JOB OF EXHIBITION AND CULTURAL CRITICIZM
Semester-long educational program
General Description
The course targets young specialists who hold undergraduate or graduate degree in Art History, Cultural Studies and Journalism. It aims to provide training in conceptualization, organization and interpretation of exhibitions in the form of reviews for public journals and magazines.
The Context
The commonplace assumption in Armenia that, without having natural resources, it is with culture that the country has to situate itself within today’s ever-changing world is a misnomer. What is lacking is not the meaning it intends to convey but the conception of the contemporary world as it is implied in it, or at least the idea that this assumption is novel and original. In reality, this way of thinking is popular in almost all progressive and developed countries of the world. From the second part of the 20th century, when the world economy began to undergo systematic changes and non-material mode of production became dominant over the industrial mode of production, culture started to occupy a crucial role. And it is not so much about its material production than its semiotic and communicative aspects. Today, it is not the material production that defines the cultural field of competition. The struggle has been relocated within the sphere of the production and dissemination of the symbolic. Even in outside of the developed countries, investments in the sphere of culture bring about new cultural events on the world map bringing whole cities and countries into a new light. Nevertheless, within this competitiveness resulting in festivalization and bienalization, it is no longer enough to create just an event or even a whole infrastructure in order to bring to light new contexts. Today the struggle is directed towards deciding who is the person (producer, curator, critic, philosopher), who with his/her theoretical research and practical work sets to conceptualize, organize as well as interpret a cultural event or an artistic project. The problem does not reside in the question whether one produces interesting art or not but whether one can represent him/herself or trust this task to someone else. And the problem is not whether one presents his/her own art or someone else’s. To be able to present another’s work adequately is the same as presenting oneself in the best way. These problems of cultural representation and inter/intro-cultural dialogues get transferred onto the sphere of specializations whose function is mediation.
The fact that our perceptions do not correspond to today’s reality can be traced even in the disproportional development of the sphere of cultural and artistic education. If artistic education, with all its flows inherited from the Soviet past, still remains effective in so far as it provides certain technical skills to the artists, preparation of specialists to mediate between the artist and society does not in any way correspond to today’s demands. It is impossible to attribute this lack to the Soviet heritage. Even with the degree of its ideologization, Soviet art education was based on the needs of the industrial society. Whereas specializations within this sphere (organization of exhibitions and publishing, museum studies and cultural studies, cultural communication and interpretation, cultural policy and administration, etc) are largely spheres that have emerged within the semiotic structure of the post-industrial society. On the one hand, these deal with the changing object of contemporary art and culture, and with the changing cultural –spiritual demands of members of the society on the other. Graduates from the departments of art history and cultural studies in Yerevan State University and the Academy of Fine Arts have difficulties even to be included into the fields of historical-theoretical research, thus being unable to apply their knowledge in the field of culture. And this is not only due to the fact that these departments do not provide knowledge in newly emerged disciplines (photography, video, digital art, design, fashion, etc.) but also due to the fact that they are fail to decipher tools to examine new phenomena in art and culture (sociology of culture, applied, semiotics, perceptual esthetics, etc).
The Objectives
The awareness of the above-mentioned problems lies in the foundation of this initiative. Exhibition making is an important sphere in today’s cultural production. The increase of its demand is conditioned by the emergence of free market relations in Armenia and the appearance of private cultural institutions that coexist with the public ones on the one hand and the development of visual and plastic artistic disciplines that entail publishing and exhibiting on the other hand. The need for the interpretation of cultural and artistic phenomena is in turn conditioned by the proliferation of electronic media and the Internet which correspond to the need of large scale dissemination of cultural information. The proposed course, with its aim to democratize art, culture and relevant disciplines, allows the attendants to not only gain necessary theoretical foundations but also to be practically involved in the above-mentioned spheres.
The Organizer
Within its relatively short existence (since 2005), the National Association of Art Critics has managed to implement a large portion of its statuary tasks: the development of art criticism in Armenia, the establishment of the double responsibility of the critic in relation to art and society. In July and October, 2005 in collaboration with the University of Plymouth in the UK, we have organized a one-day colloquium as well as a 4 day symposium The Public Sphere Between Contestation and Reconciliation in Exeter and Yerevan respectively. Apart from several members of the association, artists, art theorists, historians, critics and philosophers from six other countries gave presentations. A documentary film was produced and an anthology of the conference papers was published.
Since 2006 we have been organizing a summer school for contemporary art curators in Yerevan that alongside local participants brings together practicing and prospective young curators from former East bloc countries, Turkey and Iran. The 3rd Summer Seminars for Contemporary Art Curators, which will be held in summer 2008, has widened the geographical scope, involving participants from all over the world. This year’s summer school, in addition, has performative features, since the participants will be developing projects to be implemented during the 6th International Gyumri Biennale. The project is being realized in partnership with SCCA-Ljubljana, SCCA-Alma-Aty and Beral Madra Center for Contemporary Art in Istanbul. The materials of the previous two years of the summer school are in the phase of editing and publication.
We have been conducting preparatory discussions with AICA-International (NAAC became the 67th member and national brunch of AICA-International in 2006) to organize a two-phase regional seminar in Yerevan and Skopje in 2009 which will be dedicated to the contemporary problems of art criticism. We are in the process of developing the web site of the association in order to facilitate an electronic periodical as well as a monthly and tri-monthly art news section. The members of the association actively participate in local and international conferences, seminars and publish in prominent academic and professional periodicals and edited books.
