Vít Havránek (art historian and curator, Prague) in conversation with Tanja Traxler (science journalist, author and university lecturer, Vienna).

Ján Mančuška's enduring preoccupation with time applied in different contexts (human life, biology, modernity, East/West, narrative, memory, etc.) serves as the starting point for the discussion. First, the talk will comment on philosophical concepts and the historical development of the physical exploration of space, time, and change, commencing with Newtonian physics and extending to the theory of relativity and thermal time. Furthermore, we will speculate about when, in what medium, with what object, or within the framework of which discourse artistic and scientific considerations of time can connect or influence one another.

Tanja Traxler is an award-winning non-fiction writer based in Vienna. As head of the science department of the Austrian newspaper Der Standard and podcast host, she is engaged in communicating scientific concepts to a broader audience. Being trained as a quantum physicist, she is passionate about cross-disciplinary projects that bring together art and science and has participated in numerous performances, exhibitions, and publications. In 2019, she joined the University of Applied Arts Vienna as a Lecturer in the Departments Art & Science and Cross-Disciplinary Strategies. Her research, writings, and teaching include philosophy of physics, concepts of space and time, feminist science studies, and art & science in society.

Vít Havránek is an art historian and curator specializing in post-war, neo-avant-garde art, contemporary art, and critical studies. Since 2019, he has been Pro-Rector for International and Institutional Cooperation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. From 2002 to 2019 he was director of tranzit.cz, part of a network of organizations active in the Central and Eastern European countries. He has lectured at universities in Europe and the United States. His articles have been published in books and catalogues published by JRP Ringier, Centre Pompidou, MoMA, MIT Press and Sternberg Press, a.o.  He curated and co-curated numerous exhibitions, including Ján Mančuška: First Retrospective (City Gallery Prague, Muzeum Sztuki Lodz and MG v Brně, Brno, 2015), and is the editor of the monograph Ján Mančuška: First Inventory (Tranzit, Vol. 11, 2015).