Course detail

Subversive Art, Collusive Art

FaVU-2SACA-LAcad. year: 2020/2021

The course will look into different art movements and artists in art after 1945 who took positions at different sides of the barricade. On the one hand, there are situacionists, Fluxus, actionists, arte povera, feminism, landart, or conceptual art - all of them are movements which are defined on the basis of subverting the commodity and art market logic, on the other hand there are the "opportunitstic" trends such as Pop Art, photorealism, post-modern painting of the 80s, YBAs of the 90s, the bienalle phenomenon, and the overal professionalization of the art scene in the last thirty years. During the course, we will ask questions about the difference of the missions of visual art vs. film or literature, what makes a "real" artist, what role does an artwork play in contemporary society as a commodity, etc. The course will try to find some answers by looking at some solutions by artists who were active in the aforementioned art movements.

Language of instruction

English

Number of ECTS credits

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

Mgr. et MgA. Barbora Lungová

Department

Department of Art History and Theory (KTDU)

Offered to foreign students

The home faculty only

Learning outcomes of the course unit

Tests from the reading assignments, discussion in the seminar.

Prerequisites

Students either have to
a] have had a credit from English-Upper Intermediate Lower course held at FaVU or
b] have the FCE, CAE, or TOEFL certificate or
c] have a short interview with the course teacher Barbora LUngová who will assess whether the student is fluent enough in English to be able to actively participate on the course.

Co-requisites

Not applicable.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

Seminar form: each class, students will write a test (or reflection) of the assigned reading (45 mins) and will discuss the text in group with the teacher (45 mins).

Assesment methods and criteria linked to learning outcomes

Students will be assessed on continuous basis (tests from the reading). In order to be elligible for assessments, students must write all assigned tests.

Course curriculum

1. Introduction: Subversion and Collusion in Art - general view
2. Howard S. BEcker: Artworlds: integrated professionals, mavericks, naive artists
3. Boris Groys: Art Power: Hitler's vision of eternal art
4. Gregory Sholette: Dark Matter: of whom consists the mass of invisible artists?
5. Dark Matter: local projects, memory of the archives
6. Shollette: Art as Social Action
7. Joanna Warsza: I Can't Work Like This: refusing the artworld
8. Lee Lozano: Not Working. an artist quitting the art world - a project.
9 .Bas Jan Ader: an artist quitting the art world - death as a project or as a an unlucky circumstance?
10. Hito Steyerl: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War

Work placements

Not applicable.

Aims

Students will enhance their critical and analytical ability in dealing with the issues of the role of art in contemporary society, its relationshio to the institutions, the art market, etc. They will improve both their written and oral argumentative skills - IN ENGLISH, as the whole course is held in English.

Specification of controlled education, way of implementation and compensation for absences

Students are allowed two absences per semester.

Recommended optional programme components

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Alexander Dumbadze. Bas Jan Ader: Death is Elsewhere. (EN)
Groys, Boris. Art Power. (EN)
Howard S. Becker: Artworlds (EN)
Lozano, Lee. Not Working. (EN)
Sholette, Gregory. Art as Social Action. (EN)
Sholette, Gregory. Dark Matter. (EN)
Sholette Gregory. Delirium and Resistance. (EN)
Steyerl, Hito. Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War (EN)
Warsza, Joanna. I Can't Work Like This. (EN)

Type of course unit

Lecture

13 hod., optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

Mgr. et MgA. Barbora Lungová

Seminar

13 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

Mgr. et MgA. Barbora Lungová