The course researches assemblage, both as process and as a product.
Tutor(s)
Eleni Kamma, PhDarts candidate
For whom?
For 2nd, 3rd an 4th year BA students of the KABK and Leiden University
When?
Semester I in the Fall of 2020 (Sept-Dec 2020), 8 meetings
Study load
3 ECT (32 contact hours and 52 self study hours)
About this course
The course researches assemblages, both as process and as a product. It explores how this medium historically led to new forms, by redefining and transforming standard ways of relating heterogeneous materials and fragments of materials. During the course, assemblages will be brought
into dialogue with the theory, the history, and the sociopolitical conditions surrounding them. The students will develop their own assemblage practice with a vast variety of materials and media, and critically assess the process of creation.
For 2nd, 3rd and 4th year BA students of the KABK and BA students of Leiden University.
Full attendance is obligatory in order to receive study points towards the Individual Study Trajectory (3 EC).
Max. 12 students can apply for the course.
The course will be in English.
There are no admission requirements for this elective course.
Apply between Thursday 17 and 24 September 2020 by registering for the course in OSIRIS for KABK students.
For questions Emily Huurdeman, coordinator of the lectorate, at lectoraatktp@kabk.nl.
As a result of taking this course the students will learn about the history of assemblage as a term, a concept and an artistic medium, as well as about artistic strategies associated with it. They will be able to experiment with combining heterogeneous fragments and/or materials in their own practice. Through this course the students will be able to further reflect on their own motives and drives for relating and assembling and consequently better contextualize their own position. At the end of the course the students will be able to open up to the public their research process into experimental forms and ways of assembling and relating through a presentation/exhibition.
The students will engage in the discussions during the course. They will present their ideas and reflect upon them, as well as exchange opinions regarding the individual practices and ideas of their fellow students-participants. At the end of the course, they will present their findings in an exhibition and write a (reflection) paper.
Wednesdays from 15.00-19.00h
- #1 Wednesday 30-09-2020 (PA.007 and PA.009)
- #2 Wednesday 07-10-2020 (online)
- #3 Wednesday 14-10-2020 (PA.007 and PA.009)
- #4 Wednesday 28-10-2020 (PC.202)
- #5 Wednesday 04-11-2020 (PC.214)
- #6 Wednesday 11-11-2020 (online)
- #7 Wednesday 25-11-2020 (PA.007 and PA.009)
- #8 Wednesday 02-12-2020 (PC.202)
- Franco Berardi, And. Phenomenology of the end. Cognition and sensibility in the transition from conjunctive to connective mode of social communication, Helsinki: Aalto ARTS Books, 2014.
- Nicolas Bourriaud, Postproduction. Culture as Screenplay: How Art Reprograms the World, New York: Lukas & Sternberg, 2002. Translated by Jeanine Herman.
- Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics, Dijon-Quetigny: Les presses du réel, 2002. Translated by Simon Pleasance, Fronza Woods, Mathieu Copeland.
- John Elderfield (ed.), Essays on Assemblage, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992.
- Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social, New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
- William C. Seitz, The Art of Assemblage, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1961.
THEMES AND LECTURES
- The group participants briefly introduce themselves and the reasons for selecting this course, as well as their expectations.
- Introduction to Assemblage’s predecessors, poets and artistic movements.
- Lecturing by drawing examples from “The liberation of words” (Guillaume Appolinaire, Dada, Surealism) and “The liberation of objects” (Picasso, Braque, Gris, Hausman, Duchamps, Schwitters), from the book The Art of Assemblage. Assemblage in the 60’s as new medium. Presenting examples of artists and how they worked with assemblage: Meret Oppenheim, Marcel Broodthaers et cetera.
During Session #2 we will do a collective reading of Laurence Alloway, Marcel Duchamp, Richard Huelsenbeck, Robert Rauschenberg, Roger Shattuck, William C. Seitz, moderator (1961) ‘The Art of Assemblage: A Symposium’ in: John Elderfield (ed.), Essays on Assemblage, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992, pp. 118-160.
Small Break
Each student briefly presents to the group the material related to his/her ideas, questions to develop and work with during the course. Each presentation is followed by a brief discussion.
Required preparation: Each student assembles and brings relevant material (images, sketches, music, objects, models) to the ideas and questions he/she wants to develop through the course.
Required reading preparation:
- William C. Seitz, ‘The Realism and Poetry of Assemblage’ and ‘Attitudes and Issues’ in: The Art of Assemblage, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1961, pp. 81-92.
Relating and assembling in the 1990's. Relational Aesthetics. Assemblage and Appropriation.
Assembling and relating in the 1990s. Lecturing on Bourriaud’s Relational Aesthetics. Assemblage and linguistics, assemblage in comparison to the concept of a remix in music (see Nicolas Bourriaud in Postproduction). Assemblage becoming a type of appropriation. Artistic examples of that period: Mike Kelley, Pierre Hygue, Mike Nelson et cetera.
Required reading preparation:
- Nicolas Bourriaud, ‘The Flea Market: The dominant Art form of the nineties’, ‘The Use of Forms’, ‘Deejaying and Contemporary Art: Similar Configurations’ in: Postproduction. Culture as Screenplay: How Art Reprograms the World, New York: Lukas & Sternberg, 2002, pp. 28-45. Translated by Jeanine Herman.
Group Discussion. Students present their thoughts and new material tests following their required preparation. Feedback. Choosing orientation; focusing on the process or towards a final work.
Required preparation: Students elaborate on the discussions of Session # 1, 2 and 3. How did the input affect their initial ideas and questions? How do they intend to make them visible, give them a form?
Relating and assembling in times of hyperconnectivity. Bruno Latour's Re-assembling the social. Judith Butler's Notes toward a performative theory of Assembly. Post-Internet Art.
Group discussion of Berardi’s text and relevant material. Examples (short films, documentaries, accessible online) of artists and artworks related to the texts above. Introducing Manuel Da Landa’s Assemblage Theory (2016), specifically chapter 7: ‘Assemblages as solutions to problems’.
Required reading preparation:
· Franco Berardi, ‘Concatenation conjunction connection’ in: And. Phenomenology of the end. Cognition and sensibility in the transition from conjunctive to connective mode of social communication, Helsinki: Aalto ARTS Books, 2014, pp. 9-24.
· Bruno Latour, ‘Introduction: How to resume the Task of Tracing Associations’ in: Reassembling the Social, New York: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 1-17.
Group Discussion. Students present their thoughts and new material tests following their required preparation. Feedback. Choosing orientation; focusing on the process or towards a final work.
Required preparation: Students elaborate on the discussions of the previous sessions. How did the input affect their initial ideas and questions? How do they intend to make them visible, give them a form?
Individual talks and feedback prior to the final presentation
Final presentation.
BIOGRAPHY
Eleni Kamma (1973, CY/GR) studied at the Chelsea College of Art & Design in London (MA) and the Athens School of Fine Arts (BA). In 2008/2009 she was a Fine Art Researcher at the Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht. Her practice moves along a Moebius strip schema, that keeps circulating from her as individual artist (through drawings and objects), to dialectic collaborations (films, performative events, a journal) and writing about it. In her recent site-specific projects Kamma revisits old popular entertainment traditions, such as parades, the theatre of shadows, Ottava Rima Duels and choirs. Such theatrical forms have the potential to revitalize dormant powers within a specific locality and may therefore trigger social awareness and enable the expression of political consciousness. Since 2014, Kamma is part of the artist run organization Jubilee – Platform for artistic research and production. She lives and works in Brussels and Maastricht.
This course is part of the Art Research Programme of the Lectorate Art Theory & Practice.