Landscape (post) Conflict

We are living in a period of increasing instability and accelerating violence worldwide. Atrocity, invasion, genocide, mass-displacement – these are brutal realities for millions across a growing number of conflict zones. Given ongoing advances in military technology, we are also witnessing the deployment of ever-more ruthless forms of mechanised violence, often against civilian populations. In the process, the limits of international law (and the notion of a Western ‘world order’) are being brutally exposed. The landscape is the locus of conflict and its legacies.

Is there capacity within the field of art to respond to the realities of such escalating conflict? What are the landscapes within which this escalating violence has been enabled? What are the conditions that underpin it and what are the traces it leaves on the land in turn? How are our ideas of spatiality, sovereignty, borders, and boundaries – the components through which landscape is codified and constructed – informed by the military imagination? Certain powers of representation – as historically exemplified by the international press – are being disassembled. Who is left to document the experience of conflict? Can artists have a role in such documentation?

What are the critical and practical uses of contemporary art at moments such as this? How do underlying power structures and socio-political conditions contribute to the mechanics of conflict? What are the ideological operations (within and beyond conflict zones) that enable militarised violence at mass scale? Can art function as a space for meaningful enquiry – for instance, through organisational and evidentiary art practices such as Forensic Architecture that seek to reveal violations of international law and serve as judiciary tools in the prosecution of war crimes?

This Summer School aims to provide a space for the exploration of these questions, bringing together an array of artistic and academic voices to inform an enquiry that necessitates thinking across a combination of scales – local and global, past and present, theoretical and practical.

The school will involve lectures, discussions, excursions (Belfast and Dublin), workshops, group work, and visits to exhibitions.

Call for participants now closed

Participants are invited from art, design, architecture, art history and theory and curating and also from related fields such as sociology, political science, geography, literary studies and anthropology. One can be at any stage in one’s academic or professional career. Participation is free but applicants must commit to full attendance and will need to cover their own costs for meals and accommodation. All events will be held in English.

Please send a short biography, C. V. and a statement of interest outlining why you wish to take part in the summer school (400 words max). Please include your name and contact details.

The call for applications is now closed.  Successful applicants will be notified by mid-May.

During the Summer School, participants are required to attend workshops, lectures and discussions between 7 and 11 July, and a closing event on 11 July. Participants will also be required to take part in two excursions: a day-trip to Belfast and a walking tour of Dublin and to undertake group project work over the course of the week.

Some talks will be open to members of the public and they will be recorded.

Advance reading: Participants will also be required to undertake some reading in advance.

Note: This is a provisional schedule, some dates/times may be subject to minor adjustment or cancellation.

Details of the public programme will be available here shortly.

L’internationale

Museum of the Commons

This is the fourth cooperative project led by L’Internationale, focusing on the themes of climate, translocal cooperation, and artistic strategies of healing and repair. ‘Museum of the Commons’ weaves together three transversal thematic threads corresponding to key challenges contemporary societies are facing:

Climate tackles issues of the current planetary climate crisis, the sustainability of institutional, artistic and cultural practices and processes, and the urgency of ecologically transforming our politics, societies, cultures and ways of life.

Situated Organisations queries the role of museums and art organizations as actors in complex social networks and ecosystems, in order to seek new ways of democratising institutions and render them more open, inclusive and useful.

Past in the Present, the final thread, focuses on the crucial roles our local and shared histories hold in constituting contemporary identities, politics, societies and cultures, investigating the persistence and long-lasting impact of historical and current environmental and colonial violence. In doing so, the confederation seeks to mobilize art and culture as strategic tools in processes of healing, reconstruction and repair.

These content threads unfold through different activities – schools, seminars, residencies, public programmes and exhibitions. Assemblies for each of the strands meet online once every two months. In addition, there is an editorial board that decides on content and direction for L’Internationale Online and a Visibility Group that formulates and implements a communication plan for the network.