Estonian Academy of Arts
Subject 'Problems of the 20th and 21st Century Art 1'Name in Estonian: 20. ja 21. sajandi kunsti probleeme 1
Additional InformationCourse is taking place: 06.09 - 26.11.2018, Thursdays 16.00 - 17.30, A202
Lecturers: Airi Triisberg, Rael Artel NB! This course is joint course for MA students studying both on Estonian and English curriculums! General descriptionAiri Triisberg:
06.09. Lecture: Socially engaged art practices How are artists interacting with the society around them? How are socio-political issues addressed by artists? What is the transformative potential of art? This lecture will bring examples of strategies that artists are using when aiming to achieve social change. Examples presented during the lecture originate from the realms of interventionist, community-based, participatory and research-based art. These examples will be contextualised and discussed from the perspective of intervention points theory. 13.09. Seminar: Ethical problems in the contexts socially engaged art practices. The seminar will discuss ethical issues that emerge in the context of participatory and community-oriented art practices. How are artists negotiating between the needs and interests of different project participants? How are privilege and power problematised when working with marginalised social groups? Who has agency and how is it negotiated? Whose voice is heard, whose representations are visible? What are the relations of individual and collective authorship? Who benefits from collaborative art projects and how? Can art be harmful: when and how? Recommended reading: Claire Bishop “The Social Turn – Collaboration and Its Discontents” (2006) 20.09. Lecture: Precarious labour and neoliberalism. The lecture will analyse the notion of precarious labour from the perspective of economy, social movements and art. What is precarious labour? What is the role of precarious labour in the context of neoliberal global economy and how is precarious labour changing conventional work relations? How has precarious labour been addressed from the viewpoint of social movements and their attempts to mobilise a new political subjectivity around the issue of precarity in early 2000s? How are artists affected by modalities of precarious labour and how are they organising against it? How is the notion of precarious labour addressed in artistic practices? 27.09. Seminar: Counteracting precarious labour and neoliberalism. The seminar asks about the possibilities of reframing economy and cultivating ourselves as subjects of non-capitalist development. The students are asked to examine their own life realities with the help of exercises developed by theorists J.K. Gibson-Graham. Furthermore, some possibilities of countering precarity will be discussed, for example forming care collectives, creating community economies and commons. Recommended reading: Art Workers – Material Conditions and Labour Struggles in Contemporary Art (2015), ed. Minna Henriksson, Airi Triisberg, Erik Krikortz. 04.10. Seminar: Undoing Gender. The seminar is based on discussing excerpts from Paul B. Preciado’s book “Testo Junkie” (2008). The book chronicles Preciado’s experience of taking testosterone called Testogel as a political and performative act. In the book Preciado processes the changes in his body due to Testosterone. Preciado’s writes of his use of Testosterone as a way of undoing gender inscribed on the body by the capitalistic commodification and mobilization of sexuality and reproduction. Testo Junkie is a political history of reproductive technologies including: oral contraceptive pills, sildenafil and performance drugs, fluoxetine, and the history of clinical testosterone and estrogenusage, among other things. Preciado coins the term Pharmacopornographic era in the book, a term based on the idea that the pharmaceutical industry, pornography industry, and late Capitalism are integrated in their responsibility to the cycles of reproductive and social control through the regulation of bodies. Compulsory reading: Paul B. Preciado “Testo Junkie” (2008). Text excerpts will be provided. 11.10. Lecture: Queer, Trans and Crip Perspectives on Gender. The lecture presents a number of art works addressing issues around sexuality and gender from a non-binary and non normative perspective. These examples foreground queer, trans and crip feminist perspectives on sex, gender and society. Rael Artel (seminar texts and tasks will be announces on 18.10): 18.10 Post-colonialism The lecture will give a brief overview of the ‘post-colonialism’ term, its development in diverse contexts, closely related vocabulary and key authors and texts. The usage of the term ‘post-colonialism’ in exhibition histories and reception of artworks is discussed. The lecture is illustrated with wide range of artistic positions and artworks 01.11 seminar 08.11 Former East, Former West The lecture will open the background and main issues of the discussion of Former East / Former West in contemporary art in post-Berlin Wall situation. The main exhibitions and publications dealing with Former East / Former West concept will be presented, wide range of artistic positions and artworks discussed. 15.11 seminar 22.11 Nationalism The lecture will give a brief overview on the term on ‘nationalism’, its meaning in different contexts, its key concepts and main authors. The development of the idea of national art and culture, its perception in contemporary art. The exhibitions and artworks related to national identity and critique of nationalism will be presented. 29.11 seminar Assessment methods and criteriaThis is a pass/fail course.
In order to pass the course, students must participate in lectures and in seminars, and take especially active part of seminars following assignments given. One can miss on only seminar and one lecture in order to pass this course. Is taught in following curricula2015: MKÕ* * Optional subject
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