Course 4: Should contemporary art be critical?
Course leader: Miran Mohar
9 - 17 July, 2016
Course Description:
The course will be focused on a practical process to finish one artwork during the time of the course in any chosen medium.
Participants will be asked to explore the questions of should the contemporary art production be critical and can contemporary art be critical today and if so in what circumstances. Should artists try to construct new possibilities instead of being just critical or making critical interventions? What can be constructive and also political in various local situations we are living and working in? Should our specific locality have an impact on our art? How should our needs be reflected in the art production in places where the art system does not exist or is poorly developed.
Participants should have this in mind when working on artifacts or projects during this workshop. Students can come with already prepared concepts and ideas. They can also develop the artwork during the duration of the course. For more complex projects, which need more time, they will be able to develop them only in written concepts, sketches or more advanced proposals. Throughout the workshop we will discuss the ideas and follow their developments and material implementation. We will comment on the process of producing their artworks on the conceptual as well technological level. We will have group and individual tutorials. Keep in mind that comments by course colleagues can also be very valid.
Preferable media:
Mixed media, painting, photography, video, indoor installation, computer work.
Students should provide their own materials.
Biography
Miran Mohar (born 1958 in Novo Mesto, Slovenia) is an artist based in Ljubljana. He is a member of the Irwin artists group and a co-founder of the Neue Slovenishe Kunst art collective, the graphic design studio New Collectivism and the Scipion Nasice Sisters Theatre.
Together with four other members of Irwin (Dušan Mandič, Andrej Savski, Roman Uranjek and Borut Vogelnik) he has participated in all Irwin projects and exhibitions since 1984. Here are some of them: Hans in Luck - Art and Capital, Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, 2014; Former West, HKW, Berlin, Art Turning Left, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, 2013; A Bigger Splash, Tate Modern, London; NSK Passport Office, Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Manifesta, Genk, 2012, The Global Contemporary. The Art Worlds after 1989, ZKM /Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe; Impossible Communities, State Museum of Modern Art, Moscow; The International, MACBA, Barcelona, 2011 / Paris, The Promises of the Past, Centre Pompidou, 2010 / Moscow,Third Moscow Biennial, New Old Cold War, 2009 / Krems, Kunsthalle Krems, State in Time, 2009 / Taipei, Taipei Biennial, 2008 / New York, Museum of Modern Art, Eye on Europe: Prints, Books & Multiples, 1960 to Now, 2006 / Istanbul, Istanbul Biennial , 2005 / Venice, Venice Biennial, Personal Systems, 2003 / Berlin, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Retroprincip, 2003 / Berlin, Gropius Bau, Berlin-Moscow /Moscow-Berlin, 2003 / Hagen, Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum, Museotopia, 2002 / Rome, Galeria Moderna e Contemporanea, Le Tribu' del'arte, 2002 / Vienna, Museum of 20th Century, Aspects and positions, 1999 / Istanbul, Istanbul Biennial, 1997 / Rotterdam, Boyman Museum, Manifesta, 1996 / Ljubljana, Moscow, Apt Art and Ridzina Gallery, NSK Embassy – Moscow, 1992, Moderna galerija, Slovenske Atene, 1991 / Düsseldorf, Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 1988, London, Riverside Gallery, 1887
As a member of the New Collectivism graphic design team he co-designed numerous books, posters and other graphic design products for the following institutions: P.S.1/ MOMA New York, Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana, Kunst Werke Berlin, Irwin, Laibach, Scipion Nasice Sisters Theatre, En Knap Dance Company, Castello Di Rivoli, Kampnagel, and others.
Since 1983 he has made several set designs for the following theatre and dance companies: Randy Warshaw Dance Company, Scipion Nasice Sisters Theatre, Red Pilot and En Knap Dance Company.
He is also a co-founder and member of architectural movement Maja Farol and a member of European Cultural Parliament since 2001. From 2008 he is also a lecturer, head of fine art department and vice-dean at AVA, Academy of Visual arts in Ljubljana.
He was also a tutor at the SCCA World of Art curatorial school in years 2002/2003 and 2002/2013.