World of Art; School for Curators and Critics of
Contemporary Art; 13th year
International cooperation
Saša Nabergoj: Dolce Far Niente: The Praise of Laziness
Lecture

Saturday, May 7, 2011
Post-graduate museological curatorial studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland

WORLD OF ART – INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
Partnership focused on vocational training in Curatorial Studies, Art Critical Studies, Museum Studies, and Art Journalism.

Among its international projects, the World of Art curatorial school develops models for training and active involvement in the field of contemporary art. As an institution with years of educational experience, we establish partner relationships with other stakeholders in Central Europe, and connect with other established, reputable and referential curatorial programmes. Our goal is to establish permanent connections and contribute to an educational platform.

In this respect, we collaborate with the University of Applied Arts in Vienna on their MA programme ‘Exhibition and Cultural Communication Management (ECM)’, University Jagiellonski in Krakow (museological curatorial studies at the Institute of Art History) and Kurziv, platform for questions of culture, media and society in Zagreb.
Our networking is based on three segments of long-term collaboration:

• joint study trips,
• lecturer exchange and
• establishing a joint educational platform.

International liaisons began with an opening meeting in Zagreb in September 2010, and continued with a workshop in Zagreb led by curator, critic and theorist Petja Grafenauer, which was organised for participants from the Kulturpunkt School and  students of curatorial studies at the World of Art. This was followed by a study trip to Vienna for the same group along with the students on the World of Art course. In January, the curators, writer and theorists Luisa Ziaja and Nora Sternfeld (ECM, Vienna) held a lecture in Zagreb, while in April 2011 they prepared a lecture on post-representational curatorship in Ljubljana.

ANNOUNCING

Saša Nabergoj: Dolce Far Niente: The Praise of Laziness
Lecture

In a series of lectures, Saša Nabergoj, head of the World of Art, will try to defend the right to leisure in contemporary hyper-productive society. She will examine the 18th century, when our obsession with work and productivity began. The capitalist economic system was formed in the Enlightenment, and within this system rational discourse on work and economy emerged. At the same time, however, an alternative discourse celebrating laziness was established. In this discourse lie the roots of resistance to participation in a social project based on the work ethic, and the beginning of scepticism about the belief that productivity and the production of goods are the ultimate goals in life. The generally accepted circle of supply and demand fuelling the consumer society of the 21st century will be questioned with reference to artists such as Kazimir Malevich, Marcel Duchamp and Mladen Stilinović. Laziness will be presented as an alternative which can turn the need for (multi)production into freedom for production.

Saša Nabergoj works as a curator, writer, editor and lecturer in the field of contemporary art.
She studied art history at the University of Ljubljana. She is an assistant director at the SCCA, the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Ljubljana, which is a non-profit production, research and educational organisation. Its main objective is to produce, encourage and communicate innovative artistic and interpretative practices and to link them internationally. The centre provides those engaged in contemporary art (artists, curators, theoreticians, critics, and public) with knowledge, tools and skills for independent and expressive performance in the world of art. She works as the head of World of Art, a school for curators and contemporary art critics, which is the only programme in Slovenia - and Central, Eastern and Southern Europe - intended for practical and theoretical education in the field of contemporary art. She is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) in Paris and the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art (IKT) in Amsterdam.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

World of Art. Models of training and collaboration in contemporary arts
Partnership focused on vocational training of Curatorial Studies, Art Critical Studies, Museum Studies, and Art Journalism

Partners: SCCA-Ljubljana/World of Art (head); ECM, educating, curating and managing studies at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna (ECM); Post-graduate museological curatorial studies at the University Jagiellonski in Krakow; Kurziv, platform for questions of culture, media and society in Zagreb.

This partnership is funded with support from the European Commission Lifelong Learning Programme, Leonardo da Vinci, partnership.

World of Art is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the City of Ljubljana, Department for Culture.

[Published May 9, 2011]