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| Semester | fall semester 2018 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Marie-Laure Allain Bonilla (m.allainbonilla@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | This seminar is an attempt to offer an introduction to the richness and diversity of expressions of the African Arts in the 20th and 21st Centuries. By dealing with a wide range of media – from masks to photography and cinema via painting and multimedia installation – it will deconstruct the myth of “an art” made only of tribal masks and wooden sculptures frozen in time. The seminar will address issues at core of the debates around the African Arts on and outside the continent such as the difference between classical art and “contemporary art”, modern art, the question of authenticity, issues of representation and identity, or the diaspora, just to name a few. These issues will be discussed through the study of close text readings as well as the analysis of visual material. The detail of each session will be announced at the first session that will give an overview of the seminar’s topics. |
| Bibliography | A very short bibliography provided as a guide Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art, Susan Vogel (éd.), New York, The Center for African Art, Munich, Prestel, 1991. Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic, Tanya Barson, Peter Gorschülter (éd.), Liverpool, Tate Liverpool ; Tate Publishing, 2010. Atkinson, Brenda and Candice Breitz, eds. Grey Areas: Representation, Identity and Politics in Contemporary South African Art. Johannesburg: Chalkham Hill Press, 1999. Enwezor, Okwui and Olu Oguibe, eds. Reading the Contemporary: African Art from Theory to Marketplace. Cambridge (MA): The MIT Press, 2000. Looking Both Ways. Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora, Laurie Ann Farrell (éd.), New York, Museum for African Art, Gent, Snoeck Publishers, 2003. Njami, Simon, ed. Africa Remix. Contemporary Art of a Continent. Exhibition catalogue. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2005. Peffer, John, Art and the End of Apartheid, Minneapolis (MN), University of Minnesota Press, 2009. Peffer, John, Cameron, Elizabeth L. (éd.), Portraiture and Photography in Africa, Bloomington, Indianapolis (IN), Indiana University Press, 2013. Price, Sally, Primitive Art in Civilized Places, Chicago (IL), University of Chicago Press, 1989. Primitivism in 20th Century Art. Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern, William Rubin (éd.), New York, Museum of Modern Art, 2 volumes, 1984. Seven Stories About Modern Art in Africa, Clémentine Deliss (éd.), Londres, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1995. The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945-1994: Art, Cloth-Posters, Photography, Architecture, Music, Theater-Literature, Film, Anthology, Okwui Enwezor (éd.), Munich, Londres, New York, Prestel, 2001. Wemega-Kwawu, Rikki. “THE POLITICS OF EXCLUSION. The Undue Fixation of Western-Based African Curators on Contemporary African Diaspora Artists.” Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA), Project 1975, Newsletter 125 (2011): 10-23. Online: http://smba.nl/static/en/exhibitions/tala-madani-the-jinn/smba-newsletter-no.-125-.pdf |
| Admission requirements | The number of participants is limited to 30 people. The places are assigned according to date of enrollment and subject of study. Priority will be given to the subjects listed under "Modules". |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|
No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Modul: Sachthemen der Ethnologie (Bachelor's degree subject: Anthropology) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | In order to have lively discussions, it is mandatory that everybody read the assigned readings (or do the required exercise if it isn’t a reading). Assignments for the next session will be given at the end of each seminar, and will be available on ADAM shortly. Every student is expected to chose a topic and write a paper on it that will reflect her/his own analysis as well as what was discussed in class. The paper should be circa 2 500 words long (12 pt., 1.5 line spacing). Students who want to write a seminar paper (which will add 3 CP) should do as well a presentation of about 30 min. It is expected that the presenters writing a seminar paper search for additional literature and develop a presentation that gives the other students an in-depth overview on that particular subject. Seminar papers should be circa 4 000 words long (12 pt., 1.5 line spacing) and be accompanied by visual material (readable images + precise captions are expected). Registration for seminar papers is open until October 16, 2018. They are due on January 15, 2019 for those who will need the credits this semester. All others may submit their papers until the beginning of the spring term, i.e. by February 1, 2019. All papers should be submitted as ‘.doc’, ‘.docx’ or ‘.pdf’ files via e-mail to m.allainbonilla@unibas.ch. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Ethnologie |