Art history, World Art Studies & Contemporary Art: new developments, new approaches
Institute of Art History of the Estonian Academy of Arts
Institute of Art History of the University of Tallinn
27–31 May 2013
4 ECTS
Work language: English
Suur-Kloostri 11, room S-212, Library of the Department of Cultural Heritage and Conservation, Tallinn 14.00–17.30.

Guest lecturer: Kitty Zijlmans, Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory/World Art Studies, Leiden University. Please find more information about her here

The intensive seminar discusses the dynamics of the field of contemporary art history in a globalizing world. The discussion in the field is fuelled by two major sources: on the one hand contemporary theory and discourse from all kinds of disciplinary and cross-disciplinary fields (anthropology of art, visual studies, postcolonial studies, gender studies, migration studies, new materialism, etc.), and contemporary art practice and art theory on the other. This dynamic of diversity in both academia and art practice, and their interrelationships, take place within specific socio-political contexts. Art and theorizing both emerge from and shape culture; they act on and shape the societies in which they are created, preserved and disseminated. Attention will also be given to the emerging field of ‘artistic research’ that I take as the fourth large field of knowledge production and creativity, next to, on an equal basis and in exchange with Science/Technology, the Social Sciences, and the Humanities. How can World Art Studies benefit from the way artists look at and intervene into contemporary culture? One of the meetings will be devoted to a workshop in collaboration with the artist Rudi Struik entitled ’The Unwanted Land’, an artistic research and exhibition project of six contemporary artists on the subject of stories of migration. Also in the other meetings contemporary artworks will serve as point of reference and debate. How does art reflect the challenges of today’s world? What can we learn from its intervention?

Requirements for participation

Interested graduate students can apply for the seminar by e-mail by 13 May 2012 at heili.sormus@artun.ee The maximum number of participants is 20. ECTS credits will be awarded upon participation in the seminar, reading the required texts and submitting thesis to the lecturer after the end of the course. Participants from universities other than the Estonian Academy of Arts need to submit visiting student form from their home university to the department of academic affairs of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

Please find the reading list here

Please find the reading materials here

Participation in the course is free of charge. Accommodation and travel costs of the students of GSCSA will be reimbursed.

The event is supported by the European Union through the European Social Fund (Estonian Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts)