Education Abroad
Program
Hispanic and European Studies Program
Universitat Pompeu
Fabra
CONTEMPORARY SPANISH ART
UPF/HESP Spring Semester 2014
Course Syllabus
Eloy Fernández Porta, Ph.D
Language of Instruction: English
Professor’s contact: [email protected]
Course prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for this course
Course language requierements: None
Course description
This course provides a dynamic, multi-disciplinary introduction to Contemporary Art in
Spain. A background on this specified field is not requiered. For this reason not only the
main artistic events will be covered, but also some political, historical and cultural
issues that might be relevant. Although this course is manly based on lectures and class
debate, four visits to art centers and exhibitions will be also part of the course
requirements. These visits will be made during the class time, and are equivalent to a
usual in-class lecture. We will discuss recent classics as well as emerging artists, and we
will cover a wide range of artistic practices, from photography to afterpop music,
including installation art, performance art and comic art. Although the course offers
several relevant clues to understand the historical context and particular conditions in
Spain, it is also intended as a more general insight into contemporary artistic strategies
and topics.
Learning objectives
At the end of the course students will be able to identify and discuss some of the
masterworks and most important currents of change-of-the-century culture in Spain.
They will also be capable to understand and relate to key notions regarding visualand
media culture. They will develop a contemporary artistic sensibility, and they will
acquire several notions and ideas that will be useful for them in order to understand and
analize globalized pop culture. Significant analogies between peninsular
artistic production and North American art will be frequent.
Course workload
Students will be required to read short, informative articles (provided in the Courspack)
on a daily basis. The articles in question will serve as a basis for class discussion and
they will offer the conceptual framework for every session of the course. There will also
be two tests (Midterm and Final); each exam will cover 50% of the course. Students
will also be asked to write a 10-page, informed paper about an artist of their choice that
we haven’t dealt with in class. The paper will be presented to the class in a 10-minute,
collective powerpoint-style, in which students will collaborate in groups of 2 to 4, with
other students whose papers deal with related issues.
Hispanic and European Studies Program- Universitat Pompeu Fabra
2014-2015
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Education Abroad
Program
Hispanic and European Studies Program
Universitat Pompeu
Fabra
Methods of instruction
Every class will begin with a group of two students giving a short, 7-minutes summary
of required reading. Thursday’s sessions will consist on a guided field trip to a local art
center, gallery or museum. Proper indications will be given in advance. Part of the
session will be lecture-based, but participation and debate is required. When going on a
field trip students will be asked to comment and discuss the artworks on display. A Zap
paper on one of the field trips is also required.
Method of assessment
Class participation: 10%
Midterm Exam: 25%
Zap Paper: 10%
Oral Presentation of Final Paper (collective): 15%
Final Paper: 15%
Final Exam: 25%
Absence policy
3 absences: -10% grade
4 absences: -20% grade
5 absences: Incomplete
Health problems can be considered as cause of justified absence when explained with a
doctor’s note. Missing a plane or going on a personal trip on a lecture day are not
considered causes of justified absence.
Class protocols
There is no dress code for this course. Students are allowed to drink in class, and they
can use their laptops for educational purposes.
Bibliography
- Coursepack (contains all articles that should be read during the course).
- CONGOST, Carles, Say I’m Your Number One, León: MUSAC, 2007.
- MILLÁN, Fernando y Jesús García Sánchez (Eds.), La escritura en libertad, Madrid:
Alianza, 1975. [Visual poetry anthology]
- SANDLER, Irving, Art of the Postmodern Era: From the Late 1960s to the Early
1990s, New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
- VV.AA., Héroes caídos / Fallen Angels, Castelló: EACC, 2001.
- VV.AA., Antes que nada / Before Everything, Madrid: CA2M, 2011.
Hispanic and European Studies Program- Universitat Pompeu Fabra
2014-2015
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Education Abroad
Program
Hispanic and European Studies Program
Universitat Pompeu
Fabra
CSA DAILY OUTLINE
TUE: Introduction to the course. Flags, maps and national sentiment: images of
Hispanity in late 20th Century painting. Mateo Maté’s “domestic country”. Pilar
Albarracín’s Andalusia. Watch online: John Berger, Ways of Seeing, Episode One
(Course’s website).
THU: “You know how you should feel”: An introduction to contemporary art from the
point of view of the sociology of emotion. The case of History Painting: feeling rules
and the hyerarchy of emotions. Pierre Bourdieu on the art field. Coursepack reading:
Joan Fontcuberta: “Googlegrams: The Noises of Data Files” + Michael Maffesoli,
“Vital Principle”.
TUE: Landscape Art 1: Datascapes. Photography: deconstructing the moment of truth.
