Application window: February 17–March 15, 2023
HDK-Valand invites participation in three international courses oriented to different aesthetico-political programmes of enquiry and practice. These courses are by distance and blended education (online with additional opportunities to meet face-to-face), free to EU nationals, delivered in English, and bearing 15 ECTS.
The trio of courses emerge from, and feed into, ongoing research projects that focus on different aspects of political imaginaries, and that are currently underway within our academy and across our wider networks of affiliation. The courses also draw upon HDK-Valand’s collaboration in research and publishing partnership projects with PARSE, L’Internationale Online, Afterall Books: Exhibition Histories and VECTOR among others.
Summer 2023: Introduction to Contemporary Art and Politics (VFSPOL) undergraduate
A survey course that introduces key political themes in relation to contemporary art practices, theories and institutions. It is informed by ongoing research and operates as a summer-long collaborative enquiry. The course is based on online presentations, seminars, and supervision in combination with an on-site “meet up” IRL in Barcelona (July 18–20). The course is co-taught by Nkule Mabaso, Thiago de Paula Souza and Mick Wilson. For more see the course advance information page.
Summer 2023: Individual Project Work I— More-Than-Human Realms and Art (VSIND1) undergraduate
This course attends to socially engaged arts practices with a specific focus on questions of the “more-than-human” realm. This approach to the social, to place, and to art through the “more-than-human” is a research-led and collaborative framework realised in partnership with colleagues from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art. The course is based on online presentations, seminars, and supervision in combination with on-site / hybrid intensive workshops. The following “meet up” IRL sessions are planned; (i) Gothenburg, Sweden (June 5–7); (ii) Copenhagen, Denmark (date pending); (iii) Gothenburg, Sweden (August 17–18). This year the teaching team comprises: Åsa Sonjasdotter, Ewa Einhorn, Katarina Stenbeck, and Tintin Wulia. For more see the course information page.
Autumn 2023: Art and Politics—On Friendship and the Political Imaginary (FKAKPO) graduate
An experimental course at advanced level, on thinking the figure of “the friend” through intersections of contemporary art, philosophy, social and political theory, and cultural history. A combined intensive and extensive reading approach introduces key themes and questions on the political imaginary and the onto-epistemology of friendship, with particular reference to contemporary art and curatorial practices, theories, and institutions. The course was originally developed in 2021 as a collaboration between Steven Henry Madoff and Mick Wilson. Guest presenters in previous years include: Kathrin Böhm, Céline Condorelli, Gary Farrelly, Quinsey Gario, Walter Mignolo, Jota Mombaça, Ratna Mufida, Sarah Pierce, Bojana Piškur, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Helena Reckitt, Grace Samboh, Sibyl A. Schwarzenbach, Shuddha Sengupta, and Claire Tancons. The guest speakers for 2023 will be announced shortly. For international PhD students, it is also possible to audit this course as a guest researcher. The following optional “meet up” IRL sessions are provisionally planned: (i) Helsinki (September 13–14); (ii) Warsaw (date pending); (iii) Gothenburg, Sweden (November 15–17) during PARSE conference; (iv) Barcelona, Spain (December 13–15). For more see the course advance information page.
Apply
Application here (for international applicants) and here (for Swedish applicants). Admission to courses is based on a letter of intention (preferably in English) stating why you wish to attend the course, 200 to 350 words in length. (Optional to include CV appendix in addition to 200–350 words.) In evaluating your application, we typically consider: clarity of purpose in attending the course; and capacity to actively contribute to the group dialogue, as evidenced in your letter.
You will require access to reliable internet connection and headphones with mic to participate effectively. The formal presentations can be attended as scheduled, and also accessed via recordings published online afterwards, at whatever time suits your personal timetable needs. However, it is strongly recommended that you attend the discussion sessions “live” online, as these typically will not be recorded, and offer the best opportunity to interact with the other participants.
