Researching imaginaries intensive live-stream

Over a five day period we live-stream guest presentations by invited artists, scholars, curators and researchers who address different aspects of artistic research and questions of ‘the imaginary’. Contributors include: Jason E. Bowman, Charles Esche, Vincenzo Estremo, Cătălin Gheorghe, Petra Johansson, Kerstin Mey, Andrea Phillips, Nuno Sacramento, KissPál Szabolcs, Tünde Varga, and Mick Wilson.

The presentations and conversations will address different aspects of the imaginary as a reserach construct within contemporary art practice and artistic research. Over the week we explore a spectrum of concerns ranging from wider questions of the imagination to profiles of specific research projects, while also introducing the idea of organisational imaginaries and emerging research on infrastructures of distribution. The intensive takes place in person in the Glasshouse at the University of Gothenburg with part of the programme streamed online as described below. Participation online is open to specialists and non-specialists alike.

Participation free, booking required.

4-5:30 pm      “Stretched: Expanded Notions of Artistic Practice via Artist-led Cultures.”
Jason E. Bowman artist with a curatorial practice, researcher, educator and director of the MFA Fine Art, HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg.

5:45-6:45 pm     “The Power of Imagination? Aesthetic Autonomy and Critique in Contemporary Art.”
Prof. Tünde Varga in conversation with Prof. Mick Wilson
Tünde Varga works in the Department of Art Theory and Curatorial Studies, The Hungarian University of Fine Art, Budapest with research expertise in contemporary art, visual culture, art theory, contemporary documentary, curatorial and museum studies.

4-5 pm      “Field Studies: An artistic exploration of a place.”
Petra Johansson, Artistic Director Göteborgs Konsthall, Sweden, and co-curator with Caroline Malmström of Field Studies

5:30-6:30  pm     “Organisational Imaginaries #1: Peacock and the Worm”
Dr. Nuno Sacramento, Director of Peacock and the Worm, Aberdeen, Scotland.

3:30-4:30 pm      “Organisational Imaginaries #2: VECTOR”
Prof. Cătălin Gheorghe in conversation with Prof. Mick Wilson. Prof. Gheorghe is theoretician, curator, editor and professor (art theory, aesthetics, visual culture) at George Enescu National University of the Arts in Iași, Romania.

4:45-5:45 pm “Organisational Imaginaries #3: Distribution networks and the reproduction of cultural forms.”
Prof. Vincenzo Estremo, Director of Doctoral Programme NABA, Milan, Italy.

4-5 pm      “From Fake Mountains to Faith (Hungarian Trilogy)”
Prof. KissPál Szabolcs, artist and associate professor in the Intermedia Department of the Hungarian University of Fine Art, Budapest.

5:30-6:30  pm     “Art, narrative and value: Researching eco- and climate imaginaries in contemporary art.”
Prof. Kerstin Mey, professor of visual culture at the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Limerick, Ireland

3:30-4:30 pm      “Contemporary Art and the Production of Inequality”
Prof. Andrea Phillips, BALTIC Professor and Director of BxNU Research Institute, Northumbria University & BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.

5 -6 pm      “The Museum Is Multiple”
Prof. Charles Esche, curator, writer and professor of curating and contemporary art at the University of the Arts London and Series Editor of the Exhibition Histories series and programme.

About

Researching Imaginaries is a doctoral level course realized in partnership between HDK-Valand, Academy of Art and Design, the Hungarian University of Fine Arts,  Budapest (Magyar Képzőművészeti Egyetem, HUFA) the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (Akademia Sztuk Pięknych im. Jana Matejki w Krakowie, ASP), with participation from colleagues from the University of the Arts, Bremen (Hochschule für Künste Bremen, HfK) and the Nuova Accademia Di Bella Art Milan (NABA) with guest researchers from other institutions. Researching Imaginaries is an associated initiative of the Centre for Art & the Political Imaginary (CAPIm) and enabled by the ERASMUS + blended intensive programmes. 

