Online Courses

Environmental Thinking in Artistic and Curatorial Practices

Lecturer: Emanuele Guidi

Course dates: 6 May + 13 May 2023, 2–6pm (CEST)
Maximum participants: 20

⮕ Enrol here until 29 April 2023
Special Fee: 280 CHF

The course is designed to introduce you to the latest theories and artistic practices surrounding the expanded notion of “environment” and environmental thought and to explore how it has transformed across time, as well as its reciprocity with fields like postcolonial theory, feminism, and institutional critique.

We will look into the “geological turn” that emerged from the theory of the Anthropocene and its critiques and then introduce more complex approaches to this umbrella term.

The course will unfold through various examples of curatorial and artistic work in order to situate the discussion at the intersection of environmental and cultural discourses and their terminologies: we will start with a critical reading of more canonical artistic movements widely known as Environmental/Land/Earth Art. We will then explore artistic experiences that arose during those same years, promoting more process-oriented, pedagogical and collective approaches (Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Gianfranco Baruchello, and Gordon Matta-Clark, among others). Finally, we will focus on present-day artistic practices that have critically expanded these ideas towards a more circular and “sustainable” way of thinking at the intersection between the natural and the built environment, sciences, economics, and art-making.

Emanuele Guidi is a writer, curator and researcher based in Berlin.
Guidi is PhD candidate in Practice in Curating at the University of Reading & Zurich University of the Arts with a research titled “Like a Mountain / Like a Mall, How Institutions think within their Environment”. He teaches both Methodologies for Art & Ecology and Museology at NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (Milan and Rome).
From 2013 and 2022 he was artistic director at ar/ge kunst, Kunstverein of Bolzano (Italy) where he carried on a program of commissions and productions, exploring the mutual relationship between visual art and publishing, architecture, live arts and theory. At ar/ge kunst he curated solo shows by, a.o. Mohamed Bourouissa, Ho Tzu Nyen, Jumana Manna, Slavs and Tatars, Otobong Nkanga.
Further recent curated projects include: hostileenvironments.eu (online platform and symposium, 2020-2021), Silver Rights, Elena Mazzi (Södertäljie Konsthal, Sweden 2021), Shadow Writings, Lorenzo Sandoval (Centro Párraga, Murcia, 2020).
Among his edited publications: Silver Rights, (Archive Books, 2021, with E. Mazzi), Image Diplomacy, Vladislav Shapovalov (Mousse, 2020, with A. Siclodi); Spaces of Anticipation (Oncurating Journal, 2018, with L. Sandoval); The Variational Status (Humboldt Books, 2017 with R. Giacconi); Rehearsing Collectivity – Choreography Beyond Dance (Argobooks, 2012, with E. Basteri, E. Ricci); Urban Makers – Parallel Narratives of Grassroots Practices and Tensions (Bbooks, 2008).

Caption: Otobong Nkanga, Veins Aligned, 2018. Installation view at ar/ge kunst. Photo: Tiberio Sorvillo.

Preparation for the course:
Please use a headset (or headphones) and stay in a quiet place with a stable internet connection. Please read the texts which you will get access to once you have booked the course.

Procedure
This intensive two-part direct live teaching course will be held over Zoom on two consecutive Saturdays, 2–6pm CET. Please prepare a very short introduction of yourself. The first session will be used for an in-depth introduction to the topic, and workshop research. Assignments will be given for the second session. Feedback and evaluation will be given in the second session. After successful completion, a certificate with 1 ECTS point will be handed out.

Technical instructions
Download the Zoom application. You will find a detailed installation guide here. Zoom can be also used in a browser window on a Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone, Android tablet or Android phone. You will find a Zoom invitation with a link to access the workshop.