Kurs: Going public

Kursledare: Mariangela Méndez

Språk: Kursen kommer delvis att hållas på engelska. Mariangela förstår svenska, men kommer att prata på engelska.

Krav: Vi ställer inga formella krav på den som söker kursen. Vi vänder oss till  konstnärer, personer som är engagerad i en konstförening eller som arrangerar utställningar, konststudenter och du som vill jobba som curator i framtiden och behöver en förberedande kurs. För att dra igång kursen behöver vi 12 intresserade. 

Antal träffar: 7 träffar var tredje vecka med start i februari.

Datum: 10 - 11 februari, 3 – 4 mars, 24 – 25 mars, 7 - 8 april, 21 – 22 april, 5 – 6 maj, 12 – 13 maj

Pris: Kursen är gratis. Det kan tillkomma kostnad för material.

Arrangör: Resurscentrum för konst

Kursinnehåll
Exhibitions are the scenarios in which we negotiate what and how works of art circulate, as well as whom is its audience and how these audiences see, receive, understand and appropriate art. Exhibitions are not only made of objects arranged in a physical space, they are also mental and conceptual spaces, temporal, contingent, transactional and interactive.
 
This course will examine and explore art exhibitions as complex experiences; equal to a space of learning like a classroom or a space of knowledge like a library. This perspective also involves acknowledging that art exhibitions involve additional elements, different and beyond that of the individual art works, like for example: the dialogues between artworks and the geographical and cultural context, the different selection processes involved in making an exhibition, museographic decisions, budget negotiations, and all sorts of economical and conceptual transactions and exchanges between artists, curators, galleries and/or institutions.
 
All these elements, although at first invisible, play an important role as they contribute to make exhibitions accessible and meaningful experiences for the audience. To purposely address and put to work “those invisible elements” in an exhibition, is the curator’s role.
 
It will be our task in this course to explore curating as a practice, this means that, instead of concentrating in definitions, or setting limits to what the curatorial practice is, and what it is not, the course will work through the curatorial practice itself. We will produce - and discover - our own definitions through the process of curating an exhibition.

Mål
Learn how to inhabit a space with the mind.
Discover, describe and learn about the spaces in which art and artistic thought manifest themselves.
Recognize how exhibitions shape and inform our understanding and our perception of art works and art in general.
Develop an approach to the concepts, methods, steps and requisites needed to curate, organize and produce an exhibition.
Explore and discuss the responsibilities implied in curating and in doing public presentations such as exhibitions.
Learn to think of exhibition spaces as places for aesthetic experience, as a medium to access new knowledge, as a place for the construction of new meanings, and as a form to distribute and exchange works of art and aesthetic discourses.
Allmän information
Kursen genomförs vid sju tillfällen från februari till maj, 2017.
Studietider vid varje tillfälle är:
Fredagar: kl 10 – 12 / Kl. 13.00 – 16.00.
Lördagar: kl 10 – 13.00.
 
Kursen genomförs i Luleå.
Vissa studier och uppgifter till kursen kan göras hemifrån.

Kursavsnitt
Träff 1
Introduction: What does it mean to "go public"? What is an exhibition? What is curating? How are exhibitions and art works experienced?
Hemuppgift: Write a short paragraph (200 word max.) of a painting that you like. Come prepared to discuss the reading.
 
Träff 2
The museum as muse: On different ways of organizing a collection, an archive, a cabinet of curiosities. On how to think about art history.
*Visit to Norrbottens Museum Collections (Björksgatan, Luleå).
Hemuppgift: Make a portfolio to present your own artistic work.
Come prepared to discuss the reading.
 
Träff 3
The curator as cartographer: On mapping a place, identities, a tendency, a period in time…
Hemuppgift: Make a proposal for an imaginary exhibition to present in class. Come prepared to discuss the reading.
 
Träff 4
Cut and paste: On editing, selection processes and re-contextualization of art.
Hemuppgift: To be announced. Come prepared to discuss the reading.
 
Träff 5
The power of display: On representation, its power, its limitations and the responsibilities implied when showing art, in making exhibitions, in addressing an audience.
*Visit to an exhibition to analyse installation and curatorial decisions.
Hemuppgift: Bring a proposal of an installation plan of the exhibition you are curating collectively.
Come prepared to discuss the reading.
 
Träff 6
Hands on: Preparations, installation and opening of the group exhibition.
Redovisning av er utställning.
Hemuppgift: Document the exhibition you curated.
Come prepared to discuss the reading.
 
Träff 7
Making the visible legible. On documentation, catalogues, publications and/or web presentations of art and of exhibitions.
Hemuppgift: Make a virtual catalogue (a PDF, power point, .doc) of the exhibition you curated.
Come prepared to discuss the reading.

Mer information
During the Friday sessions we will mostly devote the time to analyse and discuss basic ideas, readings and concepts about curating, exhibition making and public manifestations of art. We will explore emblematic exhibitions in art history, different selection and organizing processes, different ways of making public and/or presenting artworks, including publications. We will also program some visits to exhibitions and museum collections and we will have guest lecturers that will speak from their own experiences.
 
During the Saturday sessions we will do practical exercises, aimed at collectively organizing and curating an exhibition that will be presented towards the end of the course, to a larger audience. This is a practical component to put directly into practice some of the identified elements of curating and exhibition making, and through which we will learn how to conceptualize, organize and realize an exhibition. Curating is a practice, so the best way to understand it is by practising, by making an exhibition.
 
There are no prerequisites to the course, except for an open mind to new concepts, a desire to work collectively and to learn about how to create and produce exhibitions, explore public presentation of art.
 
The course will be done mainly in English. But some discussions and lectures will be done in Swedish. I myself will primarily lecture in English, but students may of course speak to me in Swedish should they wish to do so.
 
Dialogue is an important part of the curatorial practice, and dialogue will be an important element in this course. I will encourage your participation by asking you to present your homeworks collectively, by debating readings, ideas and concepts in class, for the construction of our own concepts of what it is at stake when making exhibitions, in working as a curator, in making art public.