Art and Politics #2: STATECRAFT
August 3–28, 2020
“There is no such thing as ‘the state’, only a powerful desire for ‘the state’ that pervades the social realm. […] ‘The state’ is nothing but a desire that is manifested in practices of statecraft, practices that can originate in government bureaucracies and institutions, churches, schools, corporations, theatres, novels, art museums, our backyards, our front yards, our kitchens, and living rooms and bedrooms.” Roxanne Lynn Doty, 2003
Online international summer school
The IMMA International Summer School 2020 will take place online between August 3 and 28, 2020. It will comprise a month-long programme of seminars, discussions and workshops by a range of national and international artists, theorists and educators focusing on the theme of ‘statecraft’ and the role of art and artists in relation to the state.
Some of the ideas that will be explored include the role of the state in surveillance, welfare, propaganda, epidemiology, monumental and memorial languages, and the abjection of its’ other’, the stateless, the non-citizen, the dead. In the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests we are seeing many of these processes writ large.
This summer school proposes a set of questions about the nature of statecraft and its relationship to contemporary art: What role do the arts play in these processes? What is the role of art and artists in the functions of the state? Is the artist complicit in reproducing state power or can the artist hold the state to account? Can contemporary art be a space for thinking seriously and critically about both the limits and possibilities of the state?
To explore these questions, we are bringing together a number of artists, writers and educators including Jonas Staal, Jasmina Cibic, Mick Wilson, Gerry Kearns, Angela Griffith, Laurie Robbins, Chris Whitehead, Rebecca O’Neill, Nathan O’Donnell and Lisa Moran.
Call for participants
IMMA is seeking applications from students, artists and interested members of the public to take part in this month-long programme of virtual engagements in August, 2020.
The programme is free and will be delivered in English.
Participants will attend nine online seminars (6:30–8pm GMT) on August 4, 6, 7, 11, 13, 14, 18, 20 and 21 and a keynote event on August 24 (12–5pm GMT). The seminars and keynote event will be open to members of the public and they will be recorded. Details of the public programme and how to book will be available on IMMA’s website.
Participants will take part in an intensive workshop between August 25 and 27 and a closing event on August 28. Participants will also be required to undertake reading in advance and to take part in discussions and project work over the course of the programme. Reliable internet access is essential.
Participation is based on a letter of intention stating why you wish to take part in the summer school (400 words max). Please include name and contact details.
Application period is June 11 to July 3. Application is via email to Lisa Moran, lisa.moran [at] imma.ie and Nathan O’Donnell, nathan.odonnell [at] imma.ie
Further details at imma.ie.
