstream and open the definition of Pop to critical re-thinking.

• Download the symposium programme [PDF, 711 KB]

Symposium recordings

Watch video recordings from the two-day Global Pop symposium

• Global Pop symposium – Day 1
• Global Pop symposium – Day 2

Event programme

Thursday 14 March 2013
10.15 – 17.40 Level 1 Starr Auditorium

10:15 – 10:30 Welcome and introduction by Nicholas Serota
10:30 – 10:50 Monia Abdallah on Spiritual pop in the Middle East 
10:50 – 11:10 Michael Asbury – Raymundo Colares: Hybridity is a Myth 
11:10 – 11:30 Fernanda Lopes Torres – Antonio Dias: “popist Underdevelopment”
11:30 – 11:50 Giulia Lamoni – Babies, Boxes, Militaries and Coca-cola: Brazilian female artists and “Pop”
11:50 – 12:10 Elize Mazadiego – Pop, Dematerialized: Argentina’s critical engagement in Pop Art 
12:10 – 12:50 Q&A chaired by Kalliopi Minioudaki
12:50 – 13:45 Lunch break 
13:50 – 14:10 Katarzyna Cytlak – Monumental Forks and Cosmic Cities: Pop Architecture in the Soviet Bloc 
14:10 – 14:30 Marko Ilic – Made in Yugoslavia: Negotiations of Socialist-Consumerism in the ‘New Art Practice’
14:30 – 14:50 Dávid Fehér – “Where is the Light?” Transformations of Pop Art in Hungary
14:50 – 15:10   Andrea Euringer-Bátorová Altar/Objects, Labyrinth/Environment: In the middle of the artwork - artwork as an interactive space 
15:10 – 15:40 Q&A chaired by David Crowley
15:40 – 16:10 Tea break
16 10 – 16 :30 Liam Considine on Atelier populaire, Paris 
16:30 – 16:50 Syrago Tsiara on Greek pop art 
16:50 – 17:10 Rachel Jans on René Block’s gallery 
17:10 – 17:40 Q&A chaired by Walter Grasskamp
17:40 End

Friday 15 March 2013 
10.30-17.45 Level 1 Starr Auditorium

(Invited speakers)

10.30 Welcome and intro by Marko Daniel and Jessica Morgan 
10.40 Walter Grasskamp-Keynote 
11.25 Kalliopi Minioudaki on Pop and Gender 
11.55 David Crowley on Cinema as the expression of Pop in Eastern Europe
12.25 Q&A chaired by Jessica Morgan 
13.00 Lunch break 
14.00 Anna Kolos on Pop in Eastern Europe 
14.30 Teresa Millet on Pop in Spain
15.00 Reiko Tomii to address Pop in Japan
15.30 Tea break 
16.00 Mercedes Trelles-Hernandez on Latin American Pop 
16.30 Zheng Shengtian on Pop in China 
17.00 Q&A chaired by Marko Daniel 
17.45 End