Course detail
Art After 1989 2
FaVU-2U1989-2Acad. year: 2024/2025
The course introduces selected themes and tendencies in contemporary art in the period 1989 - 2020.Since it is not possible to take a sufficient distance to speak of an "art history", the course does not aim to create a timeless canon, but rather to examine the selected themes and tendencies from the perspective of their current relevance. The content of the course is divided into two semesters, which have an internally identical structure: the selected themes/trends are first introduced in the form of a lecture, followed by a seminar in which the topic is discussed in greater depth on the basis of a common reading of texts or viewing audiovisual documentation of works of art.
Language of instruction
Number of ECTS credits
Mode of study
Guarantor
Entry knowledge
Knowledge of art history of the second half of the 20th century.
Rules for evaluation and completion of the course
Credit is awarded based on attendance and active participation in seminars. The exam is taken by submitting an essay of approximately 1500 words. The essay will be assessed using the criteria of factual and linguistic correctness, ability to reason, and to work with sources and literature.
Teaching takes place in the classrooms of the FFA BUT in the hours determined by the schedule. Attendance is compulsory (2 unexcused absences allowed). Higher number of absences can be compensated by submitting an alternative assignment after agreement with the teacher.
Aims
The aim of the course is to introduce students to the themes, tendencies and approaches that have had a significant place in contemporary art, or in its development after 1989. Knowledge of current artistic practice and themes as they have appeared in major exhibitions and publications reflecting the development of contemporary art should help students to critically articulate their own position and artistic approach.
Students will gain an overview of the ideological background of important tendencies in contemporary art (post-internet, object art). They will be familiar with important personalities and events in the field of contemporary art. They will become familiar with artistic tendencies reflecting the post-internet situation and the growing number of crises (economic crisis, migration crisis, climate crisis, energy crisis) that reveal the problematic nature of modernity. They will be able to use the experience in their own creative practice.
Study aids
Prerequisites and corequisites
Basic literature
Christoph COX – Jenny JASKEY – Suhail MALIK, Realism, Materialism, Art. Berlin: Sternberg press, 2015. (EN)
Lukáš LIKAVČAN a Václav JANOŠČÍK (eds.), Mysl v terénu: filosofický realismus v 21. století. Akademie výtvarných umění v Praze, Vědecko-výzkumné pracoviště – Display, sdružení pro výzkum a kolektivní praxi, 2017. (CS)
Omar KHOLEIF, You are here: art after the internet. Manchester – London: Cornerhouse – SPACE, 2014. (EN)
Rosi BRAIDOTTI – Maria HLAVAJOVA (eds.), Posthuman Glosary, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. (EN)
Václav JANOŠČÍK, Objekt. Praha: Kvalitář, 2015. (CS)
Václav MAGID, „Ozvěny špatného smíchu. Postinternetové umění a kulturní průmysl“, in Sešit pro umění, teorii a příbuzné zóny, 2014, č. 17. dostupné online: https://vvp.avu.cz/sesit/ (CS)
Recommended reading
Jane BENNETT, Vibrant Matter, Duke University Press, 2010. (EN)
Lauren, CORNELL – Ed HALTER – Cory ARCANGEL. Mass effect: art and the internet in the twenty-first century. Cambridge, Massachusetts – London: The MIT Press, 2015. (EN)
T. J. DEMOS, Against the Anthropocene. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2017. (EN)
VAN DER TUIN – DOLPHIJN (eds.), New Materialism: Interviews and Cartographies, Open Humanities Press, 2012. https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/256718 (EN)
Vincent MOSCO, Becoming Digital – Towards a post-internet Society. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited, 2017. (EN)
Zbyněk BALADRÁN – Václav JANOŠČÍK (eds.), Reinventing Horizons. Praha: tranzit.cz, 2016. (EN)
Classification of course in study plans
- Programme VUM_M Master's 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
- Programme DES_M Master's 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
1 year of study, summer semester, elective
1 year of study, summer semester, elective
1 year of study, summer semester, elective - Programme VUM_M Master's 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
Type of course unit
Lecture
Teacher / Lecturer
Syllabus
- Net art and postinternet. From web programming to web usage, from utopia to anxiety, from negation to affirmation. The Net Art Anthology as a starting point for navigating the "terrain".
- Art and Accelerationism. Examples of artistic practice and exhibition projects in which the theme of accelerationism resonated around the mid-2010s, but also examples of critical reactions to the techno-optimism of accelerationism, linked in particular to a growing awareness of environmental crisis.
- The return of the object. Negotiations between object-oriented ontology / speculative realism / new materialism and contemporary art. The ideological core of the aforementioned tendencies in contemporary philosophy in relation to object-based art, which in the middle of the last decade proved to be one of the logical outcomes of the post-internet.
- Art and the Anthropocene 1. Introduction of basic concepts (Anthropocene, Capitalocene, climate change/crisis). Eco art and environmental art in historical perspective. Important artworks and exhibition projects from the 1970s to the present.
- Art and the Anthropocene 2. Introduction of basic concepts - ecofeminism, new materialism, posthumanism - in relation to contemporary art. Examples of important artworks and exhibition projects.
Each of these five topics is followed by a seminar in which a selected text is critically analysed in a guided discussion (texts are provided to students well in advance of the seminar).