Summer course by Distance
June 9–August 30, 2025
The interaction between questions of politics and questions of art is a longstanding concern in contemporary practice. However, arguably this dialogue between art and politics has intensified in recent years, leading to a fundamental interrogation: What is at stake in the intersections and disjunctions of art and the political? How are the terms “politics” and ‘the political’ articulated within contemporary art? What, if any, are the specific political valencies of artistic practice? Rather than a theory of art and politics, this course is organised as a collaborative inquiry where we work together to build an analysis from a broad survey of practices and a series of close readings and case studies.
Among the topics addressed in this year’s course are: censorship; the contestation over representations of genocide; geopolitical imaginaries; the ethno-nationalist imaginary; climate crisis; spatial politics of financialisation; social practice; raciality and the logics of colonial-modernity; and the claims made for/by “the-more-than-human”.
The course is organised via a combination of presentations, artists’ talks, discussions, seminars, workshops and in person meet-ups. For a detailed schedule please go here.
The course is delivered in English, blended (i.e., delivered online with the option to meet face-to-face) and free to EU nationals. In 2025 it runs from June 9, 2025 to August 31, 2025 and the application period is between February 17, 2025–March 17, 2025. Applications are made via universityadmissions.se (for international applicants) and via antagning.se (for Swedish applicants) reference code GU-50185.
There are also possibilities for a non-EU national to audit this course without fees as a guest researcher attached to our doctoral programme: for inquiries contact doctoral-education [at] hdk-valand.gu.se with “guest research art and politics” in the message header.
In 2025 the teaching team includes Dr. Kerry Guinan, Prof. Mick Wilson and Seda Yildiz with special guests including colleagues from: Oda Projesi (Özge Açıkkol, Güneş Savaş and Seçil Yersel), the Office for Joint Administrative Intelligence (Chris Dreier and Gary Farrelly) and Tranzit.ro/iași, (Livia Pancu and Florin Bobu) and Linda Thompson (Mid Sweden University).
Participants are normally expected to actively engage online, and to attend at least one meet-up session if feasible, and more if desired. Typically there are three face-to-face meeting opportunities, each in a different city. In 2025 these will include Iași, Romania; Chișinău, Moldova; and Gothenburg, Sweden.
This course is an associated initiative of the Centre for Art and the Political Imaginary.
