Remembering as Future

blended course

The course will deal with the artistic legacy of the avant-garde left. By focusing on recent projects of actualising avant-garde art, the course will discuss the theoretical and historical importance of these practices for today’s forms and struggles. The starting point of the course begins with the idea that the avant-garde left, especially of the twenties and the thirties, were openly engaging with unresolved social contradictions and antagonisms. This impure form of the avant-garde left’s ethics transformed the relationship between art and politics on two levels:

a. By introducing radical dialectics, whose effects were felt beyond the art institutions;

b. By experimenting with the actual social demands of the day and seeking new forms of representation based on transformation and excess.

In the course we will discuss the outcomes of avant-garde dialectics based on excess by focusing on three recent works which actualise avant-garde forms.

Yanko, Albanian King by Ilya Zdanevich - a play based on zaum (non-sense) language first published in 1918 in Tbilisi. The play is about Yanko, a donkey declared a king in Albania, and is one of the the most excessive Dadaist works to criticize war, imperialism, nationalism, and the ancien regime. The publication, which includes the first translation of Yanko, Albanian King and extensive materials contextualising its making, is forthcoming from Shuplak-Shuplak Press (Prizren, 2022)

Art Market by Karel Teige - a book by Teige written in 1936, during the crux of the most severe conflicts between the artistic experiments and political engagements of Surrealist internationalism. The book is the condensation of Teige’s philosophy based on uncompromising dialectics of opposites, and is the document of the last attempt to think art beyond capitalist institutions and Stalinist trials. The first translation of the book with theoretical and historical interpretations will be published by Rab-Rab Press/Contradictions (Helsinki/Prague, 2021).

Sickle of Syntax and Hammer of Tautology - an anthology offering the first English language overview of the history of concrete and visual poetry production in socialist Yugoslavia between 1968 and 1983. It focuses on the experimental poetry published in mass produced periodicals and discusses the forms of concrete and visual poetry as an attempt at democratisation of avant-garde art. The anthology is published as a special edition of OEI magazine issue 90-91 (Stockholm, 2021).

Course leader

Sezgin Boynik is a theoretician based in Helsinki. He completed his PhD on Yugoslav “Black Wave” cinema.

Target group

This course is designed for BA and MA students, artists, architects and researchers of visual arts, humanities and social sciences, art history and curatorial studies, architecture and design, and anyone with a keen interest in the subject area.

Course aim

In the course we will discuss the outcomes of avant-garde dialectics based on excess by focusing on three recent works which actualise avant-garde forms.

Credits info

2 EC
At the conclusion of each course, registered participants will be issued a certificate stating their equivalency of The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) credits from Stacion - Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina, Kosovo and the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon, France.

An equivalency certificate is issued to registered participants who have demonstrated competencies to learning outcomes and associated workload certified with the equivalent ECTS credits of the curricula of the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon, France. Employers, colleges and other postsecondary schools can choose to accept the equivalency certificate as a substitute of ECTS credits.

Fee info

EUR 300: The total fee is 300€.

The participation fee is due in full after you have successfully enrolled in the course via written confirmation from SSAS. The fee covers tuition, proceedings and certificates. This fee does not cover the cost of individually necessary materials, personal equipment, further excursions, accommodation or travel expenses.

Final acceptance to the course will be confirmed only after we have confirmation of your payment in full. Bank transfer fees are to be covered by the registered participant.
EUR 30: Students who wish to obtain an ECTS certificate must pay an additional supplement to the registration fee, calculated as 10% of the annual fee, corresponding to the administrative treatment of the ECTS certificate established by the Ensba-Lyon. Only participants registered in a higher education institution, and who explicitly request it at the time of registration, will be able to validate ECTS credits in accordance with European regulations.

Scholarships

Scholarships are available for participants from Kosovo. A limited number of scholarships are available for international participants.