Course detail

Art After 2000 1

FaVU-4AA2000-1Acad. year: 2026/2027

The course focuses on current issues and tendencies in contemporary art. Since it is not possible to take a sufficient distance to speak of "art history" in this case, the course does not aim to create a timeless canon, but rather follows selected themes and tendencies through the perspective of their current relevance. The content of the course is divided into two semesters, which have an identical structure: the selected themes / tendencies are first introduced in the form of a lecture, followed by a seminar in which the topic is discussed in greater depth on the basis of a common reading of texts or viewing documentation of works of art or exhibitions.

Language of instruction

English

Number of ECTS credits

4

Assignment to study programme types

Bachelor's, Master's

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

doc. Mgr. Jan Zálešák, Ph.D.

Department

Department of Art History and Theory (KTDU)

Offered to foreign students

The home faculty only

Entry knowledge

A solid foundation in the post-1945 art and history.

Rules for evaluation and completion of the course

Credit is awarded based on attendance and active participation in seminars. 

The examination is oral, preceded by the submission of a short text of approximately 500 words (approx. 2 standard pages). In this text, students specify which of the topics covered during the semester and which concrete aspects of this topic (specific artists, exhibitions, texts, etc.) they wish to focus on during the exam. The text only factors into the final grade implicitly, as its content and structure outline the course of the oral examination (language correctness or stylistic aspects of the text are not evaluated).


Teaching takes place in the classrooms of the KTDU FaVU in the hours determined by the schedule. Compulsory attendance (2 unexcused absences are tolerated). Making up missed classes is done in agreement with the teacher in the form of alternative assignments.

Aims

The aim of the course is to introduce students to the topics, tendencies and approaches that have had a significant place in contemporary art over the last quarter of a century. Knowledge of current art practice and themes that have resonated in major exhibition institutions should help students to critically articulate their own position and creative direction.
Students will gain an overview of the changes in the institutional structure of the art world over the last 25 years. They will become familiar with the major figures and institutions associated with the social and educational turn in the arts. They will be aware of the importance of the interest in archives and memory in contemporary art over the last 20 years and will be aware of the specific position of art from the former Eastern Bloc countries in the context of the “historiographical turn”.

Study aids

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Not applicable.

Recommended reading

„After the Turn: Art education beyond the museum“, On Curating, 2014, č. 24 (tematické číslo) Online (EN)
Barbara VANDERLINDEN – Elena FILIPOVIC (eds.), The Manifesta Decade: Debates on Contemporary Art Exhibitions and Biennials in Post-Wall Europe. Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2005. (EN)
Bruce ALTSHULER. Salon to Biennial: Exhibitions that Made Art History. London: Phaidon, 2008. (EN)
Dieter ROELSTRAETE, “The Way of the Shovel. On the Archeological Imaginary in Art”, e-flux journal no. 04, 2009, online: https://www.e-flux.com/journal/04/68582/the-way-of-the-shovel-on-the-archeological-imaginary-in-art/ (EN)
„Educational Turn“, in: Curatorial Dictionary, tranzit.org Online (EN)
Elena FILIPOVIC – Marieke VAN HAL – Solveig ØVSTEBO (eds.), The Biennial Reader, Hatje Cantz, 2010. (EN)
Hal FOSTER, „Archival Impulse“, October, 2004, č. 110 (Autumn), s. 3–22. (EN)
Jan ZÁLEŠÁK, Minulá budoucnost / Past Future. Brno – Praha: FaVU VUT v Brně – tranzit, 2013. (EN)
KVOČÁKOVÁ – SIKORA (eds.), The New Dictionary of Old Ideas, Praha: Meetfactory, 2020. (EN)
Maria HLAVAJOVA – Simon SHEIKH, Former West: Art and the Contemporary After 1989, MIT Press, 2017. (EN)
Paul O’NEILL & Mick WILSON (Eds.), Curating and the Educational Turn, London: Open Editions a De Appel Arts Centre, 2010. Online (EN)
Piotr PIOTROWSKI, Art and democracy in post-communist Europe. London: Reaktion Books, 2012. (EN)
Zbyněk BALADRÁN – Vít HAVRÁNEK – Věra KREJČOVÁ (eds.), Atlas of Transformation. Praha: Tranzit, 2009. Online: http://monumenttotransformation.org/atlas-of-transformation/ (EN)

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme FAAD Master's 1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
  • Programme ZST-NBIP Master's 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
  • Programme ZST-NX Master's 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
  • Programme ZST-BX Bachelor's 1 year of study, winter semester, elective

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

16 hours, compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

doc. Mgr. Jan Zálešák, Ph.D.

Syllabus

1. Developments in the institutional structure of the art world after 2000 (the rise of contemporary art biennials and star curators, contemporary art museums and New Institutionalism, latest developments in the art market).

2. Developments in the institutional structure of art world in post-socialist countries after 2000 – overview of selected organisations, institutions, personalities, events and issues.

3. The "Turns" proclaimed in the development of contemporary art in the second half of the noughties ("social turn" and "educational turn").

4. The 'archival impulse' and the 'historiographical turn'. The shift from a general interest in the theme of memory and the archive to specific questions of the history of modernity in contemporary art.

5. (N)ostalgia and contemporary art from the former Eastern Bloc countries, which constitute a culturally specific variant of a more general “historiographical turn” in contemporary art.

Each of these five topics is followed by a seminar in which a selected text is critically analysed in a guided discussion (texts are provided to students well in advance of the seminars).

Seminar

10 hours, compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

doc. Mgr. Jan Zálešák, Ph.D.