Universität Wien

170542 UE La Frontera - the aesthetics of the border in video, photography and performance art (2023W)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 17 - Theater-, Film- und Medienwissenschaft
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 30 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Thursday 05.10. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 2 2H415 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 12.10. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 2 2H415 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 19.10. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 2 2H415 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 09.11. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 2 2H415 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 16.11. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 2 2H415 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 23.11. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 2 2H415 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 30.11. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 2 2H415 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 07.12. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 2 2H415 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 14.12. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 2 2H415 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 11.01. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 2 2H415 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 18.01. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 2 2H415 UZA II Rotunde
  • Thursday 25.01. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum 2 2H415 UZA II Rotunde

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

“The U.S-Mexican border es una herida abierta where the Third World grates against the first and bleeds. And before a scab forms it hemorrhages again, the lifeblood of two worlds merging to form a third country — a border culture.” Gloria Anzaldúa

This class focuses on how the ruthless and savage border politics or surveillance, inequality and violence provoked by the “war against drugs” has affected the society living on the US-Mexico border to its core. Furthermore, this class attempts to understand a border in a symbolic, physical and social way—for example, thinking of language as a territory and fashion as a mechanism of identity. In constructing families or disintegrating the same, we will analyze, for example, the works of Teddy Cruz, Guillermo Gómez-Peña and others.


Borders become an entity of their own, and the US-Mexico border, being the most surveilled one, turns into an interesting space to analyze the mechanism of social discrimination, alienation, and getthoification and how artists approach these phenomena on both sides of the country or the region one could call The Frontera. The border becomes a culture of its own, with a specific slang, usage of money, and fluctuation between territories and passports. The multi-space that can be read in the border allows for experimentation in the realm of representation. Music with techno cumbia, ranchero punk and other mixes reminds us of the reflections highlighted by Mark Fisher in his book Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures.  



Assessment and permitted materials

Students will exercise their analytical point of view when engaging with contemporary video and performance art from the US-Mexico border. The works will be analyzed from a socio-economic perspective as an attempt to have a richer understanding of the political scheme that the US-Mexico border represents. Students will engage in a critical dialogue questioning how art is involved in developing a border aesthetic and how that gets transferred to the social construct and vice versa.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Students will analyze artistic works collectively during the class sessions. Students will regularly read excerpts, summarize, and comment on theoretical texts dealing with socially-engaged art, political art, artivism, documentary art and testimonial practices in contemporary art. Students’ participation in these discussions will be crucial and evaluated. As part of the course activities, students will be expected to present (in teams) an artistic work of their choice, the artistic work will need to deal with the aesthetics of the border. Students will be expected to write a mid-term essay. The final paper should expand on the reviews and comments of the mid-term essay, together with the reflections held during the course. 

Examination topics

Regular active participation: 20%; mid-term essay: 25 %; presentation in class: 20%; final essay or practical project 35 %. The final grade results from the average of the weighted partial performances. Each of these partial assignments must be accomplished at least with grade 4 (genügend) to succeed in the course.
A regular presence is also a requirement to pass the course positively.

This is an English-taught course, and hence, competency with the language is also a requirement.

Reading list

Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands : the New Mestiza = La Frontera / Gloria Anzaldúa. 4th ed., 25th anniversary. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2012.
Gómez-Peña, Guillermo. Dangerous Border Crossers : the Artist Talks Back / Guillermo Gomez-Peña. London ; Routledge, 2000.

Alarcón, Norma. Chicana Critical Issues / Edited by Norma Alarcón ... [et Al.]. Berkeley: Third Woman Press, 1993

Glissant, Édouard, and Celia Britton. Introduction to a Poetics of Diversity / by Édouard Glissant ; Translated by Celia Britton. Trans. Celia Britton. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2021.

Valencia, Sayak., and John. Pluecker. Gore Capitalism. Cambridge :: Semiotexte/Smart Art, 2018.

Agamben, Giorgio. Homo Sacer. Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Stanford, Calif. :: Stanford University Press, 1998.

Perez, Pilar. At the Curve of the World : Mariana Botey, E.V. Day, Anne Fishbein and Laurie Dahlberg, Diana López, Gertrudis Rivalta, Elena Del Rivero, Sandra Vivas / Edited by Pilar Perez. Santa Monica, Calif: Smart Art Press, 1999.

Kelley, Bill, and Grant H. Kester. Collective Situations : Readings in Contemporary Latin American Art, 1995-2010 / Bill Kelley Jr. and Grant Kester, Editors. Ed. Bill Kelley and Grant H. Kester. Durham: Duke University Press, 2017.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Mo 18.09.2023 17:27