Branislav Dimitrijević: Interpreting and Situating Contemporary Art: Observation, Participation, Motivation, Research and Empathy

WORLD OF ART
School for Curators and Critics of Contemporary Art
Season 14
1st Year (November 2011–June 2012)

Workshop on writing about contemporary art

Friday-Saturday, May, 18 and 19, 2012
Project Room SCCA, Metelkova 6, Ljubljana
Call for applications is closed.


Branislav Dimitrijević will discuss in introductory lecture about contemporary art world which is usually described as world of transitional spaces, transitional societies, mobility, exchange and direct participation. He will talk about different questions: what does it mean that the question ‘What is art?’ is nowadays being replaced by the question ‘What can we do with art?’ Is championing (real) experience over interpretation a symptom of contemporary art? Where does one stand in these circumstances? Do we travel just to gain new experiences or do we travel not to stick to the old ones? How do we situate ourselves in this transitory condition? How do we gain meaning in this ‘everything goes / everything moves’ condition? He will speak about the issues involved in our general inclination to share the world from the position we find ourselves in, or in which we tend to situate ourselves in order to ‘be with’ the others, and to speak about notions as unrelated or conflictual as empathy and laughter, cynicism and naiveté, observation and interpretation, the humanitarian gaze and the ethnographic gaze, hard facts and flexible idiosyncrasies, and just a little bit about football and Socialism.

Participants of the workshop will have to write text (min. 1800 signs) on selected/assigned subject till the next day. They will shortly (cca. 10 min) present and defend it; discussion and evaluation will follow.

The workshop will be conducted in Serbian language.

More about the workshop


Tutor

Branislav DimitrijevićBranislav Dimitrijević (1967)
Dr. Branislav Dimitrijević is lecturer, writer and curator. He is Senior Lecturer in History and Theory of Art at Academia Nova, and also teaches at the School for Art and Design (VSLPUb), both in Belgrade. He collaborates on curatorial, educational and publishing projects with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade and teaches on the Curatorial Studies course at the University of Arts in Belgrade. His main fields of academic and curatorial research are visual art, film and popular culture of socialist Yugoslavia, and contemporary visual art in the Balkans.
He has had a long-standing partnership and collaboration with Branislava Andjelković. With her and Branimir Stojanović he also co-founded and coordinated ‘School for History and Theory of Images’, an independent and interdisciplinary educational project in Belgrade (1999–2003).
He has been publishing essays on contemporary art and theory of art, film and visual culture in books and journals in Serbia and internationally. He edited a series of publications and exhibition catalogues including On Normality: Art in Serbia 1989–2001 (MOCAB, 2005), International Exhibition of Modern Art (MOCA, Belgrade, 2003), Pop Vision (Aurora, Vršac, 1996), etc.
His curatorial projects include: Murder1 (CKZD, Belgrade 1997), Overground, (site-specific project, Belef Festival, Belgrade 1998), Konverzacija (MOCAB, 2001), Situated Self: Confused, Compassionate, Conflictual (Helsinki City Museum; MOCAB, 2005), Breaking Step – Displacement, Compassion and Humour in recent art from Britain (MOCAB, 2007), FAQ Serbia (ACF, New York, 2010), No Network (‘Time Machine’ Biennial, D0 ARK Underground, Konjic, Bosnia, 2011) He was curator of the Yugoslav/Serbian pavilion at the Venice Biennials in 2003 and 2009. He has been also involved in many European and regional art initiatives, most recently as the President of the Board (2006–2010) of the SPAPORT Biennial in Banja Luka, Bosnia.
Dimitrijević holds an MA degree in History and Theory of Art from the University of Kent (UK) and has received his PhD in Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies from the University of Arts in Belgrade with the thesis entitled ‘Utopian Consumerism – Emergence and Incongruities of Consumer Culture in Socialist Yugoslavia’.


How to apply?

Send the electronic application form to our e-mail: svetumetnosti@scca-ljubljana.si or by post to SCCA-Ljubljana, Metelkova 6, 1000 Ljubljana.

The price of the workshop is for individuals 20 € eur and for institutions 30 € (with DDV). The copy of paid receipt is a precondition for participation in the workshop. We don’t refund participant’s fee.

The number of available places is limited to 4 participants. We will accept applications till these places are filled!

Application deadline extended: 16. 5. 2012


Contact:

SCCA-Ljubljana (office hours: 9.00–13.00)
Contact persons: Simona Žvanut in Saša Nabergoj
Metelkova 6, 1000 Ljubljana
Phone: (01) 431 83 85
e-mail: svetumetnosti@scca-ljubljana.si


Timetable

Friday, 18. 5. 2012:
11.00–14.00: Introductory lecture of Branislav Dimitrijević
16.00–18.00: Distribution of tasks to participants of the workshop: each participant will have to write text (min. 1800 signs) on selected/assigned subject till the next day.

Saturday, 19. 5. 2012:
10.00 – 13.00: Presentation of texts (10 min. on each text), discussion, evaluation