Course detail

Mind, Body, Gesture and Idea: Forms of Czechoslovak Art from 1960s to Early 1990s

FaVU-MTGIAcad. year: 2019/2020

On the basis of thematic blocks, the course introduces the development and the curatorial and historiographical reflection of Czechoslovak art from the 1960s to the early 1990s with regard to international events. In particular, it deals with concept, action art, minimalism and neo-constructive tendencies. Instead of using a chronological survey, it focuses on specific topics that are often connected with distribution of art and its presentation; they are often independent of institutional support, relying on the models of friendly sharing, postal correspondence or, for example, on presentation in the form of author books and short-term projects. The structure of the course combines lectures and seminars. The lectures will focus on the theoretical approach to the selected thematic blocks. In the seminars, the students will be introduced to the methods of research, curatorial and collecting practices through visits to the archive of Jiří Valoch in the Moravian Gallery in Brno.

Language of instruction

Czech

Number of ECTS credits

2

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Learning outcomes of the course unit

The students will acquire a basic overview of the Czechosloval conceptual art with regard to the international context. By means of excursions, they will get acquainted with primary archive sources and collections. Through their own research and artistic projects, they will get an experience of working with primary archive sources. They will be able to recognize the forms of conceptual art as well as to critically analyze this phenomenon, including its current research and changes in the course of time.

Prerequisites

None.

Co-requisites

Not applicable.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

The course is symmetrically distributed between lectures (supplemented by projection of visual or audiovisual material) and controlled discussions related to topics brouught up in lectures..

Assesment methods and criteria linked to learning outcomes

Credit is awarded on a basis of artistic, curatorial or research project that relates to topic(s) that were dealt with during the semester.

Course curriculum

1. From artistic archives to databases; how to talk about East European art?
Private archive as an alternative and parallel to official institutions; attempts to revise the history of art in Eastern and Central Europe; finding parallels and differences.

2. Searching for new sensitivity
Spread of the concept and new approaches to the work with image in Czechoslovakia during the 1970s and 1980s in the context of international affairs.

3. In nature
Environmental themes in conceptual work of Slovak and Czech authors; processual work in nature and its representatives.

4. Transformations of action art from 1960s to the end of 1980s
The happenings of the 1960s and internalization of the events during the 1970s; arrival of postmodern sensitivity in the 1980s; presentation of the main representatives of the genre.

5. Discourse over documentation, exhibition and accessibility of performative works in the form of their re-enactments

6. Participatory projects and short-term artistic encounters
Sharing of artistic gestures and postures in the course of short-term encounters and participatory projects. Organization of the first open studio of Rudolf Sikora in Bratislava; Balatonboglár or meeting of Hungarian, Slovak and Czech artists; activities of the Young Friends of Fine Arts at the House of Art in Brno; Festival on the Snow; Křížovnická school.

7. In the name of rationality, progress and pure form
Křižovatka exhibition and its guests; activities of the Club of Concretists.

8. Phenomenon of computer art
Max Bense and information aesthetics; New Tendencies movement; beginnings of computer art.

9. Author book as a substitute for exhibition
Phenomenon of author books as a platform for the spread of conceptual art.

10. Gallery in the mailbox
Mail art as a democratic artistic practice and distribution network of art. Comparison of the development of mail art movement in the countries of Eastern, Central and Western Europe and in the USA.

11. Text, script and image I.
Movement of concrete and visual poetry; work with text and script in visual arts.

12. Text, script and image II.
Movement of concrete and visual poetry; work with text and script in visual arts.

Work placements

Not applicable.

Aims

The objective of the course is to introduce the students in the forms of Czechoslovak art from the 1960s to the early 1990s. In addition to the theoretical overview, its structure presents the students with primary resources in the form of archive materials, catalogues of that time and the correspondence with which they will be able to work in the archive of Jiří Valoch.

Specification of controlled education, way of implementation and compensation for absences

Attendance compulsory (70 percent of classes must be attended).

Recommended optional programme components

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Auslander, Phillip, Liveness: performance in a mediatized culture, New York, 1999. (CS)
Císař, Karel, Abeceda věcí: poznámky k modernímu a současnému umění, Praha, 2015. (CS)
Clarke, Paul, Performing the Archives: The Future of the Past, In: Performing Archives/Archives of Performance, Copenhagen, 2013. (CS)
Fischer, Hervé, Art et Communication Marginale, Tamponts d’Artists, Balland, 1974. (CS)
Grúň, Daniel, Archív umelca – paralelná inštitúcia alebo prostriedok seba-historizácie? Sešit pro umění, teorii a příbuzné zóny, 2011, č. 11, s. 64–83. (CS)
Hoptman, Laura; Tomáš Pospiszyl, Primary Documents: A Sourcebook for Eastern and Central European Art since the 1950s. The MIT Press, 2002. (CS)
Morganová, Pavlína, Procházka akční Prahou: akce performance happeningy 1949 – 1989, Praha, 2014. (CS)
Perneczky, Géza, The Magazine Network: the trends of alternative art in the light of their periodicals 1968–1988, Köln, 1993. (CS)
Pospiszyl, Tomáš: Asociativní dějiny umění: poválečné umění napříč generacemi a médii, Praha, 2015. (CS)
Schneider, Rebecca, Performance remains, in: Amelia Jones, Adrian Heathfield, Perform repeat record, Bristol, 2012. (CS)

Recommended reading

Not applicable.

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme VUM Master's

    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, summer semester, elective

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

13 hod., optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

Seminar

13 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer