Course Syllabus

Modern Frames: European Art and Cinema

Semester & Location:	Spring 2018 - DIS Copenhagen
Type & Credits:	Art & Visual Culture Core Course - 3 credits
Study Tour:	Prague and Vienna
Major Disciplines:	Art History, Film Studies, Media Studies
Faculty Members:	Andrea Homann & Morten Egholm
Program Coordinator:	Sanne Rasmussen - sra@dis.dk
Time & Place:	Mondays & Thursdays 08:30-09:50 | V10-A13

Course Description

From the great auteurs in European filmmaking to the provocateurs of the contemporary art scene, this course examines artistic practices in European cinema and visual arts. What role do independent film and art movements play in 20^th and 21^st century Europe? How are aesthetics influenced by the changing political landscape? How are intellectuals and artists working during and after Socialism? When do visual arts go beyond consumerism? We will do a case study of subversive art in post-communist Prague and meet with Danish directors to discuss film in the late-capitalist era.

 

Core Course Week including Short Study Tour

The theme of the core course week is Nordic Visual Arts. We start out with a two-day seminar in Copenhagen, focusing on the role of art and cinema in the Nordic countries. The week continues with a three-day study tour to Western Denmark, where we visit AROS, Museum of Modern Art and Øst for Paradis, Art House Movie Theatre in Aarhus.

 

The Long Tour Destinations

Prague

Prague and its Gothic cityscape is an established home for leading artists, film directors, and intellectuals, and the city has a lively artistic subculture. We will utilize post-communist Prague as a case study to identify subversive artistic expression in European cinema and visual arts. Furthermore, we will examine the role of independent film and art movements in 20^th and 21^st century Europe through visits to relevant institutions: DOX Center for Contemporay Art, The Film Department at The Charles University, and lectures and discussions with Filip Remunda, director of Czech Dream, and contemporary local artists.

 

Vienna

Vienna offers an opportunity to interpret the layers of history, from the Baroque city created during the Habsburg Empire to Viennese Actionism. How has radical art undermined and questioned the former imperial city and helped to manifest Vienna as a significant place for contemporary culture in Central Europe? We will explore the relations of Austria and the Czech Republic through the lens of selected artists, such as Egon Schiele, and visit The Film Archive Austria.

 

Instructors

Andrea Homann (andrea.homann@dis.dk)

Dipl.-Ing. (Apparel Engineering/Fashion Design, FH Mönchengladbach, 1989). 1989-1990 Designer at Westfalenstoffe, Münster/Germany, 1990-1993, Educator at the Museum of Contemporay Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Since 1994, Educator at the Danish National Gallery (Statens Museum for Kunst). With DIS since 1997.

 

Morten Egholm (mge@dis.dk)

Ph. D., Film Studies, University of Copenhagen, 2009. Cand. mag., Scandinavian Studies, Film and Media Theory, University of Copenhagen, 1997. Associate professor, Danish Language, Literature and Culture, University of Groningen, The Netherlands, 2002-2006. Has written several articles in Danish, English and Dutch on film history, Danish literature, Danish mentality, and Danish TV series. Editor of the film journal Kosmorama 2010-15. With DIS since 2008, since January 2012 as full time faculty.

  

Course Objectives

• Gain knowledge of the varied manifestations and historical development of modern and contemporary art and film
• Critically evaluate visual culture in the context of current Nordic and larger European issues
• Acquire the ability to formally analyze and discuss specific works and different media
• Practice critical discourse during study tours and classroom sessions
• Enable students in written and oral assignments to discuss and elaborate on the visual qualities and contexts of artistic practice

 

Course Format

This section will meet 18 times during the semester and additional educational time will take place as students travel with faculty through Denmark and Europe. The 18 sessions will be a mix of classroom teaching, field studies to museums and film screenings.

 

Field Studies

Visits to contemporary art institutions, artist studios, and film screenings.

 

Course Requirements

Each student will be assigned a time to give an oral presentation in class while on the long study tour that will reflect a particular aspect or academic interest related to the tour destination.

Each student will produce a longer research paper that focuses on an individually developed topic that relates closely to the course and is handed in at the end of the semester.

A work analysis paper during core class week.

In-class exam with factual and short essay analytical questions.

To be eligible for a passing grade in this class you must complete all of the assigned work.

 

Classroom Etiquette

The use of distracting devices (smartphones, iPads, laptops, etc.) is strictly prohibited during class. Failure to comply will adversely affect participation grades. Use of laptops for the purpose of note-taking requires prior consultation with the professor. Students should refrain from all other computer activities, as they prove distracting to themselves and fellow students. Mobile phones and other electronic devices should of course be turned off and stored away.

 

Grade Components

Assignment	Percent
Midterm exam	25%
Oral presentation	10%
Short paper	15%
Research paper	30%
Participation grade	20%

Course Topics

Rethink Relations – Visual Arts beyond the Frame of Tradition

Based on a selection of case studies, such as arthouse films and participatory art projects, we will both analyze and critically evaluate how artists are expanding the traditional use of media and how they develop artistic expression beyond mainstream in Denmark and other Nordic countries.

 

Modern Frames – The Changing Contexts of Contemporary Artistic Practice

What happens to the realist tradition when European artists visualize the absurd and create works that deliberately explore the world beyond reason?

