Course detail

The Art of Collaboration

FaVU-2USPAcad. year: 2019/2020

These lectures focus on the phenomenon of collaborative art. The lectures combine historical survey of group, or collective artwork both on the international and the Czech art scene, and a survey of possible theoretical approaches to this kind of artistic practices.

Language of instruction

Czech

Number of ECTS credits

3

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Learning outcomes of the course unit

Students will get a deeper knowledge on the phenomenon of collaborative art. The lectures combine historical survey of group, or collective artwork both on the international and Czech art scene and a survey of possible theoretical approaches to this kind of artistic practices.

Prerequisites

Students must have a basic knowledge of art after 1900.

Co-requisites

Not applicable.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

Lectures accompanied by projection of visual or audiovisual material.

Assesment methods and criteria linked to learning outcomes

Written exam - test (both multiple-choice and opened questions).

Course curriculum

1. Introduction: the discourse of collaborative and participatory art. Topics connected with the transtition from individual to collective modes of work (Claire Bishop, Grant Kester, Maria Lind, Stephen Wright). The legacy of the 19th century> the "neutral" model of the art world institution and the social role of an artist
2. A group ethos of the early avantgardes. Peter Bürger and the joining of the avantgardes in the struggle against autonomous art. Futurism, dadaism, Soviet avantgardes, constructivism, productivism. The author as a manager (Walter Benjamin). Czech avantgarde between the wars.
3. Participation tendencies after WWII. Artists from the Black Mountain College. Allan Kaprow, Fluxus, SI. The Czech scene: Vladimír Boudník, Milan Knížák a Aktual. Interactivity in the brazilian neoconstructivism cycle (Lygia Clark, Helio Oiticica).
4. Art as protest. The late 1960s: the first wave of feminist art, art and antiwar protests. Art Workers Coalitions, another round of institutional critique of art museums. 1970s - measuring the society; Hans Haacke; demonstrating the society - Stephen Willats (sociometric aproaches); treatment of the society - Artist Placement Group, Joseph Beuys (The Office of the Organization for Direct Democracy, 7000 oaks for Kassel).
5. New media and new forms of collaboration. Experiments in Art and technology. Networking. Mail art, telex, satelite, online interaction. The "natural characteristics" of new media (networking, multiplicity, the possibility to communicate and create things in real time from several places synchronically) becomes the intentional element of new media art. Collaboration and postproduction, collaboration and apropriation. The question of the border of authorship in the age of the new media.
6. Collaborative strategies in minorities' art, "public art," and "new genre public art" (Suzanne Lacy). Gran Fury, General Idea, Guerrilla Girls. Community art - the inception of the first community art centers in N.Y. as a model of more "artist-run-spaces". Art in squats, guerrilla gardening, street parades atp.
7. Relational art, Nicolas Bourriaud and "his" artists (Rikrit Tiravanija, Pierre Huyghe). The artist as a director of social events. Jeremy Deller, Francis Allys, Kateřina Šedá, Ládví, Philippe Parreno and Pierre Huyghe – No Ghost, Just a Shell, Johanna Billing…
8. Groups in the Czech art - from the artists' associations to the groups with collective identity.
9. Collaborative duos: Christo & Jeanne Claude, Gilbert & George, Muntean & Rosenblum, Stih & Schnock; Czech Republic: Lukáš Jasanský & Martin Polák, Jiří Franta & David Böhm, MINA (Mikuláštík & Nálevka), Vasil Artamonov & Alexey Klyuykov + short-term aliances: Daniela Baráčková & Petra Herotová, Filip Cenek & Tereza Sochorová…
10. Collaborative art and artistic activism: from the 1960s to present. SUPERFLEX, Richard and Helen Newton, Gran Fury, Oda projesi, Raqs Media Collective, events within the European May Day. Art and the aesthetics of protest events (Black Bloc etc.). Activism in the Czech art: Pode Bal, Rafani, Guma Guar.

Work placements

Not applicable.

Aims

Students will get a deeper knowledge on the phenomenon of collaborative art. The lectures combine historical survey of group, or collective artwork both on the international and Czech art scene and a survey of possible theoretical approaches to this kind of artistic practices.

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

Compulsory attendance (3 absences allowed).

Recommended optional programme components

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Jan ZÁLEŠÁK, Umění spolupráce. Praha - Brno: VVP AVU - MU, 2011. (CS)
Sešit pro umění, teorii a příbuzné zóny. Praha: VVP AVU, 2007, ročník 1, č. 1-2. (CS)

Recommended reading

Claire BISHOP (ed.), Participation. London: Whitechappel Gallery, 2006. (EN)
František KOWOLOWSKI (ed.), Mezi námi skupinami II. [sborník ke stejnojmenné výstavě] Brno: Dům umění města Brna, 2006 (CS)
Grant KESTER, Conversation pieces: community and communication in modern art. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. (EN)
Rudolf FRIELING et al. (eds.), The art of participation: 1950 to now. San Francisco a New York: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art a Thames & Hudson, 2008. (EN)
Walter BENJAMIN, Agesilaus Santander. Praha: Hermann a synové, 1996. (esej Autor jako producent). (CS)

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

26 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer