EUTOPIAS. Intensive Summer Course
20-23.08.2017
Nectar
Director: Julia Ramírez Blanco
Coordinator: Olga Sureda Guasch
+INFO http://www.nectarconectar.com/information.html
www.nectarconectar.com/eutopias---summer-course.html
Coordinator: Olga Sureda Guasch
+INFO http://www.nectarconectar.com/information.html
www.nectarconectar.com/eutopias---summer-course.html
As its first-ever summer course, ON MEDIATION (AGI, University of Barcelona) & NECTAR presents EUTOPIAS, a theoretical-practical course exploring the relationships between contemporary art and utopia. Based on experiential research, EUTOPIAS takes place over four days of living together in the Nectar farmhouse. The program is aimed at artists, art historians, curators, and other cultural workers.
EUTOPIAS
In the book which coined the term “utopia”, Thomas More proposed a double etymology for a word that can be read in the sense of ou-topos (no place) and as eu-topos (good place). The meaning of the utopian has always moved between these two opposing poles of the impossible and the desirable. Through a historical account made up of various case studies, the EUTOPÍAS course will explore the meaning of this dichotomy within art, focusing on production since the 1990s. Using the utopian as a watchtower from which to observe the world in a critical way, we will see how utopia functions as a theoretical tool for better understanding our societies.
The theoretical sessions in the mornings are complemented by practical workshops in the afternoon, given by artists and cultural managers. These will reflect on the forms of bringing the concepts “down to earth” in one’s own work. The group will investigate these questions in a place that is itself utopian. All the sessions will take place in the Nectar farmhouse, a self-sufficient rural co-working and co-living space located in the Pre-Pyrenees. In the heart of the Les Guilleries natural park, this zone is characterised by surroundings of woods, escarpments, lakes, and mountains. The subject matter and the natural environment complement each other as a mental and physical space from which to ponder other forms of living together in (an)other possible world(s). At the end of each day, a short cycle of utopian cinema will be screened.
EUTOPIAS
In the book which coined the term “utopia”, Thomas More proposed a double etymology for a word that can be read in the sense of ou-topos (no place) and as eu-topos (good place). The meaning of the utopian has always moved between these two opposing poles of the impossible and the desirable. Through a historical account made up of various case studies, the EUTOPÍAS course will explore the meaning of this dichotomy within art, focusing on production since the 1990s. Using the utopian as a watchtower from which to observe the world in a critical way, we will see how utopia functions as a theoretical tool for better understanding our societies.
The theoretical sessions in the mornings are complemented by practical workshops in the afternoon, given by artists and cultural managers. These will reflect on the forms of bringing the concepts “down to earth” in one’s own work. The group will investigate these questions in a place that is itself utopian. All the sessions will take place in the Nectar farmhouse, a self-sufficient rural co-working and co-living space located in the Pre-Pyrenees. In the heart of the Les Guilleries natural park, this zone is characterised by surroundings of woods, escarpments, lakes, and mountains. The subject matter and the natural environment complement each other as a mental and physical space from which to ponder other forms of living together in (an)other possible world(s). At the end of each day, a short cycle of utopian cinema will be screened.