KABK Studium Generale Lecture series 2018-2019 (sem 1)

STUDIUM GENERALE

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n i s e v i e L m u i o T Y y g n a i t s e r M Inte

Anthropocene 2018–2019 A.D. Migration Era Afro Futurism Year of the Dog 1440 Hijri Age of Pisces Twenty-Tens Neoliberalism

Great Plastic Era Post-Truth Globalism People Smugglers Burn-out Era Autumn Kali Yuga Black Lives Matter Individualism

LGBTQ Era May You Live in Interesting Times Studium Generale

Polarization For this years program we attempt to make an inventory of the time we are living in, and propose some primary charac­ter­istics.

Davis Sedaris once wrote that it is almost impossible to understand your own time. Like a fish swimming in the water, so obvious that he does not notice it, does not know any better: that’s just what the world looks like.

The title of the series is May You Live in Interesting Times, an English ­expression taken from a Chinese curse. Although it seems to be a wish – the expression is normally used ironically. With the implica­ tion that ‘uninteresting times’ of peace and tranquility are nicer to live in than interesting ones, which from a historical perspective usually include disorder and conflict.

In what times are we living now?

Philosopher Zygmunt Bauman suggested the concept of ‘liquid modernity’ as a way

to describe the condition of constant plasti­ city and change he observed in social life, iden­tities and global economics within society. Philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn introduced the concept of a paradigm shift. Once a new world view was accepted, you could not really imagine that it had ever been different.

In this Studium Generale we will talk about issues that are at stake at the moment, realising that we live in a liquid modernity and that every worldview could be seen as liquid as well. In every lecture we offer an analysis of sociological, political or scientific conditions and we talk about the possibilities of how to deal with it.

John Cage: “I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones” (1988)

Late Afternoons

Flowing Grounds

Sharing Economy

The Migrant – A Bird on the Run Anaïs Lopez, Erno Eskens, Geert Chatrou

How to be Together Otherwise Maria Hlavajova

20 Sep 2018

27 Sep 2018

Lecture (1) – The Migrant tells the turbulent life story of the Javan Mynah.

A member of the starling family, the bird is originally from Java (Indonesia) and was introduced in Singapore via the ­songbird trade in the early 20th century.

Following the Second World War, Singa­ pore underwent rapid change, quickly transforming from a rubber trading post into a modern metropolis. In an effort to compete with the increasing urban noise, the Mynah’s beautiful singing voice became a shrill screech. This story of a hunted songbird, functions as a metaphor for the migrant, with a dash of magical realism.

López consciously chooses to step outside the well-known paths of presen­ tation method and platforms traditionally suitable for the medium of photography.

What fascinates her is how people try to find (or make) a place in an urban area.

The main question she asks in her work is whether people define the city and society they live or is it the other way around. As her project The ­Migrant links to larger urban themes as the difficult relationship between humans and animals, the ­consequences of the rapid urban develop­ment and the ­position of the unwanted stranger in the city.

For this lecture López will discuss with Erno Eskens, advocate of animal rights, about the question, ‘how manufac­ turable is the city actually’? They will talk about several projects from López. After their conversation Geert Chatrou, the ­whistling world champion, will perform. migrant.nu

Filter Bubble Era

Lecture (2) – In her practice as ­a curator, organizer, educator, and director of BAK (Basis voor actuele kunst) in Utrecht, Maria Hlavajova has been interested in exploring what she calls the “art in the otherwise.” Committed to art in the public space and political sphere, she has con­ sistently asked the question how art can help us envision and enact ways of being together. Different from the contem­­porary world riddled by inequalities and conflicts.

In the lecture, Hlavajova will discuss a number of projects that engage these issues, including the current project at BAK titled Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017– 2020).

Over the next four years, BAK unfolds its long-term research itinerary Propositions for Non-Fascist Living.

Prompted by the dramatic resurfacing and normalization of fascisms, historical and

contemporary, and inspired by ­philosopher Michel Foucault, BAK develops and gathers propositions for an “art of living counter to all forms of fascism, whether already present or impending,” including “the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us.”