Contributors

Jason E. Bowman is an artist with a curatorial practice. His art works address the coercion of publics via participative methods. He is a senior lecturer in Fine Art at the HDK-Valand Academy, where he directs the MFA in Fine Art. With Dr. Julie Crawshaw, he is currently working on an edited volume that interrogates the intercessions between curating and the expanded practices of self-organisation.

Dr. habil. Tünde Varga is an Associate Professor at the Department of Art Theory and Curatorial Studies, The Hungarian University of Fine Art, Budapest. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature. Her field of research is contemporary art, visual culture, art theory, contemporary documentary, curatorial and museum studies. Her recent book is on contemporary art practices: Crossing Borders: The Cultural and Social Context of Contemporary Art (2019).

Petra Johannson is the Artistic Director of Göteborgs Konsthall since 2023. She established the residency institution Art Inside Out in Halland (2017-2023) and was one of the initiators of SWAN – Swedish Artist Residency Network. She has worked as a curator at Borås Konstmuseum and a filmmaker at The Nordic Watercolour Museum, as well as serving as an art consultant and a project manager of public art in the Västra Götaland Region. In her independent curatorial and film projects she has shown a strong interest in archives. One example is Malmska Valen – a videowalk (2014), based on archival footage documenting the relocation of Malmska valen from one museum to another in 1918. She has also worked as a seminar editor for Mediedagarna (The Media Days) and the Gothenburg Book Fair, as a documentary filmmaker, in different positions at Swedish Television (SVT), and as a research assistant at the Institute for Futures Studies. Educated at Gothenburg University with a master in curating for film and video at HDK-Valand. 

Dr. Nuno Sacramento is a Mozambiquean-Portuguese curator, and the Director of Peacock Visual Arts and the Worm  He has lived in Scotland for the last two decades. Nuno has a wealth of experience in curation, and organisational leadership. He is a graduate of DeAppel Foundation, Amsterdam, and has a PhD by practice in Visual Arts from DJCAD. Between 2010 and 2016 he was Director of the Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Lumsden. Nuno has expertise in the areas of research, project curation, fundraising, writing, and lecturing.

Prof.  Cătălin Gheorghe is a theoretician, curator and editor based in Iași, Romania. He teaches ‘Theories and Practices of Artistic Research’, ‘Curatorial Studies and Practices’, ‘Applicative Visual Studies’, and ‘Aesthetics of Visual Arts’ at “George Enescu” National University of the Arts in Iași. He is the editor of ‘Vector – critical research in context ’ publication series (since 2005) and the curator of ‘Vector – studio for art practices and debates ’ (since 2007), which is a platform for critical research and art production based on the understanding of art as experimental journalism. Since 2004 he held a series of talks, based on critical research and curatorial practices, at art schools and institutions in Aarhus, Bucharest, Budapest, Kishinev, Cluj-Napoca, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Iaşi, Innsbruck, Kassel, Kyiv, London, Madrid, Manchester, Malmö, Paris, Vaasa, Vienna, Zürich. As a curator he produced, also in collaboration, a series of projects for Periferic Biennial (Iaşi), Stadtturmgalerie (Innsbruck), documenta12magazine (Kassel), International Contemporary Art Center (Bucharest), Frieze Projects 2010 (London), Salzburger Kunstverein, Projects & Spaces (Viennartfair 2011), Preview Berlin 2011, Camera Plus. Biennial of Contemporary Photography and Moving Image in Iași (2016), French Institute in Romania, National Museum of Contemporary Art (Bucharest). Fields of interest: critical artistic research, curatorial critical practices, art as experimental journalism, contemporary art (political) theories, xeno-spaces, xeno-practices, trans(ex)positions, post-capitalism. See: vector.org.ro

Dr. Vincenzo Estremo, holds an international Ph.D. in media, cinema, and communication studies from the University of Udine and Kunstuniversität Linz. Currently he is PhD Course Leader at NABA (Milan and Rome). Estremo teaches on exhibited cinema, aesthetics, and phenomenology and is a contributor to publications like Flash Art and il Foglio. Noteworthy co-edited publications include Extended Temporalities: Transient Visions in the Museum and in Art (2016); Albert Serra: Cinema, Arte e Performance (2018); nd Cronofagia e Media (2024). Additionally, Estremo authored the books: Teoria del Lavoro Reputazionale (2020); Indistinzione (2023); and Variante digitale (2024).

