DIG Pool 5: Art & Face (gLV) 

„The Face As Battlefield“
About the manifold dramas and crises of the human face and its representation

In this seminar we want to focus on the human face as a field of conflicts. We will discuss aesthetical, social and biopolitical aspects.

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Nummer und TypMFA-MFA-Po00.21F.005 / Moduldurchführung
ModulPool: 
VeranstalterDepartement Fine Arts
LeitungYvonne Wilhelm
Anzahl Teilnehmendemaximal 10
ECTS3 Credits
VoraussetzungenCourse language: English
LehrformSeminar, group and individual tutorials
ZielgruppenMA Fine Arts students

Open for exchange students

Interested students of other study programmes can register from 3rd to 21st February 2021 by email to: studium.dfa@zhdk.ch. You will be informed at the end of calendar week 8 about a possible participation.
Lernziele / KompetenzenIn the pool seminar, students will examine the aesthetic fields of conflict raised by the topic of the human face in art and how the discussion is affected by cultural, social and biopolitical implications.

The aim is to give participants a better understanding of the materialities and representational techniques that determine and shape their artistic practice. In the course of the block week, they will learn to critically reflect on their more recent works in the interplay between issues of content and aesthetics.
InhalteEspecially in art, as can be seen for example in the increased presence of figurative (portrait) painting in exhibitions and discourses, the face is a place where imaginations of beauty, character and identity are negotiated. Slight shifts in facial symmetry or skin colour and quality provoke frivolous statements about the status as a human being, mental and moral state, cultural or ethnic affiliation, age or gender of the person being depicted. In this way, social inclusion/exclusion processes are produced, which are supported by manipulation of the face, by veiling, masking/unmasking and technological reconstruction.

Artists such as Kader Attia, Ellen Gallagher, Kate Cooper or Orlan work in long-term projects on the topos face and its relationship to social and individual identity politics.The aesthetic regimes of looking into the face are also addressed from a postcolonial perspective, such as Troubling Vision, New Black Figuratives, Phenomenologies of Whiteness, etc. And given the current crises, there will certainly be many stimulating and unexpected joint updates from all seminar participants.

About the lecturer:

Yvonne Wilhelm is an artist (part of the artist duo knowbotiq) and professor, teaching at the ZHdK MFA, who has been experimenting with forms and medialities of social imaginaries, visual regimes, and epistemic disobedience, with a certain focus on queer-feminist and post-/decolonial aspects. Her practical focus is on post-digital time-based formats, installative-performative settings, and research-led art.
Bibliographie / LiteraturThis course will be accompanied by materials such as Laura Mulvey's Visual Pleasure, Les Yeux Sans Visage by George Franju, Franz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks, excerpts from Michael Taussig's Defacément, Lisa Nakamura's Thoughts on Cybertypes and W.J.T. Mitchell's Seeing Through Race.
Leistungsnachweis / TestatanforderungMandatory attendance (minimum 80%); active participation
TermineTime: 10:00 - 18:00 o'clock

CW 16: 19 / 20 / 21 / 22 / 23 April
Bewertungsformbestanden / nicht bestanden
Termine (5)