B5381 - Seminar (1) (LM)

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

Students acquire the main skills to intervene in both academic research and public debates on the most urgent contemporary issues related to arts and cultural heritage. Accordingly, students also learn about the relevance of arts and heritage for wider political and public debates. The seminar may involve various formats (lectures, conferences, study days, curatorial projects, installations etc.) and ensures the integration of theories with practices.

Contenuti

SEMINAR: "DECOLONIZE THIS SPACE"!

 

This seminar aims at engaging students with colonial traces in urban landscapes and heritage, and aims at engaging with reflections and practices around the coloniality of power in present times. More widely, the seminar offers a space to reflect and learn on the persistence of the coloniality of power in and beyond art spaces, and on issues of resistance, transformation and reparation.

Through the seminar we hope to contribute to creating spaces of debate around public issues such as colonial past and ongoing legacies and their subversion. We will also focus on discourses and aesthetic representations which normalise racial hierarchies and racism. We will reflect on what resistance (or dissensus) can look like in political art and public and spatial interventions such as urban interruptions and resignification, aesthetic disruptions, artistic/aesthetic protests, public discourses around reparation and restitution (Rhodes Must Fall Movement, Slavery Inquiries, Artifacts restitution etc).

Renown scholars, architects, anthropologists and artists will be contributing to the seminar with guest lectures.

The overarching conceptual framework of the seminar stems from Jacques Ranciere’s insights on the relation between aesthetics and politics in the production of consensus and dissensus. Notably, dissensus must cut across and destabilise consensus -that is assigned hierarchies and normative forms of belonging, genres and discourses - by introducing new subjects and objects into the field of perception. By focusing on the aesthetic dimension of politics and the political dimension of art, students will be encouraged to think of ways to challenge dominant representations (consensus) and bring about dissensus. Our explorations of these issues will draw from different contexts and historical experiences across Europe, the Middle East and Africa

Our seminar will be articulated through a combination of lectures and guest lectures, class discussions, presentations, walks and a private visit to the Biennale.

Guest speakers include:

Alessandro Petti and Sandi Hilal, Founders of the Decolonising Architecture, Art, Research and Winners of the Golden Lion for Best Participation at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, for their long-standing commitment to deep political engagement with architectural and learning practices of decolonization in Palestine and Europe.

https://www.decolonizing.ps/site/about/

Nicola Perugini, Associate Professor, University of Edinburgh, and curator of "La Pelle Sotto, Decolonizzare Villa Marina"

https://artslife.com/2024/07/20/la-pelle-sotto-decolonizzare-villa-marina-a-pesaro-la-ricerca-partecipativa-che-riflette-sul-colonialismo-italiano-intervista-a-tommaso-fiscaletti-e-nicola-perugini/

Victoria Klinkert, Researcher, University of St Gallen

"Reckoning with Empire: from ignorance to responsibility"

:https://www.unisg.ch/en/newsdetail/news/how-great-britain-is-coming-to-terms-with-its-imperial-past/

Annalisa Frisina, University of Padova.

Decolonize the city. Reflections from visual practices of decolonisation

https://www.roots-routes.org/decolonize-your-eyes-padova-pratiche-visuali-di-decolonizzazione-della-citta-di-annalisa-frisina-mackda-ghebremariam-tesfau-e-salvatore-frisina/

  Decolonial Walk in Cirenaica (Tbc)

Students enrolled in the seminar will be invited to a special event:

Visit to "Arab voices" at the Venice Biennale initiative (8th October 2025)

Students will be invited to participate to a private visit "Arab presence at the Venice Biennale ". This will include a private tour of the Arab pavilions ( Lebanon, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Bahrain, Oman) at the Biennale together with students from Ca' Foscari, IUAV, and University of Padova. This session explores Arab voices through a curated tour of the Biennale, highlighting this year’s theme, "Intelligens," as interpreted by the Arab pavilions. A special contribution from Beatrice Leanza, curator of the Saudi Pavilion, will provide insights into the process of curating a national pavilion and its public programme. Venice-based Palestinian artist Jasmine Barri will join the discussion to share her work, which focuses on diaspora and memory. Board members from The New Arab will present their ongoing media coverage of Arab presences at the Venice Biennale and reflect on its international impact.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

The seminar is exam free. It gives students a pass or non pass (idoneita').

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Ruba Salih