|  www.worldofart.org 2006/2007
 2nd Summer Seminars for Art Curators came to an end Between Exposition and Mediation 
 July 23-August 7, 2007,  Yerevan, Armenia The Summer Seminars for Art Curators 2007  has been organized in collaboration with the National Association of Art  Critics (Yerevan, Armenia), SCCA, Center for Contemporary Arts -  Ljubljana (Slovenia), Soros Center for Contemporary Art - Alma Aty (Kazakhstan)  and BM Center for Contemporary Art (Istanbul, Turkey). After successfully completing and  summarizing the Summer Seminars, the National Association of Art Critics (NAAC)  now intends to further develop the program focusing on partnership and  networking with regional actors in the field of art criticism and curating.   
 
              
                |  |  SCCA, Center for Contemporary Arts -  Ljubljana (Slovenia) was present at the summer's  programme with two lectures: Tevž Logar, the World of Art assistant,  presented the school of contemporary arts World of Art (www.worldofart.org), that has  been operating in frame of SCCA-Ljubljana from 1997. Conceived in yearly cycles  and composed by the course for curators with a final exhibition, seminar in  writing, series of lectures and a yearly anthology, it has established the  mechanisms necessary for reflective operation in the world of art. Barbara Borčić, SCCA-Ljubljana director  and head of video programs, presented different aspects of curating in Slovenia comprised of  juxtaposition of different understandings, visions, achievements and  interpretations of curatorial practices in a wider context of contemporary art  from the sixties to the present.  SCCA-Ljubljana also launched open call for  tenders for residents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic,  Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.  The SCCA-Ljubljana selection board (Barbara Borčić, Saša Nabergoj and Nevenka  Šivavec) made a preselection. The final selection was made by the National  Association of Art Critics. From Slovenia Petra Kapš, art  critic, curator and publicist, took part in the Summer Seminars. 
 2nd Summer Seminars for Art CuratorsProgram 
The 2007 summer seminars and the workshop  for art curators centered on the relation of the art critic and curator on the  one hand and curator-artist on the other, in the face of  globalization/westernization of the art market and big exhibitions; i. e.  biennales, art fairs and festivals as one of the outcomes of these processes  that have penetrated into former socialist countries since the mid-1990's. The program focused on curating as a  critical practice, and particularly, the curator as someone who combines the  management of relations (artist-curator, artist-critics, artist-society) with  the function of evaluation.  The intensive two-week program comprised of a theory and method courses, as well as a curatorial workshop.  The courses were combined with presentations by local and international  artists, curators, art historians and cultural workers as well as with visits to  artist's studios, galleries and museum in Yerevan.   
 Mentors Miško Šuvaković: Critical Writing Workshop At the "Critical writing"  workshop the theoretical platforms of critical practice and theoretical and  curatorial practices in contemporary art was discussed. The goal of the course  was to introduce the students to analytical relationship to the discursive  problems and questions of power in contemporary art and culture.
 Miško Šuvaković
 Professor of aesthetics and theory of art. He teaches at the Faculty of  Music and Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Arts in Belgrade. He  is an author and co-editor of twenty two books on contemporary art and theory.
 
 Neery Melkonian: Global Feminism's Other During the course the contexts, subtexts  and curatorial approaches that inform big feminist international exhibits were  discussed. The ideological frameworks and the possible causes for the absence  of certain cultural geographies in such undertakings were addressed. The course  focused on exploring the works of Armenian women artists internationally  covering the post WWII period to the present.
 Neery Melkonian
 Independent critic, curator and an advisor based in New York City. As  Associate Director of the Center for Curatorial Studies Museum at Bard College,  and the Director of Visual Arts programming at the Center for Contemporary Arts  in Santa Fe, Melkonian has organized over twenty solo exhibitions and two  traveling group-exhibits. She has lectured/conducted workshops on topics  related to aesthetics of displacement, globalization and trans-cultural  geographies.
 