Through its exhibitionary, discursive, and performative facets, Propositions for Non-Fascist Living attempts to articulate and inhabit methods of de-individualized living; methods in which multiplicity and difference enact relations other than those enamored with power and hierarchy, endeavoring to both articulate and inhabit options of being together otherwise. bakonline.org

Breaking Silence the

Social Media Age

Cyclical Time

The World is Borne by the Black Woman Patricia Kaersenhout

You are Always Part of the Game Glenn Helberg

4 Oct 2018

11 Oct 2018

Lecture (3) – Patricia Kaersenhout is a Dutch visual artist and cultural activist.

Born in The Netherlands but a ­descendant from Surinamese parents, Patricia ­Kaersenhout developed an artistic journey in which she investigates her Surinamese background in relation to her upbringing in a Western European culture. The political thread in her work raises questions about the African Diaspora’s movements and its relation to feminism, sexuality, racism and the history of slavery. She considers her art practice to be a social one. With her projects she empowers (young) men and women of color.

In 2017 she realized the community art project Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Too? in collaboration with AGA LAB, Het GildeLab and WOW Amsterdam.

With this project, Kaersenhout provides a response to The Dinner Party (1979), the most famous work of feminist artist Judy Chicago, and is an artistic-material criticism of the treatment of the Black woman and women of color in it. Inspired by the work of Chicago, Kaersenhout shows an installation consisting of a large, richly decorated dining table in triangular form, full of symbolism, to which 36 Black women and women of color, “heroines of resistance”, are honored.

Circulation Goods of

Lecture (4 ) – Glenn Helberg ­specialized in Psychiatry at the University of Gronin­ gen and in Child and Youth Psychiatry at the University of Utrecht. When he was increasingly confronted by young people who were dealing with issues due to their different cultural backgrounds, he decided – through self-study – to specialize in transcultural psychiatry. He integrated theories and the approach towards mental illness from other parts of the world into his own work.

According to Helberg, psychiatry has everything to do with what is happen­ ing in society: “Social psychiatry is the “dumping ground” of society. There we see how in the context of policy changes and political decisions, people get into trouble”. He points out that we can only understand and change the inequality of the present if we know its history.

That made him decide to also engage himself outside the consulting room on a more social and political level.

For Helberg, the history of slavery in the Republic of the Seven United Provinces and later on throughout the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is important, because of its effect on the present. This is mainly noticeable in the inequality of the relation­ships between whites and blacks.

In this lecture he will talk about themes as white washing and colorism, and about what white people can do to stop ignoring their common history. How while we are looking at colonialism without realizing it is embedded in our daily routine, politics and in our common history. Ignoring, is a way of participating – you are always part of the game.

Religion

?

Movement People

Urbanism

From Mohammed to the Islamic State: Thinking about Islam Beyond Clichés Dr. Pieter Nanninga

Five Centuries after Copernicus: ­Challenges of a ­Decentralized World Sam Samiee

1 Nov 2018

8 Nov 2018

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Lecture (5 ) – Burqas, 9/11 and the Islamic State – Islam is often ­associated with intolerance, inequality and terrorism.

But does Islam really lead to violence and oppression? What is its real relation­ ship to the conflicts in the Muslim world?

In this lecture, dr. Pieter Nanninga (Middle Eastern Studies, University of Groningen) will address these questions by providing an introduction into Islam, ranging from Muhammad and the Quran to Muslims in the contemporary world.

He will particularly discuss the relationship between Islam and violence, offering a nuanced perspective on the topic that has been central to public debates over the last decade.

Nationalism

Lecture (6) – In his work Sam Samiee, born in Iran, focuses on the practices of painting and research in history or ­philo­sophy, Persian Literature, the history of painting and psychoanalysis. Samiee has been meticulously constructing a ­theoretical prehistory for his painting practice out of the Persian literary legacy of the past millennium as it relates to the core concepts of contemporary psychoanalysis.

Characteristic of his work is the break from the tradition of flat painting and a return to the original question of how artists can represent the three-­ dimensional world in the space of painting as a metaphor for a set of ideas. ­Therefore most of his work is presented as immersive painterly installations.

Sam Samiee does not shy away from the ornamental. His so-called I-pad drawings for example, drawn with a simple applica­ tion, are photocopied and multiplied to form ornamental framings. Within the context of his installations, these patterns move beyond the decorative and reveal a fragmented autonomy.

Digital Era

Spiritualism

Fall Season

Beauty in Distress – Breaking Down Stigmas Around Mental Health Mirthe Berentsen

Who Do We Think We Are on this Planet?