General Organizational Outline
Duration: 6 months
Theoretical courses: 5 months
(200 meeting 2 X 45 min. each)
two-weeks seminars in the curatorial summer school program
(three courses each day)
two weeks practical training in the 6th International Gyumri Biennale
Starts on April 1
The graduation certificate will be awarded to those who fully attend the educational as well as the practical components.
Offered Courses
Educational Unity 1 : History of Contemporary Art
 History of Contemporary Art
Instructor: Vardan Azatyan
The course is about the developments in contemporary art since 1950s. Methodologically, the emphasis will be upon the role of the political “image” of the Soviet Union in the context of the transformation in Euro-American contemporary art. Comparisons will be drawn between Western contemporary art on the one hand and the official art of the Soviet Union and Soviet Armenia on the other. The practical outcome of the course will be the translation of David Hopkins’ After Modern Art: 1945-2000 to which critical comments as articulated during the course will be added.
 History of Armenian Modern and Contemporary Art
Instructor: Lilit Sargsyan
The course deals with the path of Armenian art in the last 100 year, and particularly with the processes that started in the late 19th century, which laid the foundations for Armenian modernism. The aim of the course is to show that the ruptures and delays conditioned by social-political upheavals as well as the appropriation of new media and localization of the means of expression were unable to halt the path through which Armenian art finally rejoined the path of world art development.
Educational Unity 2 : Cultural Theory and Interpretation
 Cultural History and Theory
Instructor: Vardan Jaloyan
The course is a unique attempt to combine traditional methods of teaching cultural history with several elements of post-structuralism analysis. Hence, the desire to present cultural theory from the point of view of other disciplines (sociology, anthropology, philosophy, mythology, psychology, and ethics). The course aims to introduce the participants with historical typologies of the world culture as well as with the popular theories and concepts of contemporary culture, and in particular, with the theories of postmodernism and intercultural communication.
 Aspects of Representation and Interpretation of New Media Art
Instructor: Angela Harutyunyan
The course focuses on the discussion of new media technologies in art production, their impact upon the mechanisms of representation and interpretation since 1960s. Broader theoretical problems, such as the relations between the changing techniques of vision and the status of the spectator, will be addressed. The aim of the course is to discuss the role the new media art played within the context of deconstruction of traditional dichotomies such as the observer/observed and the object and subject of interpretation.
 Urban Environment and Historical-cultural Communication
Instructor: Ruben Arevshatyan
One of the most complex problems of art education is the ability to communicate with the other’s experience. Urban planning and architecture in Armenia have been subject not only to the logic of local developments but also to that of modernist and post-modernist global trends. The course aims to shed light upon concrete developments in the last two hundred years on the example of urban planning and architecture. This introduction will be a starting point to teach the participants practical skills of being receptive to and communicative with other’s cultural experiences.
 The Role of the Body in Contemporary Art
Instructor: Susanna Giulamiryan
The course will discuss those cultural, gender-related, religious and political messages that the representation of the body has been carrying since the second half of the 20th century. We will address the identity crisis which is the basis for problematizing the body, as well as the new modes of collective and individual subjectivity that this entails. The aim of the course is to enable the participants to read and interpret images constituted by individual gestures and social movements.
Educational Unity 3 : Development of Exhibition project
 Methodology of Curatorial Practice
Instructor: Eva Khachatryan
The course will attempt to introduce the main methods and organizational principles of curating exhibitions, having in mind examples produced in the international as well as local contexts. It will be comprised of theoretical and practical sessions during which the participants will have a chance to be introduced to the organizational structures of exhibition-making practices as well as the functions of the figure of its creator – the curator.
 Studio of Exhibition Practices
Instructor: Arman Grigroyan
In the studio, the participants will learn about developing the concept of the exhibitions and its realization in the culturally developed context of the 6th International Gyumri Biennale. We will discuss the thematic and conceptual aspects of the previous five biennales, their relation to the local cultural and political context, aspects of collaboration with local art institutions as well as the role of women artists and practitioners in the realization of the project. As a result of the research, the participants will develop projects (exhibition, publication, research-based, etc) in order to implement them within the framework of the Biennale.
Educational Unity 4 : Institutional environment, Communication and Policy of art
 Contemporary Art and Institutional Systems
Instructor: Ruben Arevshatyan
The institutional field of contemporary art has undergone drastic changes in the last 20-30 years. With their commonalities, institutional structures in different countries have distinct structural and functional features which are conditioned by socio-cultural, political and economic situations in these countries. With local as well as international examples, the course will discuss the role of state cultural policy in the development, presentation and dissemination of contemporary art and culture
 PR training
Instructor: GrigorSymonyan
This training aims to provide with thorough understanding of the theory and practice of Public Relations. The course will highlight the theory of PR and relate it to PR practice nowadays in Armenia. It provides an insight into the theoretical debates of the contemporary Public Relations and PR planning and implementing of the PR campaign. The course will view the theory and practice of the PR from the perspectives of internal and external communications.
 Cultural Policy and State administration
Instructor: Sona Harutyunyan
 The project is being realized with the financial assistance
OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUT ASSISTANCE FOUNDATION - ARMENIA |
