Studiegids

Content

In this master seminar the focus is on a collective research of critical practices and perspectives related to the creative industries and art markets, with special attention to the notion of the commons. We reflect on the impact of neoliberal politics on the arts and cultural policy, also in Belgium and Flanders. The seminar also introduces a frame of reference to get an understanding of the notion of the "commons" as a popular concept in certain artistic circles. This notion is associated with self-governance, solidarity and new forms of living together and the believe that peer-to-peer relationships will produce new modes of production and new relations of production. We critically explore artistic responses and experiments that react to these effects of marketization. We look into concrete examples of art collectives who try to create more sustainable, self-organized and self-regulating modes of collaboration and organisation. We discuss strategies in works and projects of artists such as Robin Vanbesien, Ronny Heiremans and Katleen Vermeir, and organizations such as L'Asilo, Timelab, Future Farmers, SOTA, Caveat, Ruangrupa or The Land Foundation, ...

The students will engage in research trajectories of collective organisation forms in the arts and organise a presentation or conversation related to these research trajectories, in which they engage in a dialogue about these projects with peers. The students also work on individual or collective (audio)visual responses to these trajectories by which they relate these insights to their own practice.

Course material

The reader, powerpoints, links and films will be posted on Toledo. Students should watch movies and read texts in preparation for the classes and presentations. 

Format: more information

Learning content provided by the instructor is interspersed with group discussions, assignments, exhibition visits, cases, research presentations, fieldwork.

Students are expected to give active input during the lectures:


- students make relations between the theoretical perspectives of the course and proposed artistic practices

- students critically analyze texts and practices that are discussed during lectures;

- students visit exhibitions and projects and critically comment on them against the given deadline;

- students give short presentations on given topics;  

- students organise a public conversation collectively on a topic related to the course

Study visits or field trips are possible within this course unit.

Depending on the safety measures, the seminar will be organized online or semi-online. The seminar is built on online seminars and a self-study program.