Gestures Towards 'Commoning' the Art Institution

Gestures Towards 'Commoning' the Art Institution

During the past 10-15 years, many art institutions have been committed to transforming the contemplative, modernist art space into a more socially engaged and supportive platform where audiences are active co-creators of alternative conceptions of the world.

Under terms such as 'The Institution of the Common', 'The Useful Museum' and 'The Constituent Museum', museums, exhibition venues, project spaces and experimental platforms as well as biennials are attempting to self-critically – in the light of overlapping crises – rethink the art space, its position and relation to the audience. This two-day PhD. workshop will focus in particular on the discourse of 'the common' and 'commoning' as an active and equality-orientated practice, that is not only defined at the institutional and curatorial level but takes shape through the creation and establishment of horizontal communities of study and knowledge exchange. A practice that turns existing power relations and predefined roles on their head and, through a bottom-up approach, focuses on social reproduction, support and collective responsibility. And by extension, puts existing financial and colonial logic under pressure by practising ways of being together that are driven by relational ethics of reciprocity and care for all. Through shared discussions of case studies and theory on the common and ‘commoning’, practical exercises, institutional visits and on-site presentations, the workshop raises questions such as: What are the implications when art institutions attempt to move towards a ‘commoning’-oriented practice where resource and knowledge sharing is at the centre?

Target group

PhD students at all stages of their research project dealing with interdisciplinary approaches to art studies. 

Academic Aim

• A theoretical framework for working with ‘the commons’ as both a historical and current concept and a practice.
• To discuss and evaluate recent research in institutional critique, curatorial and artistic studies of self-organization, new institutionalism and ‘commonest’ aesthetics as a mode of critique as well as a political and decolonial topic.
• To introduce new methodologies in curatorial and institutional studies drawing upon feminism, political theory, social and activist movements

Literature

Choi, Binna, Annette Krauss: “Have you had a productive day?” in Choi, Binna, Annette Krauss & Yolanda van der Heide (eds.): Unlearning exercises: art organizations as a site for unlearning, Utrecht, The Netherland, Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons; Amsterdam: Valiz (2018), pp. 165-182 (17 pages)

Choi, Binna, Annette Krauss & Yolanda van der Heide: ”Glossary of terms” in Choi, Binna, Annette Krauss & Yolanda van der Heide (eds.): Unlearning exercises: art organizations as a site for unlearning, Utrecht, The Netherlands, Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons; Amsterdam: Valiz (2018), pp. 183-200 (17 pages)

De Angelis, Massimo: ”Reflections on alternatives, commons and communities and building a new world from the bottom up”, The Commoner, nr. 6, Winter 2003, https://files.libcom.org/files/1_deangelis06.pdf (14 pages)

De Angelis, Massimo, Stavros Stavrides & An Architektur: ”On the Commons: A Public Interview with Massimo De Angelis and Stavros Stravrides, e-flux, #17, juni-august, 2010, http://www.e-flux.com/journal/17/67351/on-the-commons-a-public- interview-with-massimo-de-angelis-and-stavros-stavrides/(17 pages)

De Angelis, Massimo: “The Strategic Horizon of the Commons” in Camille Bargagallo, Nicholas Beuret &

David Harvie (eds.): Commoning. With George Caffentzis and Silvia Federici. London: Pluto Press (2019) pp. 209-222 (13 pages)

Federici, Silvia: ”Feminism and the Politics of the Common in an Era of Primitive Accumulation” in Revolution at Point Zero. Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle, Oakland CA: PM Press (2012), pp. 138-149 (11 pages)

Harney, Stefano & Fred Moten: ”The University and the Undercommons” in The Undercommons. Fugitive Planning and Black Study, New York: Minor Compositions, (2013), pp. 22-44 (22 sider)

Jouwe, Nancy: “Sites for Unlearning in the Museum” in Choi, Binna, Annette Krauss & Yolanda van der Heide (eds.): Unlearning exercises: art organizations as a site for unlearning, Utrecht, The Netherlands, Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons; Amsterdam: Valiz (2018), pp. 129-143 (14 pages)

Midnight Notes Collective: “The New Enclosures”, The Commoner, nr. 2, September 2001 https://files.libcom.org/files/2_02midnight.pdf (15 pages)

Mies, Maria: ”No commons without community”, Community Development Journal, vol. 49, Issue 1 January 2014, https://academic.oup.com/cdj/article/49/suppl_1/i106/307502?login=false (12 pages)

Papastergiadis, Nikos: Museums of the Commons. L’internationale and the Crises of Europe. London & NY: Routledge (2020), pp. 19-49 (30 pages)

Raunig, Gerald: “Flatness Rules. Instituent Practices and Institutions of the Common in a Flat World” in Pascal Gielen (ed.): Institutional Attitudes. Instituting Art in a Flat World. Amsterdam: Valiz (2013), pp. 167-181 (14 pages)

Stavrides, Stavros: ”Crisis and Commoning. Periods of Despair, Periods of Hope. Stavros Stavrides in conversation with Mara Verlic” in Anette Baldauf et al (eds.): Spaces of Commoning. Artistic Research and the Utopia of the Everyday, Berlin: Sternberg Press & Akademie der bildenden Künste, (2016), pp. 48-60 (12 sider)

Course organiser and lecturer

Kathrine Bolt Rasmussen, Postdoc at PASS, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen

Registration

Please register via email to pass@hum.ku.dk no later than 24 September 2024.

Deadline for submission of abstracts

for a presentation with a focus on case studies or keywords is 24 September 2024.

ECTS-credits

• 1.5 ECTS (workshop)
• 3 ECTS (workshop + presentation) 

Workload

Presence total 12 hours + preparation total 42 (84 with presentation) hours.