Prof. Szabolcs KissPál, (1967 Marosvásárhely, Romania) has been living in Budapest since 1993. He works in various media, from photography and video to installation, objects, and public interventions. His main field of interest lies at the intersection between audiovisual and communication media, visual arts, and sociopolitical issues. He has lectured at in various European universities, including in the UK, Austria, Finland and Germany, and in 2013-15 led the Studio Art and Social Justice of the Intermedia Department of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia. Currently he is an associate professor in the Intermedia Department of the University of Fine Arts Budapest. His works have been presented at various institutions (Venice Biennale; ISCP, New York; NCCA, Moscow; Prague Biennial, OFF-Biennale Budapest; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Seoul International Media Art Biennale, among others) and can be found in several public and private collections (Ludwig Museum for Contemporary Art, Budapest; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest; Muzeum Współczesne Wrocław; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris). The artist developed a collaborative activist practice between 2012 and 2015, establishing and maintaining the NO MMA multilingual blog about Hungarian culture and politics (nemma.noblogs.org ). KissPál is one of the founders of the protest groups Free Artist and Living Memorial.

Prof. Kerstin Mey  completed her PhD in art theory/aesthetics at the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany and is currently Professor of Visual Culture at University of Limerick. Prof. Mey previously held a number of leadership positions in Higher Education across research, academic transformation, internationalisation and organisational change programmes including President of the University of Limerick, and Dean of the Westminster School of Media, Arts and Design, University of Westminster. Among many distinguished roles, she was a member of the Austrian Science Board; Vice Chair of the Executive of the Council for Higher Education in Art and Design (CHEAD, UK); and a member of the Supervisory Board of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom. Prof. Mey has published widely on contemporary art, applied aesthetics and related areas. Prof. Mey has an enduring research interest in models of creative practice and collaboration and their underlying hierarchies of values particularly in the context of social transformation processes towards sustainability and regeneration. She uses her extensive experience for building innovative and often multi-disciplinary partnerships between academic institutions, industry, government and civil society to advance knowledge and create lasting societal impact.                                              

Prof. Andrea Phillips is BALTIC Professor and Director of BxNU Research Institute , Northumbria University & BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art . Prof. Phillips lectures and writes about the economic and social construction of public value within contemporary art, the manipulation of forms of participation and the potential of forms of political, architectural and social reorganisation within artistic and curatorial culture. In my current role she has developed a collaborative space in Newcastle called the Experimental Studio  where people from different disciplines – from the university, the BALTIC and from outside these institutions – can come together and test out ideas in a safe setting.

Prof. Charles Esche is a curator and writer living between Edinburgh, Scotland; Eindhoven, Netherlands and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Until recenty he was director of the Van Abbemuseum , Eindhoven, and co-editorial director and co-founder with Mark Lewis of Afterall Journal and Books  based at Central Saint Martins, London. In 2014 he curated the Sao Paulo Biennale with a team of seven. In addition to his institutional curating, he has (co-) curated a number of major international exhibitions including U3 Triennale, Ljubljana  (2011); Riwaq Biennale, Ramallah with Reem Fadda  (2007 & 2009); Istanbul Biennale with Vasif Kortun  (2005); Gwangju Biennale with Hou Hanru  (2002); Amateur Gothenburg with Mark Kremer and Adam Szymczyk (2000). He teaches on the Exhibition Studies MRes course at Central Saint Martins and the De Appel Curatorial Course, Amsterdam. From 2000-2004 he was director of Rooseum, Malmö, Sweden and before that worked at protoacademy, Edinburgh and Tramway, Glasgow.