Matthijs Schouten

22 Nov 2018

29 Nov 2018

Lecture (7) – Mirthe Berentsen will talk about her residency at the mental health department of Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York via the Dutch organization Beautiful Distress and the novel she is working on, about language, privacy and psychiatry. “There are several known cases of people in psychiatric hospitals who have such an aversion of the irreversible dominance and determin­ ism of their own language that they refuse to use it any longer. For my narrator language is a catalyzer of their marginal­ ized role in society.”

In March 2018 Berentsen wrote an op-ed in the Dutch newspaper de Volks­krant that can be read as a plea to stop casually labeling people, as it leads to further stigmatisation of people that are actually suffering from their heads. In this article she points out the

strength and danger of words and the context they are used in, as it’s easy to put a label on someone who loves to clean his house, or who is ­uncomfortable during social interactions. But this ten­dency, to analyse and stigmatise someones behaviour, causes persistent noise in both the political and personal conversation. If you disagree with some­ one’s views and you ridicule them by calling them crazy or untrustworthy you can avoid any debate and confrontation.

Postcolonial

(Meetings)

Lecture (8) – We live in the Anthropocene: the era in which the influence of man has become the dominant factor for the future of life on earth. Our vision on the relationship between man and nature is constantly being revised, but is now gaining momentum. The Anthropocene brings us new questions and dilemmas about the human-nature relationship.

Since his study time he has been interested in the role that nature plays in human thought. He published the book Spiegel van de Natuur (Nature’s Mirror: the image of nature in a cultural-historical perspective). The perception of nature varies between different cultural contexts.

For example Islam speaks of the many signs that Allah incorporated in nature.

Buddhism approaches nature from an attitude of respect for all living beings.

In the West we have mainly considered

nature from a utilitarian perspective. Now, in the Anthropocene, we need to ­re-assess our attitude to nature and ask ourselves whether we are owners, stewards or partners of nature.

Climate Change

Linear Time Land Art in/and the Anthropocene Alice Smits

6 Dec 2018 Lecture (9 ) – Alice Smits researches the way in which the relation between nature and culture – which lies at the basis of our vision of how people position themselves – is given form in contempo­ rary art that deals with land. In the face of an urgent ecological crisis one of our most challenging tasks is to redefine and reimagine our relationships to the land we inhabit and which supports us.

One of the starting points of this research is the essay The Three Ecologies by Félix Guattari, in which he tries to find new social and aesthetic ­practices of self in relation to the other: “The eco­ logical crisis is a political, cultural and social one, calling for an eco-sophy as well as an eco-art, as a political, social and cultural revolution able to reorient the objectives of production, the forms of organization, the ways of being together”.

Rethinking nature-culture relations does not only define nature in different ways but also repositions the human in a complete different way, pointing to new ways of knowing and being in the world. In this lecture she will explore through various artistic practices in which new relations between human and nature are being shaped and imagined.

4 Wave Feminism th

BIOGRAPHIES

Utrecht since 2000, and artistic director of FORMER WEST (2008 – 2016), which she (1 ) Anaïs López (Amsterdam, initiated and developed as an international 1981) is a visual artist and works with still collaborative research, education, publica­ and moving images. The final ­presentation tion, and exhibition undertaking. ­Hlavajova reflects the collaborations that she under­ has organized numerous projects at took during the work process of each BAK and beyond, including the series project. She graduated from the Royal Future Vocabularies (2014–2016), New Academy of Art in The Hague in 2006 and World Academy with artist Jonas Staal (2013 – ongoing), and the international did a two year Masters at Art Academy St. Joost in Breda researching narrative research projects The Return of Religion structures and documentary strategies. and Other Myths (2008), On Knowledge Besides working for magazines as an Production: Practices in Contemporary independent photographer, she makes Art (2006), Concerning War (2005), and documentaries about things that matter Who if not we should at least imagine to her. She is also co-director of Docking the future of all this? 7 episodes on (ex) Station, a photography platform based in changing Europe (2004), as well as Amsterdam that helps international pho­ exhibitions with artists such as Josef tographers to move their stories forward. Dabernig, Sanja Iveković, Aernout Mik,

