program description

program description

Forumak Leto’s 2009 summer session is an initiative of Smolny College which takes pleasure in inviting a community of international experts, faculty and students to examine both the roots and future paths for the training of young artists in Russia, and the potential for opening up local discourse to the surrounding global community.
In order to orient ourselves both conceptually and geographically we have asked our faculty this summer to consider the Avantgarde (Russian, 'Neo' or any other) against their own practice and on current discourse in general.
GiNKHUK, the State Institute of Artistic Culture was located in St Petersburg from 1923-27...(click text to read more)

Forumak Leto’s 2009 summer session is an initiative of Smolny College which takes pleasure in inviting a community of international experts, faculty and students to examine both the roots and future paths for the training of young artists in Russia, and the potential for opening up local discourse to the surrounding global community.
In order to orient ourselves both conceptually and geographically we have asked our faculty this summer to consider the Avantgarde (Russian, 'Neo' or any other) against their own practice and on current discourse in general.
GiNKHUK, the State Institute of Artistic Culture was located in St Petersburg from 1923-27. Under the direction of Kazemir Malevich the institute considered the function of the artist in a social context, the scientific approach to art practice and the concept of artists as inventors. For the pilot session of our program for practicing artists we will attempt to trace the fate of these historical discoveries through time and space and consider their current value in contemporary, international art discourse.
This summer, we will be running an intensive three week program which will offer topic based seminars with critics and curators including Olesya Turkina (Russia), Mark Coetzee (South Africa) and Jonathan Platt (USA/St Petersburg), and production-based workshops with professional artists including Liisa Roberts (USA/Finland), Michael Rakowitz (USA), Sergei Bratkov (Moscow) and Piotr Shvetsov (St Petersburg). Lectures open to the public will also take place within the parameters of the program with additional speakers including Muratbek Djumalaev (Bishkek) and Arseny Sergeev (Ekaterinburg). Students will also spend time in group critique sessions to be moderated by program director Emily Newman (USA/St Petersburg) and in excursions around the city.