Zoe Pilger talk at Hauser & Wirth

‘The wall is also inside each one of us… The choice is between self-respect and self-chaos.’ Ideas of women, art and politics are to be considered by novelist and writer Zoe Pilger in light of that observation, made by the late lamented cultural critic John Berger nearly half a century ago. ‘The present period of history is one of the wall… The choice is between self-respect and self-chaos,’ he continued. True then, true now.

Pilger – writer, art thinker, journalist, feminist and winner of Somerset Maugham and Betty Trask awards for her first novel, 2014’s Eat My Heart Out – heads a new series of discussions, In Session. Hosted by contemporary art gallerists and publishers Hauser & Wirth at its Savile Row base, In Session talks are intended to take lecturing away from the familiar formula. Pilger will make use of her photographs from two years of recent worldwide travelling, and encompass the work of modern artists and reflections on contemporary culture to address present concerns over social injustice in the light of Berger’s timelessly astute critical gaze.