13441

SoSe 22: Post-Socialist Art (1960-Present)

Eric de Bruyn

Kommentar

This seminar pursues two correlated aims. In the first place, we will investigate advanced artistic practices in the Eastern Bloc starting in the 1960s, leading up to the events of 1989 and beyond. Secondly, as an advanced BA course (Vertiefungsmodul), this seminar will instruct students how to develop a research proposal for their Bachelor’s thesis. The seminar will consist of general readings covering the rise of conceptualist, performance and new media art, focusing on artists such a Marina Abramovic, Braco Dimitrijevíc, Sanja Ivekovic, Milan Knízák, Július Koller, Dóra Maurer as well as artist groups such as OHO, Collective Actions Group, IRWIN, and Nove Tendencije. We may also consider artists, such as Deimantas Narkevicius or the Chto Delat group who have emerged since the 1990s. We will reflect on the specificity of these diverse artistic practices in relation to the Cold War system of „actually existing socialism,“ including cultural exchanges with Western Europe, as well as discussing the cultural effects of the restructuring of the socio-economic order in Central Europe during the post-1989 era. To this purpose, we will read cultural histories of the (post-)Soviet era by, for instance, Svetlana Boym and Susan Buck-Morss, as well as the work of art historians such as Boris Groys, Klara Kemp-Welch and Piotr Piotrowski. Next to the joint reading assignments and presentations, each student will be required to investigate an artist (group) and present a possible proposal for a BA paper, which will be discussed by means of peer review. The course will be (mainly) conducted in English, however papers and presentations may also be submitted in German. Schließen