Erno Eskens (Obdam, 1964) is a Artur Żmijewski, Lawrence Weiner, philosopher and political scientist. He is and many others. regularly in the media as an advocate (3 ) Patricia Kaersenhout (Den of animal rights. He published the book Democratie voor dieren (Democracy for Helder, 1966) studied social sciences Animals) in 2009. In 2015 followed the at Amstelhorn in Amsterdam and visual art richly illustrated book Een beestachtige at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. She was geschiedenis van de filosofie (A Beastly a lecturer in Global Art & Social Practice History of Philosophy), about the changing at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rot­ views on human-animal relations from terdam. Currently she is a coach at DAS early antiquity to the present. graduate school in Amsterdam and at

Geert Chatrou (Sint Odiliënberg, the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht 1969) never ceases to amaze and move and a guest lecturer at the Decolonial those who experience his whistling Summer School in Middelburg. She is part artistry and always leaves his audiences of an international network of artists and wanting more. Chatrou has been touring scientists engaged in decolonial aesthet­ non-stop since 2004. He has been invited ics/aesthesis and has exhibitions in the to whistle on stages all over the world.

Netherlands and abroad.

From Tokyo to Boston, and Helsinki to Berlin he has been the featured soloist in (4 ) Glenn Helberg (Willemstad, many chamber orchestra’s, jazz ensem­ Curaçao, 1955) moved to The Nether­ bles, symphonic orchestras and string lands after high school to study medicine quartets. His whistling can be heard on at the University of Utrecht. He worked several recordings including a children’s briefly as a general practitioner in audio book written about his life, movie Curaçao, but his interest in the human scores, and a collaboration with Klaus mind soon moved him towards psychiatry.

Badelt. Chatrou has recorded a variety of In addition to his daily clinical work as CD’s that have been distributed worldwide a mental health professional, he gives including Ornithology, Chatroubadour workshops and lectures about (sexual) and Strange Flute. diversity, cultural psychiatry and racism ­geertchatrou.com among other topics. He is also ­committed to the wellbeing of his fellow citizens (2 ) Maria Hlavajova (Liptovsky of the Dutch Caribbean. To this regard, Mikulas, 1971) is the founder and artistic he was chairman of the Antillean interest director of BAK (Basis voor actuele kunst), group Ocan, and in this function he was

part of the Landelijk Overleg Minderheden (LOM), a consulting group that fights for the rights of everyone with a different cultural background. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, and member of the Advisory Council for Diversity and Integration (ADI) in Amster­ dam. In 2013 he received the honorary royal knighthood: Knight in the Order of Oranje Nassau. On August 7, 2017 he was a guest on the well-known Dutch television program Zomergasten.

(5 ) Pieter Nanninga is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Groningen. Nanninga graduated in History and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen in 2007, after which he carried out his PhD research at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the same university. He obtained his PhD in June 2014 for his thesis Jihadism and Suicide Attacks: al-Qaeda, al-Sahab and the Meanings of Martyrdom. Since 2011, he is attached to the department of Middle Eastern Studies, where he teaches on Islam and politics in the modern Middle East and conducts research jihadism, and especially on jihadists’ use of violence and media.

national publications such as: Art Asia Pacific, Das Magazin, De Groene Amsterdammer, Die Welt, E-Flux, LEAP, ­Metropolis M, Modern Painters, NRC Handelsblad, Sleek, Volkskrant, Vrij Nederland, et al. Berentsen holds an MA in Comparative Literature and Linguistics from the University of Amsterdam and the Freie Universität in Berlin.

(8 ) Matthijs Schouten (1952) studied biology, Celtic linguistics and literature, comparative religious studies and Eastern philosophy. After his studies he worked in Ireland for some time; he carried out research on peatbogs and also conducted a campaign to protect these ecosystems. He has been associated with Staatsbosbeheer since 1992. In addition, he is Professor by Special Appointment of Nature and Landscape Protection at the Universities of Cork and Galway (Ireland) and special professor of Ecology and Philosophy of Nature Conservation at Wageningen University.

(9 ) Alice Smits is an art historian and freelance curator and critic. She curated exhibitions in New York and Amsterdam including Avoiding Objects (Apex Art, NY), Elsewhere (HereArt, NY), Hotel NY (PS1, NY), Going Places, Crafting Space, A Snare for the Eye (6 ) Sam Samiee (Tehran, 1988) and Thresholding (Smart Project Space, studied at the Art University of Tehran and Amsterdam). From 2004–2012 she was at the painting department of Aki Artez in the co-director of the Amakula Kampala Enschede where he graduated in 2013.

International Film Festival in Uganda.

