From Dada to the Present. Process-Oriented Concepts in the Arts

This course casts a few spotlights on various movements, works and key figures of the arts in the 20th century, including artistic crossover laboratories of our day. In the selected movements, we will focus on the art-making process, i.e. the process of the development and emergence of art: dada, Fluxus, happening, performance, site-specific art, occuring art, etc. In these fields, exploring the situational conditions of the art-making process and experimenting with materials and techniques, with forms of communication and interaction etc., themselves become a subject of art and, in the laboratories of the 21st century, frequently entail a search for new experimentation spaces that are appropriate for an integration of the arts into societal, political and social life.

The course orientation and discussion will be based on selected texts as well as on audio and film examples.

Required reading

DREHER, Thomas: Performance Art nach 1945. Aktionstheater und Intermedia.
Wilhelm Fink, Munich 2001