From Calling to Calling some "Evil Spirits"

blended course

Any time the TINA (There IS NO ALTERNATIVE) World is struggling with its contradictions and conflicts the questions and answers about a radical change are at stake. Among a variety of their concepts and contents there is still a unifying topic – a role of the working class in an expected change. It is obvious that the supposed revolutionary subject is unrecognizable in a current distribution of roles (and means) in the global class struggle.

Intentionally or not, many artists engaged in tracing of this subject and in reflecting on its supposed qualities, capacities and missions. No wonder, since there is no an ambitious political campaign or social debate in which these issues are not obviously dominant or decisively underlying. The speculations and negotiations about the need and “the will” of the people permanently project on the screen of societal expectation and imagination. Which screen and its content is of course daily updated and firmly controlled by the ruling classes, hence the obvious constrains to speculations and frames for negotiations.

The question arises if it is at all a task of (popular) art and culture to open new spaces of debate and new horizons of imagination – that would resist and confront the given constraining and framing. Could they and would they (art and culture agencies and actors) daily negotiate their existence and profile in a hegemonic social and political sphere without paying too high a price for it?

In order to contribute to an understanding of ideological and esthetical positions and dynamics of all these processes the course will critically examine an interesting phenomenon in popular culture, observable in some very famous movies and TV serials – a vilification and defamation of a figure of a working class/oppressed/low born characters. The pattern of classical despise (of ruled classes by ruling classes) via class hatred (as seen from the position of class struggle “from above”) towards class punishing (of “evil spirits”) appears in more than a few world-wide successful productions.

The task of the participants is to explore this phenomenon, starting with an instructive model observable in the famous novel by Dostoevsky (“Demons” or “Evil Spirits”) and continuing with examination of what seems whether like a sincere implementation or merely unintentional, superficial application of such a model - by recognized authors and their acclaimed master pieces from Tarantino to Bong-Joon-ho, from Lord of the Rings to Game of Thrones.

The work will be focused on selected excerpts which - through collaborative activist and theoretical analyses – could enable discussion and interpretation of probable or possible meanings and messages from different ideological standpoints. Participants will be also invited to propose for analyses other characteristic examples from popular culture. The course could result in a serial of published notes from the debates.

Course leader

Nebojša Milikić is a Cultural worker and producer who lives and works in Belgrade, Serbia.

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

Student work will be focused on reading selected excerpts which - through collaborative activist and theoretical analyses – could enable discussion and interpretation of probable or possible meanings and messages from different ideological standpoints. Participants will be also invited to propose for analyses other characteristic examples from popular culture. The course could result in a serial of published notes from the debates.

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.