STUDY PROGRAMME
Visual Arts and Curatorial studies

AFAM CODE
ABVPA63

DISCIPLINARY AREA
Museology

DISCIPLINARY FIELD
Museology

CREDITS
6

APPROACH
Theoretical

Starting from the analysis of the origin and evolution of museum spaces, the teaching reflects on the historical and colonial heritage of the institutions and their cultural, Eurocentric and patriarchal assumptions, to interrogate and deconstruct exhibition models and historiographic canons from a decolonial perspective.

The programme consists of one single module, which grants 6 CFA credits.

Successful students will be able to:

• Develop general, synthetic knowledge of the history of museums from the mid-60s until today

• Apply historic investigation tools to research

• Enhance their critical-analytical skills

• Aestheticization of cities and urbanization of museums

• Dialectics between the street and the museum, and between urban spaces and exhibition spaces

• The rise of post-modern museums in the context of post-industrial civilization

• Performative and participatory dynamics among viewer-artwork-exhibition space

• Performative museums

This is a theoretical course. Didactic activities may include:

• Classroom lectures

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

• Debates and presentations during classes

• Individual study and research

• Field trips

Assessment is based on the overall competence of the students and may include:

• Oral exam

• Written exam

• Submission of papers, projects or research works

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

• Groys, B. (2010), Going Public, Berlin: Sternberg Press.

• Krauss, R. “Postmodernism’s museum without walls”. In Thinking about exhibitions. A cura di Reesa Greenberg, Bruce W. Ferguson e Sandy Nairne. Londra: Routledge, 1996. 341-348.

• Shaila Bhatti (2012), Translating Museums: A Counterhistory of South Asian Museology. Londra: Routledge.

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.