STUDY PROGRAMME
Visual arts and Curatorial studies

AFAM CODE
ABST47

DISCIPLINARY AREA
Style, history of art and culture

DISCIPLINARY FIELD
History of contemporary art

CREDITS
6

APPROACH
Theoretical

This course investigates the existing links among different cultural movements and contexts of the 20th Century, and presents original re-discoveries in contemporary art. Through key concepts and innovative investigation tools, the course encourages the deconstruction of the predominant narrative paths and the canonical western models that have been given to us by the official history of art. The aim of the course is the rewriting of complex stories, intertwined and locally located, in the light of the polycentric transformation of the current artistic production.

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

Successful students will be able to:

• Develop deep understanding of the historic, artistic, cultural,social and economic roots of the history of contemporary art.

• Adopt investigation tools to search for artistic references, establishing links between the core and the edges of the history of contemporary art

• Enhance their critical-analytical skills together with their awareness of the history of contemporary art, and question the parameters of the western modernist art as well as of all the non-western cultures

• Discussion about the limits of the western interpretation of contemporary art

• Seminar-based investigation of the great interpreters and movements from the Second Post-War era until today

• Understanding the paradigmatic leap between modern and contemporary art

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

• Exercises and revisions

• 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 work

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 during 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, to-

gether with other in-depth study material, can be consulted online in MyNaba, in the Library section.