He completed the Rijksakademie van 2013 she is the initiator and director of beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam in 2015. Zone2Source, an exhibition platform He works as a painter and essayist based for art, nature and technology in and in Amsterdam and Tehran. outside a glass pavilion in the Amstelpark, Amsterdam where she invites artists to (7) Mirthe Berentsen (1984) is develop projects that rethink nature-cul­ a writer, journalist and cultural policy ture relations. She is a researcher at the advisor. Berentsen worked in ­publishing Lectorate of Art and Public Space (LAPS) in India and The Netherlands and as at the Rietveld Academy on land art in/and a cultural policy officer at the Dutch the anthropocene. She regulary publishes embassy in Berlin. With her background articles for Metropolis M and other media. in politics, art and literature, ­Berentsen Furthermore she is a guitarist in the writes about manifestations and tenden­ improvisation band Oorbeek. cies inside and outside society, radical innovators and challengers of the ­status-quo. Her articles and stories have been published in national and inter­

STUDIUM GENERALE

The Studium Generale is a programme that hovers, as it were, over the depart­ ments: it addresses themes that may not have an immediate practical use, but are potentially relevant to each and every student. It aims to introduce students to fields that aren’t directly addressed within their own course such as theatre, philosophy, poetry, film, sociology, invention, science, or a combination of these subjects.

It is, more or less, a semi-­theoretical programme to help you assess your own work from a different perspective and to draw inspiration from other fields of knowledge. The Studium Generale is a gift to the students: especially for them, famous actors, photographers, scientists, and many others will visit the academy to deliver a lecture on their professional field, ending in a discussion open to all.

Each student’s work is fuelled by the impulses surrounding him or her by the society they live in, and it’s important to gain an understanding of this environ­ ment from which you can distillate your own unique interests and determine your own position. Especially for artists, it’s imperative to see beyond the borders of your specific professional field, to open yourself up to the grand and unorthodox thoughts of others and to integrate these with your own ideas.

The Studium Generale hopes to break down barriers between depart­ ments and initiate collaborations to pave the way for groundbreaking new ideas. To do so, the Studium Generale works closely with each department to complement and broaden their existing programmes.

STUDY CREDITS In the academic year of 2018 – 2019 there will be 20 lectures of Studium Generale KABK, 9 before and 11 after the Christmas recess.

The Studium Generale programme is a mandatory part of the curriculum.

For some departments, these mandatory credits are to be taken in second year, for others in third year.

The department in question will determine in which year students can follow Studium Generale as part of their studies.

Every lecture will last for approx­ imately 90 minutes, 20 lectures bring the total sum to an estimated 30 hours.

This represents 1 study credit that will be allocated after attending of the lectures.

As in other courses students are expected to be present at least 80% of the lectures for this course.

Attendance to the lectures will be monitored by circulating a list during the lecture in which you must fill in your name and student number and later on by stamps. Please bring your student card. The credit earned for Studium Generale will be part of the general assessments and cannot be replaced by any other alternative activities.

Colophon Head of Studium Generale Hanne Hagenaars Coordinator of Studium Generale T.B.A. Design booklet & posters Dayna Casey Copyright 2018 – 2019 KABK Royal Academy of Art. Thanks to all the participants, the studio, all ­coordinators and heads of departments.

Any suggestion for our ‘inventory of time’ (as explained in the introduction) is very welcome. It can be used for the second semester of this Studium Generale.

Semester One May You Live in Interesting Times Studium Generale

16:00–17:30 The lectures are held in the Auditorium at the Royal Academy of Art, Prinsessegracht 4, The Hague 20 September ‘The Migrant – A Bird on the Run’ Anaïs López with Geert Chatrou and Erno Eskens 27 September ‘How to be Together Otherwise’ Maria Hlavajova

11 October 22 November ‘ You are Always Part of ‘Beauty in Distress – the Game’ Glenn Helberg Breaking Down Stigmas around Mental Health’ 18 October Mirthe Berentsen ‘The World is Borne by the Black Woman’ 29 November Patricia Kaersenhout ‘Who Do We Think We Are on this Planet?’

1 November Matthijs Schouten ‘From Mohammed to the Islamic State: 6 December Thinking about Islam ‘Land Art in/and Beyond Clichés’ the Anthropocene’ Pieter Nanninga Alice Smits 8 November ‘Five Centuries after Copernicus: ­Challenges of a ­Decentralized World’ Sam Samiee

Thursdays