How does consumerism shape contemporary visual culture? What is subversive art and how does it relate to cultural institutions?

 

Central European Culture during and after Communism

How is artistic production affected by a strict regime of political ideology and repression, and which changes can be observed after the wall came down and the countries were reshaped with new borders?

 

Film Viewings

Please note that it is mandatory to watch each film before the relevant class. Below you will find a schedule of film viewings that allows you the opportunity to view the films together as a class – on a (relatively) big screen. If, for some reason, you are unable to attend a viewing or would like to see a particular film again, it will be available on reserve in a specific semester shelf at the Library (ask one of the librarians). Keep in mind that these films act as the texts of this course and it is therefore necessary to watch each film attentively (i.e. take notes) before the class sessions in which it will be discussed.

 

Each film will be screened once, at 6.30 pm on the given date in The DIS Movie Theatre in the library, Vestergade 23 (unless otherwise noted):

Viewing Dates:	Film:
Friday, January 19	The Celebration
Wednesday, January 31	Melancholia
CORE COURSE WEEK: Monday, February 5	The Passion of Joan of Arc + Darling
CORE COURSE WEEK: Short study tour	Århus By Night
Wednesday, February 14	Closely Watched Trains
Wednesday, February 21	Alois Nebel
Wednesday, February 28	4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
Tuesday, March 13 at 4.00pm-6.00pm	Nordrand
Wednesday, April 4	The Great Beauty
Wednesday, April 11	Czech Dream

Required Reading

http://www.tinaenghoff.com/writings.php?case_id=24 (I'm Nothing, Review by Mette Sandbye, Weekendavisen no. 21, May 28-June 3, 2010)

David Bordwell: The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice, Film Criticism, Vol.4 issue 1, Allegheny College,1979,p. 716-724.

Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen and Bodil Stavning Thomsen, The Body as ”The Place of Passage”, On Spatial Construction of Time in Olafur Eliasson’s Installations, in Globalizing Art, Aarhus University Press, 2011, pp. 87-104.

http://olafureliasson.net/archive/read/MDA109985/your-engagement-has-consequences

Claire Bishop, The Social Turn: Collaboration and its Discontents,in Artificial Hells,Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship, London, Verso, 2012, p.11-40.

http://superflex.net/tools/superkilen

http://superflex.net/texts/superflexs_tools

André Bazin: The Evolution of the Language of Cinema, From What is Cinema, Film Theory and Criticism, Introductory Readings, 4^th ed., Oxford University Press, 1992, p.155-167.

Peter Hames: The Czechoslovak New Wave, Introduction, Wallflower Press,2005, p.1-9; p. 151-166.

Peter Hames: Czech and Slovak Cinema,Introduction, Edinburgh University Press, 2010,p.1-13.

Adam Bingham: Jiri Menzel in Directory of World Cinema: East Europe, 2011,Mast & Kawin (2011), p.436-440.

Gerald Mast and Bruce F. Kawin, A Short History of the Movies, Pearson, 2010 (excerpts)

Alessandra Comini, Egon Schiele: Redefining Portraiture in the Age of Angst, in Egon Schiele Portraits, Prestel, 2014, pp.15-38.

Tobias Natter, Gustav Klimt – No More Than A Goldsmith? In Gustav Klimt: Painting, Design, and Modern Life, Tate, London, 2008, 12-23, 236-237.

Peter Hames: Czech and Slovak Cinema, chapter 10: Animation

Press material for Alois Nebel (on Canvas)

Eva Badura Triska, The Fruits of Repression, in Body, Psyche and Taboo, Vienna Actionism and Early Vienna Modernism, Walther König, Köln, 2016, p.9-23.

http://hyperallergic.com/148596/blood-and-soil-vienna-actionisms-dangerous-game/

http://sensesofcinema.com/2003/peter-tscherkassky-the-austrian-avant-garde/expanded_cinema/

Dominique Nasta: Contemporary Romanian Cinema: The History of an Unexpected Miracle,Wallflower Press, 2013. p.181-200.

Miroslav Lamac, Czech Cubism: Points of Departure and Resolution, 1990, 54-63.

Czech Surrealism: http://www.surrealismcentre.ac.uk/papersofsurrealism/journal3/acrobat_files/lenka.pdf

http://www.ubu.com/papers/breton_surrealism_manifesto.html 

Robert von Dassanowsky & Oliver C. Speck: New Austrian Film: The Non-exceptional Exception (excerpts)

Misko Suvkovic, Art as a Political Machine in,Ales Erjavec, Postmodern and Postsocialist Condition, Politicized Art under Late Socialism,Berkely, University of California Press,2003, p.90-107, 132-133.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/05/world/europe/05cerny.html?_r=0 (David Cerny) http://monoskop.org/Milan_Kn%C3%AD%C5%BE%C3%A1k (Milan Knizak)

Boris Groys, Beyond Diversity,Cultural Studies and its Post-Communist Other, in Boris Groys, in Art Power, MIT Press, Canbridge, 2008, p149-163. 

 

Academic Regulations  

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:

• Course Enrollment and Grading
• Attendance
• Coursework, Exams, and Final Grade Reports

 

DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org