 Elvan Zabunian: A History of ExpositionThe five meetings were articulated around  outstanding exhibitions organized in Europe since 1969, the year when the  exhibition When Attitudes Become Form (Harald Szeeman) was organized.  The exhibitions discussed included Paris-Berlin (1978) and Paris-Moscow (1979), Magicians of the Earth (1989), Dokumenta XI.
 Elvan Zabunian
 Contemporary art historian and art critic based in Paris. She is  Associate Professor at the Rennes University (Brittany, France) where for  several years she has been the director of the Curatorial Program in the Art  History Department.
   Presentations and lecturesFrom Armenia 
                Ruben Arevshatyan (artist and free-lance curator): Contemporary Art  and Educational System in Armenia; Fine Arts Department of the Armenian Open  UniversityNazareth Karoyan (AICA-Armenia): Education as a field of  critical praxis
 Eva Khachatryan (ACCEA, Erevan): Art Criticism And Curatorial Practice In Post-Soviet Armenia
 Azat Sargysayn (GSSA, Erevan): Gyumri International Biennial of Contemporary Art
 Vardan Azatyan (AICA-Armenia): Memory and/or Oblivion: Historicizing the Contemporary  Art of Armenia
 Angela Harutyunyan (AICA-Armenia): Importing the Curator: Politics of Representation and Recognition in  Contemporary Armenian Art
 International guests  
                Malcolm F. Miles (University  of Plymouth, England): Society as a  Work of Art?Claudia-Maria Luenig (Basement, Wien, Austria): The Role of  Independent Exhibition Spaces In the Arts On the Example of the Basement in  Vienna
 Valeria Ibraeva (SCCA-Almaty, Kazakhstan): Kazakhstan art as a political project
 Tevž Logar (SCCA-Ljubljana, Slovenia): School of contemporary arts World of Art (www.worldofart.org)
 Barbara Borčić (SCCA-Ljubljana, Slovenia): On different aspects of curating in Slovenia
   ParticipantsArpi Adamyan (Yerevan, Armenia),  Mary Amirkhanyan (Yerevan, Armenia),  Rael Artel (Tallin, Estonia), Anna Bitkina (Sanct-Petersburg,  Russia), Armine Babayan (Yerevan, Armenia),  Irina Chkhaidze (Tbilisi, Georgia),  Estzer Lazar (Budapest,  Hungary), Karina Galimzyanova (Bichkek, Kyrgyztan), Marianna Hovhanissyan (Yerevan, Armenia),  Petra Kapš (Ljubljana,  Slovenia), Dastan Kozhakhmetov (Alma-Ata,  Kazakhstan), Sorana Muntenau (Bucharest, Romania),  Azat Sarkissian (Yerevan, Armenia),  Seda Shekoyan (Yerevan, Armenia),  Joanna Sokolowska (Warsaw, Poland),  Marko Stamenkovic (Belgrade, Serbia),  Ani Soukiassian (Yerevan, Armenia),  Nadia Tsulukidze (Tbilisi, Georgia),  Arpine Tokmadjayan (Yerevan, Armenia),  Tsolak Topchyan (Yerevan, Armenia),  Vladimir Us (Chisinau, Moldova). 
 Contact:SCCA-Ljubljana  (office hours: 11.00-15.00)Contact persons: Saša Nabergoj (head of  World of Art), Tevž Logar (coordinator of World of Art)
 Metelkova 6, 1000 Ljubljana, phone: 00 386  41 367 425, fax: 00 386 1 430 06 29
 E-mail: svetumetnosti@scca-ljubljana.si
   Additional information:SCCA-LjubljanaCenter for Contemporary Arts
 Metelkova 6, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
 www.scca-ljubljana.si
 phone: 00 386 1 431 83 85
 fax: 00 386 1 430 06 29
 Contact person: Dušan Dovc
 e-mail: info@scca-ljubljana.si
 SCCA-Ljubljana is a member of Asociacija, the association of  non-government organisations and independent creators in the field of culture  and art in Slovenia.               |