STUDY PROGRAMME
Visual arts and Curatorial studies

AFAM CODE
ABST52

DISCIPLINARY AREA
History and methodology of art critic

DISCIPLINARY FIELD
Curatorial studies

CREDITS
12

APPROACH
Theoretical/project based

The space of art is common to artists and curators, who every time interact and re-define their roles as well as the ways contemporary art happens within an open process that has never been ultimately defined. This course introduces to the curatorial practice and to critical writing, analysing the themes of the production of exhibition modules (including media-based ones), that are questioned from an aesthetic, social, economic and philosophical point of view. Through group analysis and individual research, the course aims at the acquisition of critical understanding of space, narrative paths, audience and institutional structures that, in different ways, influence the contemporary creation of exhibition processes.

The total credits for this course are 12, divided as follows:

• CURATORIAL STUDIES 1: 5 CFA

• CRITICAL WRITING 1: 4 CFA

• EXPOSED CINEMA STUDIES: 3 CFA

Successful students will be able to:

CURATORIAL STUDIES 1:

• Carry out the analysis of a comprehensive exhibition project through itineraries, themes, selection and organization criteria

• Adopt an efficient method to approach the different exhibition formats in space, social, and display terms.

• Create innovative narrative paths that don't follow a single, linear chronological narration

• Analyse in-depth, interpret and respond to public not only in an innovative way, but also suitably, trying to develop adaptability and flexibility towards the opportunities of the context

• Question the relations among the displayed objects through fictional links, micro-stories as well as contextual and situational

• harmony

• Enhance their critical-analytical skills around the history of exhibitions

CRITICAL WRITING 1:

• Analyse the main codes and formats used to write about artwork, authors, exhibitions or contemporary art events

• Write precisely, clearly and effectively

• Deal with connections between the world of literature, art critic and visual culture

• Understand the magazines, as well as of press offices and printed or web communication

• Critically evaluate complex texts

• Produce critical writing based on research

EXPOSED CINEMA STUDIES:

• Understand the specific language for the exhibition of moving image

• Define the relations between cinema and contemporary art

• Start critical analyses on the influence of media

• Understand how contemporary artists use images with a deconstructive purpose

• Investigate the ways, places and scenarios that have brought moving images into the world of art institutions.

• Experiment with new contexts for moving images

CURATORIAL STUDIES 1:

• Symbolic, contextual and relational evaluation of objects and space

• The role of display in the creation of value for exhibited objects

• Analysis of exhibition institutions (biennials, museums, commercial galleries, public areas)

• Analysis and focalisation of curatorial concepts, in all their exhibition variations.

• Organization of the exhibition area through narrative paths, themes and symbolic as well as perceptive frames

• Criteria for the selection and organization of the exhibited material

CRITICAL WRITING 1:

• Simplicity, clarity and anti-language

• News and synopsis

• Press communicates

• Ecphrasis

• Writing techniques

• Reviews and critical thinking

• Final text

EXPOSED CINEMA STUDIES:

• Cinema within the spaces of art

• Post media and media obsolescence: a critical construction of the media theory.

• Cinematographic devices, exhibition devices

• Documentary turn

• Moving images from film, to video, to digital images: new cinematic

• Curators, organisers, exhibitions, screening.

This is a theoretical/project based course. Over the course, the students will carry out didactic activities that are functional to achieving the learning goals, that in all modules may include:

• Classroom lectures

• Exercises and revisions

• Field trips

• Development of individual projects

• Individual study and research

• Use of tutorials, videos or other media tools for detailed study

The didactic modules that make the course will be assessed separately. The final grade will result from the weighted average of all marks, based on the final presentation of the project. They may include:

• Oral exam

• Complete projects

• Assessed revisions or mid-term tests

Further details on specific tests can be provided by the professors during the course. Assessment criteria include commitment, active participation and personal growth of the students during the course.

CURATORIAL STUDIES 1:

• Scotini, M. (2017), Politics of Memory: Documentary and Archive, Berlin: Archive Books.

• Bishop C. (2013), Radical Museum, Koln: Walter Konig.

• AA.VV. (2009), Open, Amsterdam: Nai Publishers.

• P. O’Neill, M.Wilson, L. Steeds, (2016), The Curatorial Conun-

• drum, MIT Press.

• AA.VV. (2016), The New Curator, London: Laurence King Publishing.

CRITICAL WRITING 1:

• Williams G. (2014), How to Write About Contemporary Art, London: Thames&Hudson.

• Barnet S. (2009), A Short Guide to Writing About Art, London: Pearson Education press.

• Berger J. (1972), Ways of Seeing, London: Penguin.

• Sontag S. (2009), Against interpretation and Other Essays, London: Penguin modern classics.

EXPOSED CINEMA STUDIES:

• Deleuze G. (1986), Cinema 1: The Movement-Image. Univ of Minnesota Press.

• Bruno G. (2016), Surface: Matters of Aesthetics, Materiality, University of Chicago Press.

• Agamben G. (2009), What is an apparatus?, Stanford Univ Press.

• Balsom E. (2013), Exhibiting cinema in contemporary art, Amsterdam Press.

Further bibliographic recommendations may be provided by the professor during the course. A lot of the referenced material, together with other in-depth study material, can be consulted online in MyNaba, in the Library section.