This course will develop a conversation about what constitutes the image of the contemporary
artist. Written exercises will contribute to the development of the problem of how one produces
oneself as an artist. The history of dematerialization in art practice from the 1960’s, and the
discussion of globalization that emerged in the 1980’s will be brought to bear. How is the role and
identity of the artist constructed in relation to various histories and to the prevailing movements of
the moment such as institutional critique and relational aesthetics. This course is open to
students of all disciplines who are interested in how the artist is constructed, not only as role or
identity, but as a production site.
Friday September 19th
10 am - 5pm, WW # 4390
Course introduction, discussion of readings, discussion of
assignments
Friday September 19th
10 am - 5pm, WW # 4390
10am – 1pm:
Introduction of students, introduce your interest in this participatory
project.
2pm – 5pm: Introduction
and discussion of Ricardo Basbaum’s ongpoing project NBP
(New Bases for Personality)
which involves ideas of participation and
transformation. One assignment will be the participation in this artistic
experience. “You just have to accept to use, for a certain period of time, the object shown above, for performing experiences. It can be used in many different ways and you can do whatever you want with it: use it as you like, the way you think is best. The object carries some concepts and I would like you to use them as well. Although invisible, they are manipulated through the use of the object. The experiences you carry out make visible networking and mediation structures, indicating the production of all kinds of relations and sensorial data: the sets of lines and diagrams, brought forward by its use, are more important than the object itself. You will document the experiences through text, photography, video, sound, object, etc, the way you think is most adequate.” R.B.
Friday October 3rd
10 am - 5pm with break at WW # 4390
topics:
1) awareness of the presence of affective layers; the poetics of art-life and its strategies of contact with humans, non-humans and things;
affective layers and lines are not visible in the traditional sense, as any other force that affects and effects. is it possible to recognize matters (things, human/non-human subjects and objects) outside of your practice which constantly demand encounters (bonds, collisions, attractions, repulsions, groupings, etc) with matters (things, human/non-human subjects and objects) inside of it? how could you refer to, access and share that process?
2) artwork production and event construction as a relational set: the performative as methodology
set things in motion, put things to move: to recognize oneself as actor or agent of diverse processes. when at the moment of conceiving of an event (exhibition or similar action), who are the artists or other collaborators which would be interesting to articulate together, in terms of proposing a collective voice? in which way such event would relate to a certain location, situation or context? is there any question – among the ones that resonate in my present practice – which could be unfolded in terms of a curatorial proposition? these issues should be approached in direct relation to the problems involved in the production of the work and its discourse – to open problems, making them collective.
Saturday October 4th
10 am - 5pm with break at Audain Gallery
presentation of NBP assignment, installation of imagery
Friday October 10th
10 am - 5pm with break at WW # 4390
topics:
1) the artwork as carrier of a conceptual aggregate, set in motion;
10 am - 5pm with break at Audain Gallery
presentation of NBP assignment, installation of imagery
Friday October 10th
10 am - 5pm with break at WW # 4390
topics:
1) the artwork as carrier of a conceptual aggregate, set in motion;
which layers of conceptual articulation dynamize my practice? to extract concepts, questions, discoursive nuclei that potentialize the work and make the proposed interventions more acute – (1) making them reverberate around/with other disciplines (transdisciplinarity) and (2) articulating them with a set of interrelated media (intermedia). to bring forward the dynamics of these articulations, making them protagonists and perceiving them in their modalities. how are articulated the material and immaterial layers of the work?
2) the image of the
artist: to build oneself, to be built in public;
to occupy a place as artist into the social fabric implies experimenting and administrating an 'interval' between the 'production of oneself' and the 'production of oneself as an artist' – in terms of the building up of a collective subject but, significantly, in letting oneself to be constructed through a social alterity and its 'legitimization-of-the-artist' games. the production of an 'image of the artist' is under permanent negotiation – what one is or wants to be, what captures us or even put us in flight. how does one indicate what exists between 'me' and 'me-as-an-artistist' – are there lines of convergence and divergence amid these demands? is it possible to conceive "what artist one wants to be" or is this dynamics/process something as such that arrives as 'capture', in relation to which there is no reaction? it is important to realize that at each moment there are several artist's models being exercized or performed.
Saturday October 11th
10 am - 5pm with break at WW # 4390 and Audain Gallery
discussion and rehearsal of writings
Friday October 17th
10 am - 5pm with break at WW # 4390
topics:
1) the artist’s practice as a mode of pertaining to a generational, collective or communitarian formation;
are the topics that I involve in my practice shared with others, with whom I develop a dialogue or productive contact? do I realize myself articulated within a community, in relation to which the practices I develop produce a more intense combination of sharing? what is the profile of this communitarian articulation: does it include the traces of a productive friendship, of generational issues, of topics concerning a common platform for action?2) the artwork as activator of historical articulations, in a transtemporal present;
when I produce my work or actions, here and now, which connections are established with other moments of a history which is likewise updated? assuming the materiality of such connections, with who (authors, agents) and with what (works taken individually or collectively) I do connect or associate myself in terms of the activation of the meaning of what I do today? do these links say something in relation to my future practices? it is important to realize how time displacement constitutes today a large and insistent present.Saturday October 18th
10 am - 5pm with break at WW # 4390 and Audain Gallery
discussion and rehearsal of writings
Friday October 24th
10 am - 5pm with break at WW # 4390
Saturday October 25th
topics:
1) the artist’s writing, the text as an artwork;
1) the artist’s writing, the text as an artwork;
it is known that the discussions around conceptual art expanded the problem of the limits and of the nature of the work of art – in a way that texts could eventually function as works. in which way the texts I'm interested to produce could be articulated as 'work of art'?
10 am - 5pm with break at WW # 4390 and Audain Gallery
rehearsal of conversations
Wednesday October 29th
public performance of Collective Conversation
7pm at Audain Gallery
all participants meet at the Audain Gallery at 6pm