ifk SUMMER ACADEMY 2024

02.–11. September, Brijuni, Croatia

Non-aligned movements 

The ifk Summer Academy 2024 will offer time and space for both academic and artistic research. It will approach the topic of non-aligned movements from a historical and political perspective by sounding out the decolonial non-aligned movement of the post-war period. Also we will be reflecting on non-alignment as artistic and epistemic strategy.

We will meet on the island of Brijuni (Croatia) – the place where Josip Broz Tito met with diplomats and politicians of the non-aligned movement (»blockfreie Staaten«) from all over the world in the 1950s and 1960s. A museum on the island documents these meetings; and animals gifted during these meetings can still be found in Brijuni’s zoo. But Brijuni can draw on an even deeper history of navigating political spheres: It bears architectural remains from the late Roman empire, from the Byzantine period, from the Austro-Hungarian Empire all the way up to socialist Yugoslavia of the 20th century. Furthermore, it is a site of varying cultural value: From its agricultural uses, its military and scientific uses and even its artistic relevance and status as a tourist destination, human beings have continuously shaped the face of the island. The intersection of nature and culture in the Brijuni archipelago is also unique and opens up space for artistic exploration (the underwater world with its roman ruins and distinct fauna, the unique flora and fauna on the islands themselves, its history of malaria, etc.).

The summer academy will open with the joint exploration of the archipelago. Participants will then work in smaller groups in their sections and we will convene regularly in plenary sessions. The PhD-projects of the participants are expected to be presented for discussion, although not necessarily as a lecture but in a diferent format that will be communicated beforehand. The ifk Academy aims to facilitate the exchange of research methods and ideas between the humanities (Kulturwissenschaften) and artistic research.

ifk FACULTY

Karmen Franinovic and Roman Kirschner (Zurich/Vienna: artistic research, media art, design)

Tim Ingold (Aberdeen: anthropology)

Goran Sergej and Nikolina Pristaš (Zagreb: dance, dramaturgy)

Natan Sznaider (Tel Aviv: sociology, memory politics)

Monika Wulz (Zurich: history and philosophy of science)

SECTIONS

Section 1: Non-aligned Visions of Science, Technology, Economy (Monika Wulz, Zurich)

In the Non-Aligned Movement since the 1960s, alternative visions of science and technology, as well as of the local and the global economy were developed. Taking international summer meetings in Yugoslavia (Praxis School, »Socialism in the World«, IUC Dubrovnik) and international organizations such as UNESCO and UNCTAD as starting points, this working group looks at spaces and encounters, visions and conflicts regarding those alternatives: What were ideas for self-reliant uses of science and technology? Which economic forms of organization were discussed? How did feminists open up critical perspectives? And in how far do those historical visions matter with regard to current debates?

Section 2: Global Arts and its Audience. The quagmire of interpretation (Natan Sznaider, Tel Aviv)

Clicking this link, you look at a small part of a picture by the Indonesian art collective Taring Padi. Taring Padi was called »People’s Justice« displayed for a very short moment at documenta 15 in the summer of 2022 before being removed causing a scandal. My section will deal with the difficulty of interpretation of this picture. The idea of a world art is a thing of the past. Before documenta 15 in Kassel, the international art world seemed to be indestructible. That's different now. The party may not be over, but the music has become much more silent. What happened? This art show was consciously conceptualized by its Indonesian curators as political and activist. Pictures with anti-de-post-colonial motives were displayed on German grounds in a global setting. What is the role of Indonesia (the curators of documenta 15) and the non-alignment movement in all this?

Section 3: Coastline (Tim Ingold, Aberdeen)

What is a coastline? Does it divide the sea from the land, as shown on cartographic and navigational maps, or rather delineate a zone of transition, critical to life both onshore and off, from sea-over-land to land-over-sea? Are lands contained within their coastlines, or do coasts, rather, line the outer reaches of the sea? What if, instead of viewing the sea from a perspective rooted in the land, we were to view the land, instead, from the fluid horizons of the sea? In this section we will explore how answers to these questions impact on our notions of islands and continents, and consider how these answers may have changed historically, from the formation of land-based polities, through the changing balance between shipping and terrestrial transport, to the subjection of the oceans to the territorial imperatives of the modern nation state. Rising sea-levels, as the planet warms, further confound the separation of marine and terrestrial environments, and threaten low-lying coastal conurbations. Must we, then, rethink the assumption that society is founded on solid land?