Artistic Practice 1, Summer Semester 2024
Course Lecturers: Rose-Anne Gush, Anousheh Kehar, Philipp Sattler
Student Assistant: Ahmad Darkhabani
Artistic Practice 1 takes Jennifer Ponce de Leon’s eponymous book, Another Aesthetics is Possible (2021) as the starting point this semester. Another Aesthetics is Possible develops a materialist analysis of art’s multifaceted role in the social and collective process of exploring competing social narratives, of art and politics. In her study of artists and collectives working in Argentina, Mexico and the United States who inherit from artistic traditions of surrealism and street theatre, Ponce de Leon explores how artistic practices, experimental and collective in form and expression have merged and intertwined with political leftist, anti-colonial movements and uprisings struggling against the brutal violence of contemporary capitalism, and attempting to figure worlds beyond its grasp. Thus, in this course, students will track these projects, using this book as a lens through which to see the context of Graz, and exploring what they can learn from the book, and how it can aid in developing meaningful, collective, artistic practice today. During the semester, students will research, read, think and write, collectively crafting a zine.