Theory: Art & Horrors (gLV) 

This seminar looks at art created in reaction to traumatic events in the 20th and 21st century, as well as the influence of Horror – as a genre born in literature and effectively adapted by popular culture – on contemporary visual art.

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Nummer und TypBFA-BFA-Th.23H.008 / Moduldurchführung
ModulTheorie 
VeranstalterDepartement Fine Arts
LeitungAnke Kempkes
Anzahl Teilnehmendemaximal 11
ECTS3 Credits
VoraussetzungenCourse language: English
ZielgruppenBA Fine Arts students
Open for exchange-students

Interested BA students of other study programmes can register from 28 August - 08 September 2023 by ClickEnroll; https://intern.zhdk.ch/?ClickEnroll

Interested MA students write an email between 28 August - 11 September 2023 2023 to: studium.dfa@zhdk.ch
We will inform you by e-mail in CW 39 whether participation is possible.
Applications before 28 August 2023 will not be accepted.

No registrations through our lecturers will be accepted.
Lernziele / Kompetenzen
  • Knowledge on art history, art theory, 20th- / 21st-century film and pop culture with a focus on horror
InhalteBoth world wars had a tremendous effect on artists expressions: In the styles of Neue Sachlichkeit, Expressionism, Surrealism, and in socially engaged Realism. European Fascism and WWII inflicted the atrocities of the Holocaust, reflected in the work of many postwar artists like Alina Szapocznikow and Andrzej Wroblewski, and also caused a deep philosophical debate of how culture could be newly conceived after the collapse of humanity. This debate initiated the documenta in Kassel.
The Japanese Gutai group reacted to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the 1950s in their radical body-art performances, and Alain Resnais directed the exceptional nouvelle-vague movie “Hiroshima Mon Amour”, based on the novel by Marguerite Duras. The Vietnam War caused a wave of protest art such as Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s 1969 “bed-in” happening “Make Love, not War”, or Ed Kienholz’ „Portable War Memorial“ (1968). In the 1980s, Horror became a favourite genre in popular culture, newly invested with identity politics, e.g. in the movie “Alien” giving a dark feminist sci-fi turn to the genre, or in Michael Jackson’s Pop video “Thriller”. The anti-heroes of classical Horror movies and novels –monsters of all kinds – became figures of identification for their outsider status, signifying social fears and everything declared as ‘abject’ or ‘degenerate’. In the beginning of the 21st century events like 9/11 caused further trauma and paranoia-induced cultural-political shifts, whereas since the Covid epidemy imagery of looming anxiety have shaped many works of contemporary art.


Anke Kempkes (*1968) is a curator, art historian and critic specialised in female avant-Garde, 20th-century abstract movements, surrealism, minimal dance and Avant-Garde, Queer Modernism and Performativity. In 2003/2004, she held the position of Chief Curator at Kunsthalle Basel, CH. From 2005–2017, she ran anresearch institute and gallery focused on the re-introduction of female (neo) avant-garde artists from the US, Europe and Latin America, (USA). In 2021-22, she held the position of Director of Instituto Susch and Curator at Large at Art Stations Foundation / Muzeum Susch, CH.
Her writing includes essays on Alina Szapocznikow, Mária Bartuszová, Wanda Czełkowska, Teresa Murak, Stanislava Kovalcikova, Evelyne Axell, Rosemarie Castoro, Lydia Okumura, Verena Loewensberg, Mary Vieira, Heidi Bucher, Sonja Sekula, and Teruko Yokoi.
Bibliographie / LiteraturWill be handed out during the course
Leistungsnachweis / TestatanforderungMandatory attendance (minimum 80%); active participation
TermineTime: 09:15 - 17:00 o'clock

CW 45: 06 / 07 / 08 / 09 / 10 November
Bewertungsformbestanden / nicht bestanden
Termine (5)