What, How & For Whom / WHW
Art always has its consequences
16.07.2012 – 28.07.2012
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Art Always Has its Consequences, exhibition view, former building of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, 2010. In the background: Mladen Stilinović, Tomorrow, 1975 (2006), Piet Mondrian, Composition in Red, Blue and Yellow, 1983Portrait photo: Arzu YayintasMedium/Media: curatorial practice
Location: Festung Hohennsalzburg
Languages: English, Croatian
Requirements: The course is open for artists, curators and persons interested in curating.
Maximum number of participants: 20
This course takes its title from the conceptual text Footwriting (1984) by Croatian artist Mladen Stilinović, and refers to the relationship of art with reality, but also to the importance of internal procedures through which art is limited in its own field. The course reflects on contemporary artistic practice as well as on the notion of curating, from the perspective of various ideas for intervention in existing social, institutional and ideological landscapes. Throughout the course, participants will be invited to discuss interrelated questions such as: What is the responsibility of art to its own procedures and boundaries, in relation to the self-positioning of an artist and cultural worker, both in art and in the wider socio-political context? How can artistic practice intervene in local contexts? What are the limits and possibilities of such interventions? What can an exhibition offer to activist artistic practice? What role can an art institution have in contemporary society? Are we capable of rethinking an exhibition as an open and collective resource?
We will address both historical and contemporary artistic positions, and consider their relationship to the process of creating or disputing collective identities and cultural homogenisation.
The course will consist of lectures and seminars in English. We will visit and discuss exhibitions in Salzburg and surrounding area, and discuss other recent curatorial projects that are rethinking the social involvementof art. A reading list will be provided at the beginning of the course, and each participant should make a proposal for a curated project, to be discussed by the whole group.