Università Roma Tre

VIOLENT IMAGES

Since the beginning of the twentieth century the representation of violence, caught in action or just in a symbolical way, has accompanied the path of modernity, from Futurism to postmodernist deconstruction. The course presents a series of studies focusing three forms of representing or addressing violence in images: violence through the medium itself, violence on the body and the representation of historical violent events. Examples of the first kind are Fontana’s “cuts” or the self-destructive machines of Jean Tinguely; for the second modality, for example the performances of Chris Burden, Vettor Pisani, Marina Abramović or Santiago Sierra; for the third, well known examples as Picasso’s Guernica, the murals by Siqueiros and Orozco or the paintings by Leon Golub. Through a series of case studies and critical essays the course offers an assessment of the importance of the topic of violence in the imagination of twentieth century and a deeper comprehension of its metamorphosis and shifting cultural significations.

Exams

The final exam consists of a written test, and requires a capacity for critical exposition of the course topics as well as a general knowledge of the visual arts from 1900 to 2000. Students who regularly attend classes only are required to submit a paper at least 10 days in advance of the exam (minimum length 18,000 signs). Updates and more information on http://artedams.blogspot.it/

Bibliography

• Kathy O'Dell, Contract with the Skin, University of Minnesota Press, 1998. Downloadable here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/v10e7cn0rtrazbc/O%27Dell%20-%20Contract%20with%20the%20Skin%20-%20text.pdf?dl=0
• Jean-Charles Masséra, Dance with the Law; Vincent Labaume, Bruce Nauman. Are you roman or italic?; Gijs van Tuyl, Human condition/Human body; in Bruce Nauman: Image/Text 1966-96, catalogo di esposizione, Hayward Gallery, London 1998. Downloadable here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/y8fr9dj38hr8rih/Bruce%20Nauman%20-%20Catalogo.pdf?dl=0
• Wolfgang Sofsky, Saggio sulla violenza, Einaudi, Torino 1998
• Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others, 2002: Downloadable here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8sh3xwfthhdzlw6/Sontag_Susan_2003_Regarding_the_Pain_of_Others.pdf?dl=0

Textbook

• Hal Foster et al., Arte since 1900, new edition 2013