Fictions, fakes and googlegrams: landscapes without memory. Daniel Canogar’s Other
Geologies and the aesthetics of debris. Read: “The Soul of the Collection: Interview
with Helga de Alvear”.
THU: Field Trip 1: Fabra i Coats Fàbrica de Creació: After Landscape. Collective
exhibition curated by Martí Peran. Read: Francisco López, “Environmental Sound
Matter”. Spotify audition: Francisco López, La selva.
TUE: Landscape Art 3: Nature® reloaded. Modern essentialism vs. postmodern
relativism. Soundscapes, sound installations and the evocation of the jungle. Indications
for the Self-Guided Field Trip to Fontcuberta’s public intervention With Every Kiss the
World is Born @ Isidre Nonell Square + Zap Paper. Read: Marianna Torgovnick,
“Defining the Primitive”.
THU: Art and Time 1: Primitivism and the myth of historical progress. Two paths to
the primitive: tribal and technological. The heritage of Futurism. Charris, Barceló and
the painter as traveller. Watch: Miquel Barceló & Joseph Nadj, Double Steps.
TUE: Art and Time 2: Chronology and plasticity. Real time and technologicallyproduced time. Enrique Marty. Watch: John Berger, About Time (Channel 4 videoessay). Zap Paper Due.
THU: Art and Time 3: Contemporary representations of death. After Leopardi’s Death
and Fashion. Motifs and icons. Memento mori, Et in Arcadia Ego, In Ictu Oculi, Dance
of Death. On the “Black Spain” literary and pictorial tradition.
TUE: Field Trip 2: MACBA. A visit to the permanent collection. Read: Guy Davenport,
“Objects on a Table”.
THU: Objects! 1: The avant-gardes, or the silent revolution. Salvador Dalí’s objects of
symbolic functioning. The avant-garde tradition, or, the revolution goes textual. Visual
poetry from Joan Brossa to Chema Madoz. Read: Jorge Luis Marzo, “Objects and
Their Cases”.
TUE: Objects! 2: Pop: Revolution complete? Joyful fetishes. Afterpop: Revolutioning
the Mass-Produced tool. Critical fetishes.
THU: Midterm Exam.
Read: Fredric Jameson, “The Brick and the Balloon”.
TUE: Field Trip 3: ADN Galeria. Read: “The Masks of the Merchandise”. Paper
proposal due.
Hispanic and European Studies Program- Universitat Pompeu Fabra
2014-2015
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Education Abroad
Program
Hispanic and European Studies Program
Universitat Pompeu
Fabra
THU: Redifining the artist in late capitalism. Representations of money and
consumption. Multiples vs. canvases. Karmelo Bermejo’s money actions. Ignasi Aballí:
objectifying bills. Read: Teresa Margolles, “Interview With Santiago Sierra”.
TUE: The Aesthetics of Reification. The artist as hero / pragmatic / cynical / reified /
exploiter. The case of Santiago Sierra. Read: Eloy Fernández Porta, “Reifictions: On
Emotional Industries and Feminised Work.”
THU: Art and femininity 1: How to produce sexual difference. Gender codes as prison
(or system). Eugènia Balcells: Boy Meets Girl. Alicia Framis: the care industries.
Eulàlia Valldosera and emotional labour. A semiotic approach to media culture. Read:
Lucy Lippard, “The Pink Glass Swan”.
TUE: Art and femininity 2: Gender codes as fiction (or play). New, empowering roles.
Feminism meets the fashion industry. A deconstructive approach to media (and
postmedia) culture. Cabello & Carceller and the aesthetics of miscasting. Carmela
García: strategies for undoing gender. Naia del Castillo and the politics of luxury. Read:
Jeffrey Weeks: “Fallen Heroes? All About Men”.
THU: Field Trip 4: Fundació Suñol. Perfect Lovers: Art in the Times of Aids.
Collective exhibition featuring works by Pepe Espaliú, Eulàlia Valldosera, Félix
González Torres et. al. Read: Connell & Messerschmidt, “Hegemonic Masculinity:
Rethinking the Concept”.
TUE: Art and masculinity 1: Milksop vs. Manful. How queer theory changed the
perception of the masculine body. Archaeologies of virility. Cognitive privileges. Read:
José M. García Cortés, “Introduction to Fallen Heroes”.
THU: Art and masculinity 2: Becoming-man and alternative manhoods. Reversible
icons. Corporate masculinity. Gendered Spaces.
TUE: Oral Presentations.
THU: Oral presentations. Paper due.
TUE: Final Exam.
Hispanic and European Studies Program- Universitat Pompeu Fabra
2014-2015
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