Wet Conceptualism in Cognitive Capitalism Part II
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The symposium Wet Conceptualism in Cognitive Capitalism Part II builds on two initiatives formulated by the artist Warren Neidich that introduced and developed the concept: the exhibition Wet Conceptualism at The Opening Gallery (2022–23) in New York City, and the Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art symposium From Dry to Wet Conceptual Art in Cognitive Capitalism, held in Paris in 2025. This new iteration of the school extends that trajectory, bringing together renowned artists, curators, and writers, and shifting the geographical focus to Brussels.
In cognitive capitalism, where the brain and the mind are the new factories of the 20th and 21st centuries, conceptual art becomes an essential force of resistance. Traditional Dry Conceptualism, which emerged in the late 1960s in response to industrial capitalism, is insufficient for today’s landscape of digitality. The symposium repositions Wet Conceptualism as a framework for addressing the extractive, often despotic relations of digitality and cognitive capitalism, opening conceptual art toward cognitive, social justice, and planetary concerns.
Belgian art history provides a fertile context for this inquiry. Its affinities with humor, absurdity, emotion, performance, materiality, and language make it an ideal conduit. Magritte’s La Clef des songes (1930) disrupts the relationship between words and objects through deliberately incongruous captions. In Broodthaers’s film La Pluie (1969), rain dissolves the text he writes during a performance staged in front of his Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles, connecting the fragility of language to affect and institutional critique. These themes resonate with the works of contemporary international artists, including Mary Kelly, Jef Geys, Patrick Van Caeckenbergh, Andrea Fraser, Lili Dujourie, and Eleanor Antin.
Speakers include: Ruth Anderwald (& Leonhard Grond), Nicolas Bourriaud, Jörg Heiser, Warren Neidich (director), Sarah Matia Pasqualetti, Alexandro Segade (My Barbarian), Dirk Snauwaert, Barbara Vanderlinden, and Pieter Vermeulen.
In collaboration with Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art and Levey Kwok.
The symposium will be accompanied by the exhibition Wet Conceptualism at Levey Kwok in Brussels, until 19 December 2026.
Program of the day:
Part I
11:00 – 11:30: Introductory remarks by Frédéric de Goldschmidt and Warren Neidich
11:30 – 12:00: Sarah Matia Pasqualetti
12:00 – 12:30: Dirk Snauwaert
12:30 – 13:00: Discussion
Part II
14:00 – 14:30: Pieter Vermeulen
14:30 – 15:00: Nicolas Bourriaud
15:00 – 15:30: Ruth Anderwald (& Leonhard Grond)
15:30 – 16:00: Discussion
Part II
16:30 – 17:00: Alexandro Segade (My Barbarian)
17:00 – 17:30: Jörg Heiser
17:30 – 18:00: Barbara Vanderlinden
18:00 – 18:30: Discussion
You can attend the event in parts or for the full day. Admission is free, but registration is mandatory for each part, as capacity is limited.
Image: My Barbarian, Universal Declaration of Infantile Anxiety Situations Reflected in the Creative Impulse (2013).
In cognitive capitalism, where the brain and the mind are the new factories of the 20th and 21st centuries, conceptual art becomes an essential force of resistance. Traditional Dry Conceptualism, which emerged in the late 1960s in response to industrial capitalism, is insufficient for today’s landscape of digitality. The symposium repositions Wet Conceptualism as a framework for addressing the extractive, often despotic relations of digitality and cognitive capitalism, opening conceptual art toward cognitive, social justice, and planetary concerns.
Belgian art history provides a fertile context for this inquiry. Its affinities with humor, absurdity, emotion, performance, materiality, and language make it an ideal conduit. Magritte’s La Clef des songes (1930) disrupts the relationship between words and objects through deliberately incongruous captions. In Broodthaers’s film La Pluie (1969), rain dissolves the text he writes during a performance staged in front of his Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles, connecting the fragility of language to affect and institutional critique. These themes resonate with the works of contemporary international artists, including Mary Kelly, Jef Geys, Patrick Van Caeckenbergh, Andrea Fraser, Lili Dujourie, and Eleanor Antin.
Speakers include: Ruth Anderwald (& Leonhard Grond), Nicolas Bourriaud, Jörg Heiser, Warren Neidich (director), Sarah Matia Pasqualetti, Alexandro Segade (My Barbarian), Dirk Snauwaert, Barbara Vanderlinden, and Pieter Vermeulen.
In collaboration with Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art and Levey Kwok.
The symposium will be accompanied by the exhibition Wet Conceptualism at Levey Kwok in Brussels, until 19 December 2026.
Program of the day:
Part I
11:00 – 11:30: Introductory remarks by Frédéric de Goldschmidt and Warren Neidich
11:30 – 12:00: Sarah Matia Pasqualetti
12:00 – 12:30: Dirk Snauwaert
12:30 – 13:00: Discussion
Part II
14:00 – 14:30: Pieter Vermeulen
14:30 – 15:00: Nicolas Bourriaud
15:00 – 15:30: Ruth Anderwald (& Leonhard Grond)
15:30 – 16:00: Discussion
Part II
16:30 – 17:00: Alexandro Segade (My Barbarian)
17:00 – 17:30: Jörg Heiser
17:30 – 18:00: Barbara Vanderlinden
18:00 – 18:30: Discussion
You can attend the event in parts or for the full day. Admission is free, but registration is mandatory for each part, as capacity is limited.
Image: My Barbarian, Universal Declaration of Infantile Anxiety Situations Reflected in the Creative Impulse (2013).
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Where is it happening?
Quai du Commerce 7, 1000 Brussels, Belgium, Handelskaai 7, 1000 Brussel, België, Brussels, Belgium
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherCloud Seven
