13438
Advanced seminar
SoSe 23: The Documentary Turn in the Visual Arts
Eric de Bruyn
Comments
Since the 1990s there has been an increasing interest in archival and documentary practices in art history and theory, which is manifested by such prominent exhibitions as Deep Storage: Arsenale der Erinnerung (1997), The Greenroom. Reconsidering the Documentary and Contemporary Art (2008), Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art (2008), and Not yet. On the Reinvention of Documentary and the Critique of Modernism (2015). We can speak, therefore, of a documentary turn in contemporary art, which expresses itself not only through the exhibition of archives in exhibition spaces, but also through the common inclusion of documentary film and photography in large group exhibitions, such as documenta. In this seminar, we will look at contemporary examples of archival and documentary practices in an art context, but also investigate the various genealogies of the “documentary” within art history. In a historical sense, the notion of documentary film and photography is relatively young – the term stems from the 1920s – but the meaning and function of documentary has undergone many transformations. In a conventional sense, a ‘documentary’ is expected to provide a ‘factual’ or ‘objective’ portrayal of the world we live in. We will examine such claims to truth and authenticity and how they gradually became subject to critique, before addressing the question why documentary and archival strategies have become so important in the present. The course will be conducted in English, but all assignments can be written in German or English. close
14 Class schedule
Additional appointments
Fri, 2023-06-09 14:00 - 16:00Regular appointments
Tue, 2023-04-18 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2023-04-25 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2023-05-02 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2023-05-09 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2023-05-16 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2023-05-23 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2023-05-30 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2023-06-06 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2023-06-13 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2023-06-20 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2023-06-27 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2023-07-04 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2023-07-11 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2023-07-18 10:00 - 12:00