The Halifax Conference

On the famous summit of postwar art that devolved into tragicomedy

This book presents the transcript of a conference held at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design on October 5-6, 1970, organized by Seth Siegelaub. Attendees at the event included Carl Andre, Joseph Beuys, Ronald Bladen, Daniel Buren, John Chamberlain, Jan Dibbets, Al Held, Robert Irwin, Mario Merz, Robert Morris, Robert Murray, The N.E. Thing Company (Iain and Ingrid Baxter), Richard Serra, Richard Smith, Robert Smithson, Michael Snow and Lawrence Weiner. The Halifax Conference was conceived as a means of bringing about a meeting of recognized artists representing diverse kinds of art from different parts of the world, in as general a situation as possible. Infamously, the conference was held in the college's boardroom, while students and other interested parties watched the proceedings on a video monitor in a separate space. The result was a conversation that devolved--technologically and ideologically--into quasi-tragicomic farce.