• Summer School as School 2017
Course 5: The Rearview Mirror
Course leaders: Felix Gmelin and Gustav Annerblom
10 – 15 July, 2017
Maximum number of participants: 10


”Simply put, narrative is the representation of an event or a series of events. ”Event" is the key word here, though some people prefer the word "action." Without an event or an action, you may have a "description," an "exposition,"an "argument," a "lyric," some combination of these or something else altogether, but you won't have a narrative. "My dog has fleas" is a description of my dog, but it is not a narrative because nothing happens. "My dog was bitten by a flea" is a narrative. lt tells of an event. The event is a very small one - the bite of a flea - but that is enough to make it a narrative. Few, if any, scholars would dispute the necessity of at least one event”
The Cambridge introduction to NARRATIVE, H. Porter Abbot

This course is about storytelling - about how to articulate your dreams, memories, personal narratives and subjective experiences - It aims to develop your stories and how you can articulate them, taking into consideration how they relate to the medium and language you choose. We as instructors share our expertise in painting, film production, editing, script writing, film - and art-history in theory and practice, and will try discuss how form follows function within your work to develop it further.

Stories are powerful: they create nations, institutions, religions, dissidents, fear, anger, trust, rebellion and narratives for building families. Media society makes information move fast, but only very few of us manage to develop stories of our own. We would like to help you to develop your own stories, and discuss how one story always overlies another. We are curious to learn how you deal with your stories.

Biography
Felix Gmelin lives and works in Oslo. He studied at the Royal Institute of Art / Kungl. Konsthögskolan in Stockholm 1983—1988 and currently serves as professor in contemporary art at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and teaches at the International Academy of Art in Palestine.

Solo shows include PORTIKUS, Frankfurt a.M; Malmö Konstmuseum and Gasworks, London; Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm; Milliken Gallery, Stockholm; Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam; Vilma Gold, London and maccarone inc., New York, including solo presentations at Premier | Art | Basel and the Frieze Art Fair. Group shows include the 50th Venice Biennale curated by Francesco Bonami and Daniel Birnbaum; the 52nd Venice Biennale curated by Robert Storr; the berlin biennial 4 curated by Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni and Ali Subotnick and the October Salon 2006 in Belgrade curated by Barbara Heinrich and René Block.

In 2010 Gmelin was awarded the Carnegie Art Award ”for a work that is an almost archaeological exploration of the social and political ramifications of the tactility and expressiveness of painting. A key topic in early performance art, Gmelin returns to this field of action in a complex work that reconsiders the painterly “touch” by passing through the media of film, painting and printed stills.”