KEYNOTE by Ken Lum: The Trouble with Monuments, a walk through memory lane

The Trouble with Monuments: a walk through memory lane.
The more history is contested the more the desire to remember, and other examples where form and content appear as opposites.

In 1990, Ken Lum contributed one of the most known and loved artworks of Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, the public poster installation titled Melly Schum Hates Her Job. Thirty years later, Ken Lum returns as the inaugural speaker of a new monthly KEYNOTES series that creates space for the voices of artists, inviting audiences to spend time with some of the most outstanding, influential and exciting creative thinkers from around the world and in the Netherlands. The series is hosted in Witte de With’s multi-purpose venue MELLY, which takes as its namesake Lum’s famed work. The program will be moderated by Monika Szewczyk, Director of De Appel Art Center, drawing upon her proximate knowledge of Lum’s practice as gained during her time as head of publications at Witte de With, and as a compatriot of the remarkable 1990s and 2000s Vancouver art community.

The event also coincides with the publication Monument Lab: Creative Speculations for Philadelphia (Temple University Press) co-edited by Ken Lum and Paul M. Faber, compiling the activities of the Philadelphia-based public art and history studio Monument Lab.