ETHICS OF PRACTICE – ONLINE WORKSHOP BY MARYSIA LEWANDOWSKA

January 25 – February 10, 2021

Dead line for applying: January 10, 2021

This intensive remote-learning course is designed to introduce the history and theory of curating as well as the processes, procedures utilized by curators and other professionals in the art exhibition making. Through a series of interactive lectures held by artist Marysia Lewandowska, students will be able to develop an intimate understanding of historical curatorial practice and of the most recent developments in curating contemporary art today. The course investigates a variety of approaches to curating, from the fundamental questions related to its social and cultural roles while providing constructive tools for the participants.  

TEACHING: The remote learning experience includes lectures, seminar participation and discussions. The course provides unique opportunities for direct student engagement with arts professionals, as well an extensive array of discussion forums.
The teaching is intensive and supportive, with an emphasis on individual learning, developing a broad range of knowledges and understanding related to curating and its ethics.

FACULTY: The lectures will be held by Marysia Lewandowska, a Polish-born artist based in London since 1985. She has been exploring the public functions of archives, museums and exhibitions often resulting in conceptually driven projects and films involving the property of others. These works propose new relations between forms of knowledge and ownership, activating reflections on the social and immaterial public realm. In 2009 she has established the Women's Audio Archive followed by a publication Undoing Property? co-edited with Laurel Ptak in 2013. Her work has been presented by Tate Modern, Moderna Museet, Muzeum Sztuki, Whitechapel Gallery. The latest installation It's About Time occupied the Pavilion of Applied Arts at the 58th Art Biennale in Venice. The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw has recently included the Enthusiasts Archive project in their collection. She is currently collaborating with Kunsthalle Baden Baden on re-thinking institutional practices for the post-pandemic times.www.marysialewandowska.com

STRUCTURE: The course is taught remotely and divided into 6 sessions.

1. Artist as Curator

Professional boundaries legitimize positions, validate expertise, and ultimately stake claims that are as territorial as they are economic. By looking at an ongoing debate about blurring the boundaries between art and curating, the session will explore different manifestations of artist's uses of curatorial tactics. Examples will include projects by Marysia Lewandowska, as well as those by Tanya Brugera, Jeremy Deller, Theaster Gates, Raqs Media Collective amongst others.

 2.Publishing as Public Practice

Publishing in its extended form serves as a site of articulation as well as constitution of the public. Focusing on a dynamic between live event and publication, we will examine the ways in which the institutional space is dispersed into a wider public realm creating collaborative assemblies and provisional colloquia resulting in publishing as seminal to artists' practice. Issues of authorship and ownership will be raised as part of the session. Examples will include projects by Group Material, Guerilla Girls, Martha Rosler, Seth Siegelaub and others.

3.Social Cinema

In this session we will examine recent artistic practices known for political and critical engagement with film and cinema, tracing the historical position of the camera as a means of defining power relations as well as providing an account of how contemporary artists' involvement with cinema relates to 'seizing speech'. Artists: Black Audio Film Collective (BAFC), Harun Farocki, Hito Steyerl, Wendelien Van Oldenborgh, Maeve Brennan, Stan Douglas, Larissa Sansour, John Akomfrah.

 4.Rehearsing the Museum

Over the past fifteen years Lewandowska's practice has focused on re-imagining the role of the museum in relation to a global network of actors including galleries, auction houses, art fairs, biennials, art education. As she has moved attention away from the sites of production - studio manufactory - to sites of negotiation – the institution itself.  Who benefits from the way the exhibitions are curated, or the museum collections are assembled, displayed, interpreted and explored? Who part-takes in the decision-making process of the institution resulting in the co-production of knowledge, and well being? Examples of practices of Andrea Fraser, Oliver Laric, Michael Asher, Fred Wilson, Yang Fudong.

5.Archive as Lexicon

Archives have an increasingly powerful grip upon culture, and its reproduction. We observe an astonishing growth in data banks of images and information, which can be seen as emergent archival forms of capital. Archives, like museum collections are built with the property of multiple authors and previous owners. But unlike the collection, there is no imperative within the logic of the archive, to display or interpret its holdings. How do archives shape our social imagination and extend cultural memory? Examples of artists' practices including Renée Green, Tacita Dean, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Forensic Architecture, Maria Eichhorn.

 6.Ethics of Distribution. Distribution of Ethics

Socially engaged practice almost always focuses on specific interests partly by attending to both its own conditions and limitations and that of its audience. Rather than dealing with the general public it recognizes the diversity of society, the divisions of access to knowledge, as well as silent communities and localities. It may be that it is closer to the questions of ethical representation and not ethical products. A closer look at the 1970 exhibition at MOMA called Information curated by Kynaston McShine.

Before beginning of each lecture the school will provide texts and videos to be read and watched in order to devote most of the time to discuss and analyze the material produced by artists and curators.

How It Works

Course begins: Monday 25th January 2020.

Dates: January 25 – February 10, 2021 - Mondays and Wednesdays each week for 3 weeks – all sessions 6pm to 8pm CET. 

Application deadline: January 10 2021.

Our Online Delivery Method: Live Seminars - Each lecture is two hours long at the end of each lecture we will have a half an hour for questions and discussions. Your tutor will hold live seminars with you and Google.meet discussions are accessed via a web-link which we will email to you. These sessions enable you to 'meet' your tutor and fellow students. To participate you will only need an internet enabled device; you do not need a Google.meet account.

If you have questions that you were not able to raise in the discussions, you will also be able to communicate with your tutor by email.

Our online Intensive Courses are designed to enrich and deepen your understanding of a specific subject through a dynamic format. The courses are ideal for undergraduates, art professionals, and art lovers seeking to learn more about art and cultural history or to acquire specific knowledge. Led by art professionals drawn from our global faculty, these courses provide participants with expert through a combination of live-streamed lectures and group discussion.

How to Book and Payment of Fees

Full payment is due at the time of booking . To book:

Stage 1: Reservation

Please complete the application form and return by email: aurora@curatorialstudiesvenice.org 

We will then send you an email letting you know whether a place is available. If so, we will reserve your place and give you a link to make payment

Stage 2: Payment

Once you have our confirmation, you can proceed to make payment using the link which you have also been sent. Payments should be by bank transfer. The fee for the whole program is 490 euro. The course fee includes expert tuition and reading material.

Any income generated by the Short Courses is used to support the work of The School for Curatorial Studies Venice in order to advance the curatorial study and to support the artists.

Cancellation Policy – Course Online

If you need to cancel your place, we will refund the full fee provided that you cancel at least 2 weeks before the start of the course. For cancellations less than 2 weeks prior to the start of the course, no refund will be payable.

We do whatever we can to ensure that the courses/tours take place as advertised but we reserve the right to make changes or to cancel. In the unlikely event that we cancel any course we will offer you full repayment of your fee.

Once you successfully complete the course, you will receive a verified Certificate of Completion from School for Curatorial Studies Venice.