Art & Politics #3: containment
June 21–July 9, 2021
The IMMA International Summer School 2021 will take place online between June 21 and July 9, 2021. This three-week programme of seminars, discussions and workshops is free and will feature a range of national and international artists, theorists and educators. Focusing on the theme of containment they will explore how mapping, border regimes, architecture and the politics of incarceration inflect contemporary culture and how art and artists explore, question and engage with this subject.
Containment is a fundamental feature of the human condition; our earliest experience is of being held and contained by another. Containment can enable us to feel safe but it can also be experienced in terms of confinement and separation. Containment can be applied to how we conceptualise space, material and data, how we “map” our surroundings or claim territory, and how we think through lines, categories and borders. Containment can be a political strategy (such as US foreign policy during the cold war) or a strategy for social control; in fact the logic of containment continues to animate current border regimes and technologies worldwide. Strategies of containment also underpin the politics of incarceration and detention, as well as informing recent public health measures in response to the pandemic.
Some of the ideas that will be explored include the uses of mapping as a strategy of both appropriation and resistance; the role of borders and border technologies; carceral capitalism; containment and public health; architectures of containment; containment as a psychic state; cognitive mapping and figure-ground apprehension.
Two fundamental questions underpin this year’s summer school. What role does containment play in the way we conceive of and organise the world around us? And how can art and artists reflect on and critique these cultural, social, and cognitive strategies of containment?
To explore these questions, we are bringing together a range of contributors—artists, writers and educators—including architectural historian and theorist Beatriz Colomina, artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan, and writer and educator John Wilkins.
Call for participants
IMMA is seeking applications for this programme of virtual engagements over three weeks in June and July, 2021. This interdisciplinary programme will be of particular interest to students and graduates and anyone interested in the subject of containment.
The programme is free and will be delivered online in English.
Participants will attend online seminars (6:30–8pm GMT) on June 21, 22, 24, 25 and 29 and July 1 and 2 and also a keynote event on July 3 (12–5pm GMT). The seminars and keynote event will be open to members of the public and they will be recorded. There will also be a number of electives including reading groups and curator talks between June 21 and July 2.
Participants will take part in an intensive workshop between July 5–8 and a closing event on July 9. (This is a provisional schedule, some dates/times may be subject to minor adjustment.)
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 is via email to Lisa Moran, lisa.moran [at] imma.ie and Nathan O’Donnell, nathan.odonnell [at] imma.ie.
