Transdisciplinary Readings of Victor Burgin’s “The End of Art Theory" Essay

Maja  Bosnić; Kumjana Novakova; Nataša Raketić; Ibro  Sakić

doi:10.25038/am.v0i28.501

Authors

Maja Bosnić
Kumjana Novakova
Nataša Raketić
Ibro Sakić

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i28.501

Keywords:

Victor Burgin, art theory, transdisciplinary, media, institutional discourse

Abstract

This paper presents four different readings of Victor Burgin’s essay “The End of Art Theory”, between colleagues who work in the environments of four different disciplines, that feasibly influenced and led formations of their interpretations. Hence, these four readings present one part of the multiple transdisciplinary potentials of Burgin’s theoretical research. Their explications revolve around influences of media on art evaluation, constraints of institutional discourse, feminist features of the theory, problematics of binary divisions, as well as foundations of the new institutionalism. At the end of this paper, it becomes clear that the richness of Burgin’s theory relates to multiple segments of cultural studies, social studies, art history, and media, and is easily transferable and interconnectable between them. Furthermore, the transdisciplinary nature of “The End of Art Theory” text testifies to its unquestionable value and fruitful source for future rereadings.

Article received: December 23, 2021; Article accepted: February 1, 2022; Published online: April 15, 2022; Review article

Author Biographies

Maja Bosnić

Faculty of Music, University of Arts in Belgrade; Faculty of Media and Communication, Singidunum University, Belgrade
Serbia

Maja Bosnić obtained her PhD in music composition at Goldsmiths, University of London, and is currently working as Assistant Lecturer in Composition at the Faculty of Music at the University of Arts in Belgrade. Her works have been commissioned and performed in international music festivals, such as Musikprotokoll, Impuls, CTM Festival, Darmstädter Ferienkurse, IYAF, London Composers Forum, Delian Academy of New Music, Sites + Subjects, Timsonia, International Review of Composers, and the S.U.T.R.A. Festival. Her works have been performed around Europe with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, European Cultural Foundation, Austrian Ministry of Culture, Serbian Ministry of Culture, and the Goethe-Institut. Bosnić is a doctoral student in Transdisciplinary Studies in Contemporary Art and Media at the Faculty of Media and Communications in Belgrade. Since 2010, she has been leading various projects and workshops in Zabuna – New Music Association in Belgrade.

Kumjana Novakova

Non-fiction department of ESCAC, Barcelona, Spain; Faculty of Media and Communication, Singidunum University, Belgrade
Serbia

Kumjana Novakova has worked in the field of film and arts since 2006, while her formal education combines international relations, cultural and social research studies in Sofia, Sarajevo, Bologna and Amsterdam. In 2006 she co-founded the Pravo Ljudski Film Festival in Sarajevo and has led the Film Department of the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Skopje from 2018 to 2021. Her curatorial projects have been realized at film festivals and cinema platforms (MoCA, Skopje; Festival of Feminist Culture and Action Firstborn Girl, Skopje; DOK Leipzig, Germany; États généraux du film documentaire de Lussas, France; Play-DOC, Tui, Spain; Rencontres Cinématographiques, Cusy, France; Culturescapes, Basel, Switzerland; etc.). Currently she is an Associate Professor at the Non-fiction department of ESCAC, Barcelona, Spain and a guest lecturer at Master of Film of the Netherlands Film Academy, while pursuing her PhD in Contemporary Arts and Media in Belgrade.

Nataša Raketić

Faculty of Media and Communication, Singidunum University, Belgrade
Serbia

Nataša Raketić has the master’s degree in Journalism and Information and has been working in the field of journalism since 1990. She started her career in Radio Užice, then Radio Belgrade, and Radio Belgrade 202. Since 2009, she has been the appointed editor and host of the daily news and editor-in-chief of the morning program on Radio Belgrade 1. Since 2018, she has been engaged as a teaching associate at the Faculty of Sports “Union – Nikola Tesla” in the subjects of journalism and communication. Raketić is the author of several complex program projects at Radio Television Serbia, such as series of morning programs, a documentary TV show for the 95th anniversary of Radio Belgrade, and series of shows within the project “Media Travels in the EU”. She is interested in the new technologies in radio production, and public media service in the radio industry.

Ibro Sakić

Mišolovka Youth Theater, Novi Sad; Faculty of Media and Communication, Singidunum University, Belgrade
Serbia

Ibro Sakić, graduated and obtained his MA in Serbian Literature and Language at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, as well as in the Applied Theater at the Academy of Arts, University of Novi Sad. He is the founder of the Mišolovka Youth Theater from Novi Sad where he works in the field of applied theater and drama pedagogy through workshops for children, youth, and adults. He has collaborated with and participated in local and international projects in the field of applied theater with numerous organizations, institutions, and cultural centers as a facilitator of drama workshops and theater direction. He is a doctoral student at the Faculty of Media and Communications in Belgrade in Transdisciplinary Studies of Contemporary Art and Media, where he is looking into theoretical work, issues of participation and audience development, as well as the subject of personal development through drama and theater.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i27.501