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About the programme

The MA in Curatorial Practices in Contemporary Art is structured around four vectors that determine contemporary art processes and make essential knowledge for anyone planning to work in curating or art management, or to become an artist. These vectors have been adapted into four corresponding courses.

1. Vision

This course should help students develop a particular vision and understanding of the image. Future curators and art managers will learn to understand and analyze various phenomena related to contemporary visual art practices, from abstract art and the use of found footage in video art to performative experiments. This course consists of three parts (please find their full description in the program introduction):

  • Theory of the Image (understanding images: where they come from and how they function in the contemporary world in general and in visual arts in particular; the study of various theories is based on the distinction between the image from the picture).
  • Science of Seeing (tools that will help students rewire their perception of visual information; theories of perspective (prom linear to perceptive); theories of colour (from the seventeenth to the twentieth century); colour models in graphic editing programs; modeling (the basics of spatial thinking and perception); editing).
  • Alternative Visual Languages (expanded choreography; theatre and new performativity; a focus on the moving image; side notes to cinema vocabulary).

2. Research

The course looks at research as the core element of contemporary art, criticism, and curating. The era of easily available information has brought with it new possibilities in its systematisation and analysis. The course will review key approaches to online and offline research and working with sources: private and public archives, databases, and alternative sources of information. This course also has several subsections.

  • Artistic Research: research based art and the changes in the modes and goals of artistic production.
  • Types and Structure of Modern Research Practices; visual presentation of research materials from infographics to archive and exhibition. Research departments in various institutions and cultural fields: from museums to architecture firms.

3. Interpretation and Analysis

Interpretation of the modernist legacy, postmodern and contemporary works requires a sound understanding of philosophy and of the history of exhibitions of the second half of the twentieth and early twenty-first century. The course will introduce students to various theories of—and approaches to—the interpretation of art; key models and schools of analysis: from the Frankfurt School to postcolonial theory, for example.

4. Media Theory and History

Medium is a key concept in the history of contemporary visual art. Although deconstructed many times, it still has a huge influence on the production of art. The course will look at early media studies including the works of Marshall McLuhan and his school; media critique and media philosophy; deconstruction of the media oriented environment, the concept of media toxicity (Rosalind Krauss) and media archaeology. In addition to that, the following topics will be covered: Materials vs Media; Traditional Media in the Art of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: graphic arts, painting, photography (from Nicéphore Niépce to digital photography) and sculpture (from stone to resins and polymers); New and Newest Media. This course implies students’ involvement in the production of art/exhibitions.

A range of disciplines devoted to the administration and organisation of exhibitions will also be available to students who choose to specialize in curating or art management.

Each course in the program is comprised of theory and practice. Along with the core group of lecturers, courses will be taught by invited experts including artists, architects, researchers, and curators from major international institutions.