This class is a collaboration between the Asociación de Arte Útil* and a series of guests and institutions invited to be active partners in this module focused on Arte Útil practices taking place in the Netherlands.
Arte Útil, a concept developed by Tania Bruguera, roughly translates into English as "useful art," but it goes further suggesting art as a tool or device. The notion of what constitutes Arte Útil has been arrived at via a set of criteria formulated by Bruguera and curators at the Queens Museum, New York; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; and Grizedale Arts, Coniston.
The module is organised as practice-based training, where instructors will give a broad introduction to the Arte Útil archive, the criteria, some notions around radical/critical pedagogy and the development of a constellation of projects worldwide, which have been developed since 2013 by a flexible group of engaged artists, curators and citizens. Moreover, students will be able to visit some pioneer institutions in the Netherlands, which have been developing different approaches to socially engaged practices and political art and challenging how art history has been told. Students will work in groups to engage with the selection criteria and the theoretical framework these criteria embody, as well as the partners invited to present their projects.
For 6 weeks students will work closely with artists and organisations to gain insights into the practice through a learning-by-doing approach.
Finally, through a series of reading groups, students will engage with different theoretical approaches to the practice, and they will help in identifying new works to add to the archive and to explore ways to support the expansion and mediation of the Arte Útil archive as a project in itself.
👉 Gain and hone collaboration skills
👉 Gain experience in selecting work for the archive according to the developed criteria
👉 Experience firsthand the process and dynamics of producing an ambitious and evolving project
👉 Explore the relationship between research, authorship and art production
From week 4 to week 5, students will be mentored by an artist or a collective for practice-based training.
Mentors for this class were: Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson, based between Rotterdam and Reykjavik; Rebeca Gomperts, initiator of Women on Waves, based in Amsterdam; project Freehouse in Rotterdam; Kevin van Braak, based in Arnhem; Hans Kalliwoda, initiator of the project BeeCare Amsterdam; Foundation We Are in Eindhoven; and Gluklya, based in Amsterdam.
DAY 1
The definition of Arte Útil has arrived at via a set of criteria formulated in 2013 for Tania Bruguera’s exhibition The Museum of Arte Útil presented at the Van Abbemuseum (07.12.2013 – 30.03.2014). In this first session, we will analyse the 8 criteria* that researchers have followed in composing the Arte Útil archive that was the core of the exhibition.
👓 Bruguera, T. (2016) Reflexions on Arte Útil (Useful Art). In Aikens, N. et al. (eds): What’s the Use? Constellations of Art, History and Knowledge: A critical Reader. Amsterdam: Valiz pp. 316-317
📺 Tania Bruguera speaks about The Museum of Arte Útil
Exercise: The Coefficient of Art*
Think about a project of yours (it does not matter if it is not framed as an art project) or a project you like. According to the Arte Útil criteria, try to define a numerical value that corresponds to the coefficient of art of your project. Assign to each criterion a value from 1 to 10; sum the total and divide it by the number of the criteria (8); then you have your coefficient. Explain why you got that value and think about the relativity of that same value.
How do you feel about assigning a numerical value to art?
🎧 Duchamp, M. (1957), The Creative Act [mp3]. New York: Aspen Magazine.
Visit: Van Abbemuseum and Musical Tour with the museum's choir
DAY 2
This day is dedicated to visiting organisations in Eindhoven that are developing projects applying principles that are close to those of Arte Útil. Whether it is about social design or the application of new technologies within the arts, these organisations use art as a tool to foster societal change.
Visit: Foundation We Are
Visit: Baltan Laboratories
Exercise: Reading Group
👓 Wright, S. (2013) Toward a lexicon of Usership. Eindhoven: Van Abbemuseum
DAY 1
This week is centred on understanding how different art institutions in the country are reacting to the emergence of movements for the emancipation of people who have been silenced by those in power.
How are art institutions dealing with their sometimes problematic history?
What legacy do they want to leave behind?
What can art do to provoke institutional change?
Visit: The Black Archives, Amsterdam
Visit: Exhibition 'Afterlives of Slavery' at the Tropen Museum, Amsterdam
👓 Gloria Wekker, “...For even though I am black as soot, my intentions are good: the case of Zwarte Piet/Black Pete' in White Innocence, Duke University Press, Durham and London, 2016.
DAY 2
Visit: Exhibition 'Silence is a Common' at Casco Art Institute, Utrecht
Visit: Exhibition 'Training for the Not-Yet' at Basis voor Aktuele Kunst, Utrecht
👓 Jeanne van Heeeswijk: “The artist has to decide to whom to serve”, in Social housing, housing the social, SKOR: Rotterdam, 2012., pp.79-89.
Guest of week 3 is Lodovica Guarnieri, a researcher, designer and artist whose work draws upon the entanglements between ecology and modern infrastructures.
Through her project (Un)just Peace, she proposes an architecture tour which explores The Hague as a battleground. The architecture of the city materialises the progression of Western values of internationalism, democracy, and justice, through its buildings which house European institutions such as the Peace Palace, but also the Europol and the International Criminal Court and so on.
