SIROCCO TERM 2022 | APRIL 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24
In the world that we are seeking to summon inside the spaces of GCAS-Jehān, W.E.B. DuBois’ question, “what does it feel to be a problem?” is (also) answered by those bearing the burden of “the troubles” at the mercy of imperial powers who, for centuries, have believed that their forces of barbarism, destruction, and annihilation are “neutral,” and are merely responding to those who make themselves into problems. What occasions for another world can be formed by speaking of trouble and disaster as explicitly counterposed to those neoliberal declarations of crisis that inaugurate the restoration of order?” Then, there is Donna Haraway speaking of trouble as an occasion for kinship, and Jalal Toufic and Maurice Blanchot talking about disaster counterposed to those declarations of crisis that inaugurate the restoration of order.
This course, taught by Renata Summo O’Connell with Asma Abbas, explores art practice and curation in a time where trouble and turbulence inflect all aspects of life. However, this turbulence in the realm of cultural practice and production did not start with the pandemic. For instance, the problematic relationship between cultural policies and the survival of art practice in the midst of environmental collapse and physical degradation, has been a constant challenge to anyone working in a cultural context. The manner in which practices and approaches have had to adapt to this further exposes the entirely insufficient and retrograde notion of the artworld. New practices and ideas are emerging that break away with previously acclaimed systems. The risk is their violent erasure or exhaustion, long past the idea of commodification that once was the dominant regret of critical theorists of culture. The current pandemic has only complicated, and in some ways, stunned the pre-existing condition where, rather than explore unchosen proximities, we must abide in unchosen distances.
Turning to ideas of turbulence, making kin, reciprocity, multiverse, as well as distance and proximity, the course will guide students to formulate practices of making and critical curating within and beyond the arts, in order to nourish a discourse populated with multiple worlds, practices, and a re-articulation of the role of curators (in art, culture, pedagogy, and more).
We will do this work in the company of works by Donna J. Haraway, Stephanie Bertrand, Judith Butler, C. Esche, George Dickie, Arthur Danto, Pierre Bourdieu, Pierre Bourdieu, Bruno Latour, Hans van Maanen, Howard S.Becker, Jacques Rancière, Jalal Toufic, Ilze Petroni, Rosa Jijon, the Stay With Me Collective as well as Staying with the Trouble.
Renata Summo O’Connell has studied and worked in universities in Italy and Australia’s universities in the fields of sociolinguistics and gender studies. Since moving back to Europe, she continues her study and writing independently in the areas of women artists, language and society. In 2007, Renata launched the Imagined Australia International Research Project after having co-founded the international organization AILAE. Her background in aesthetics, sociolinguistics, and gender studies directs her efforts to develop new models of transnational research which, beyond institutional boundaries, may effectively further international debates and engage in creative projects on artistic and cultural levels. in 2010, for this reason, Renata started Artegiro Contemporary Art as a think tank on one hand and a productive hub on the other, for artists, curators, art writers and people who wish to investigate process involved in the artistic language, who are intrigued by the relationship between art and society, who appreciate the complexity of art in postcolonial countries, who question the current state in which art markets especially have confined art and artists. in 2016, Renata, with the Artegiro project, in collaboration with AILAE and the city council of Conzano, Italy, started the COCOA project, gathering an entire community around contemporary art. in the same year, Renata convened the Decolonize! international research forum, focusing on artistic, curatorial and critical practices in today’s world. In 2018, Artegiro publishing started its publishing activity with its first title, Decolonize! Art, Curatorial and Critical Practices in Contemporary Times, an exciting multimedia e-book proposing a different look at art, critical, and curatorial work in postcolonial settings. Besides being responsible for Artegiro as director, Renata works as an art and visual identity consultant for private clients and public institutions.
Asma Abbas is a transdisciplinary political theorist. She is the author of Liberalism and Human Suffering and Another Love: A Politics of the Unrequited, and has contributed to several edited volumes and journals. She is a professor of politics and philosophy and director of transdisciplinary and experimental studies at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, and the director GCAS-Jəhān.