The tour reveals how the so-called 'City of Peace' hides invisible structures and networks of the European military and economic agenda.
The project's aim is to address questions such as:
What do these buildings represent?
How can we discover what's beyond the official narrative?
What stories are hidden in the architectural planning and the use of “nature”?
How do the buildings and their surroundings control our behaviour and affect our perception? How can we analyze the different layers of meaning and representation?
🎧 You can use the (Un)just Peace audioguide to explore the locations in The Hague
DAY 1
Architecture Tour with Lodovica Guarnieri
DAY 2
Workshop with Lodovica Guarnieri
Bring with you an object, the representation of a building and/or landscape, a film, a song, a photo, a material - synthetic and/or natural - that you believe relates to colonial heritage or violence in the built environment.
This object can be linked either to a familiar place or to the city where you are at the moment.
These objects will be used to develop a timeline and to investigate what a chronology for research could be.
DAY 1
Studio Practice with artists and collectives
DAY 2
Exercise: Reading Group
👓 Tania Bruguera, Reflexions on Arte Útil (Useful Art), in: What’s the Use? Constellations of Art, History and Knowledge: A critical Reader, Valiz, Amsterdam, 2016
Exercise: What does it mean for you ‘utopia’?
(40’ for definition, 60’ discussion)
Try to define the concept, imagining the impossible. It is not a place, it is not a time. Give us an example of something (a situation, an imaginary world, etc.) that could be close to your idea of ‘utopia’.
Add as many details as possible to your idea.
Transform your utopia into something real or possible. Try to think about strategies, tactics, collaborators, and so on, that can help you make your utopian project real.
DAY 1
Studio Practice with artists and collectives
DAY 2
Exercise: Reading Group
👓 Marina Garcés (2012) ‘Honesty with the real’, Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 4:1
Exercise: What does it mean to be honest in social practice?
(1 hour)
Think about the relationship between you and your collaborators or audience. What are your tools to explore the idea of 'us'?
Think about any example of site-specific artwork, public art or socially engaged art project that has been rejected or hardly criticized by the people for whom it was made. Why did it happen?
Think about hierarchies, parachuting artists, social conditions, authorship, local knowledge, and misuse. How could it have been done differently?
Make a list with the Dos and Don'ts of socially engaged art practices. Remember: although Dos are what we strive for, in reality, the Don’ts would often happen, therefore try to imagine how to deal with them.
DAY 1
Studio Practice with artists and collectives
DAY 2
Exercise: Reading Group
👓 Foucault, M: ‘On other spaces: Utopias and heterotopias’, in: Architecture /Mouvement/ Continuité, October, 1984; (“Des Espace Autres,” March 1967. Translated from the French by Jay Miskowiec.
Exercise: Unpacking the concept of Heterotopia
(1 hour)
Select a project from the Arte Útil archive and explore it under the lens of the Heterotopia or the 'outer spaces' concept. Think about how creativity and aesthetics are used or applied.
Did the project change any rules, challenge rules and conventions?
Is the project transformative? How?
What metaphors have been used in its realisation, if any?
DAY 1
Studio Practice with artists and collectives
DAY 2
Exercise: Reading Group
👓 Condorelli, C. (2014) The Company She Keeps, Book Works, Chisenhale Gallery, London, and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.
Exercise: On Friendship - Is it possible to describe friendship neutrally?
(40' writing, 60' discussion)
Write the definition of friendship for Wikipedia and find an image to illustrate your text. Try to isolate some key terms to be used as tags.
Compare your text with the official definition on Wikipedia: what are the differences and the similarities? Which were the challenges in writing the definition?
Now, write a short text about what friendship means for you and find an image to illustrate your text. Try to isolate some key terms to be used as tags.
What is more difficult writing the first or the second definitions? Why? How many positive and negative feelings do you have towards friendship?
DAY 1
Studio Practice with artists and collectives
DAY 2
Exercise: Reading Group
👓 Groys, B. (2014) ‘On Art Activism’, In: e-flux Journal #56, June 2014.
Exercise: What does an artist do?
In 20 minutes, write the definition of ‘Artist’ for Wikipedia and choose an image and a quote to illustrate your definition. Compare it with that included on Wikipedia.
In 20 minutes, write the definition of ‘Activist’ for Wikipedia and choose an image and a quote to illustrate your definition. Compare it with that included on Wikipedia.
What are the differences and the similarities? Which were the challenges in writing the definition?
Try to isolate some key words to be used as tags.
Feel free to be a ‘digital activist’: add your edits on Wikipedia!
DAY 1
Students will prepare a presentation of their collaboration with mentors. The presentation can have any format, but it should be up to 20'.
DAY 2
Workshop: Stories of Roots with Miyu Yamamoto
Storie of Roots is a project that explores people's relationship with racism and other forms of social oppression through making Omusubi. Developed by Miyu Yamamoto, it uses food and art as tools to enhance intercultural understanding. Stories of Roots developed as part of Miyu's research that led to her Master's Thesis.
During the workshop, students will explore their stories through sensory experience. They will make Omusubi - a rice ball filled with different ingredients - that will be used as a canvas to explore their personal stories and relate to each other.