Eva Leitolf is tenured full professor and head of the Studio Image in the BA art major at Free University of Bozen/Bolzano in Italy since February 2019.
https://www.unibz.it/en/faculties/design-art/academic-staff/person/37228-eva-leitolf
The End of the Global World? Visual (Counter-) Narratives of Territory and Identity
Summer semester 2020
With the project The End of the Global World? Visual (Counter-)Narratives of Territory and Identity Studio Image invited students to explore the interplay of images, cultures and identities. We investigated contemporary representative and operational image practices that promote or counteract populist and nationalist visual narratives: the representation of minorities in various media or the creation of racial profiles within policing, for example, were the subject of our investigation.
The central questions of our summer semester 2020 were: Can artistic practices help to balance populist ideas of homogeneity? How can art strengthen liberal democracy and the idea of a shared Europe/world? Through the lens of diverse local and national issues we investigated how art processes can set in motion, subvert and transform social, political and media discourses.
The studio was supported by Giulia Cordin (visual communication) and German Duarte Peñaranda (media theory).
Guest critic: Marco Enrico Giacomelli (co-founder of Artribune)
Luca Piscopo, Candy Oscuro: Apocalypse and Genesis / Vulnus, two publications, 28.9 x 38 cm, 1’04” video
Michelangelo Boldrin, Through the Eye: The Aesthetics of Control, website
Elda Ergulec, Attribuiamo Immagini Alle Nuvole Per Avvicinarci Ad Esse, 1' 02'' video collage
ELIZA & Frankenstein. Techtopian Image Narratives
Winter semester 2019/20
Both enthusiasm and skepticism about technological developments have always been a powerful driving force of cultural discourse and practice. The question of how far artists can not only be inspired or repelled by technological developments but can also contribute to current social discourses has been discussed recently in numerous events, such as the symposium “Guest, Ghost, Host: Machine!” organized by Hans Ulrich Obrist and John Brockman (Serpentine Marathon, 2017). How do we individually as well as a society relate to technological progress? Will “culture surrender to technology” as claimed by Neil Postman in his publication Technopoly in 1992? Or will we be able to regulate technology’s implications to prevent our societies from becoming “totalitarian technocracies”? Are social inclusion, human fallibility and the capability to abstract the key factors that prevent AI from ever becoming as intelligent as a human being? How does technology perceive the world and at the same time change the ways we see it? And most importantly: which contribution can we, as artists, make to all of this?
The studio was supported by Giulia Cordin (visual communication) and German Duarte Peñaranda (media theory).
Guest critics: Prof. Bernhart Schwenk (Pinakothek der Moderne/Munich) and artist Miro Craemer.
Giacomo Turra, VS, 90’ performance with microphone and electric guitar, Instagram posts and stories, 70x100 cm posters
Fabian Mosele, FANtasia -- Shared Lands, 3’ video loop, projection on wall, and one inkjet print, 105x185 cm, mounted on a hardboard panel, various stickers
Mark Markin, NONA, laser cut alluminum, video loops and manual
Luisa Pisetta, No Title (Chapter 1), two projectors and seven suspended transparent sheets
VIOLENT IMAGES
Summer semester 2019
The Studio Image project for summer semester 2019 examined manifold forms of representation of violence. Still as well as moving images both reflect and exert violence in connection with their production, dissemination or use. Through the lens of diverse topics the studio investigated how representations of violence can set in motion, subvert and transform social, political and media discourses. Historical and contemporary image strategies, intense theoretical explorations, a film programme and discussions with invited artists and curators supplied inputs as participants developed their own artistic ideas and concepts. In the course of the semester students realised these in a photographic and/or video-based project and in an artist book.
The studio was supported by Giulia Cordin (visual communication) and German Duarte Peñaranda (media theory).
Irene Sabine Rainer, Shared Space, 4' 29'' HD video loop showing a man sharing a defined space with a drone operated by the artist. The view of the drone is documented in the artist´s book "homo ad circulum" in over 2000 images.
Marco Tilli, miremoplus 7.0, UV-print on mirror paper, 120 x 80 cm, chair
Elisa Faletti, Incidents and Situations from Common Life / Chapter II, 2560 surveillance images of Jerusalem's Western Wall from Earthcam's website, prints on paper, security camera and monitor
Josefina Sundblad, Isabella Panigada, Irene Chiogna, Marilia Fara, Natalie Steinhouse, Maria Elena Rossi, Martina Vera Colella, Elisabeth Pfeifauf, Pierro, Searching for Humans. Real ones only present Raw Exposition. An Improvisational Theater Performance
Giacomo Turra, Eight Days to Disappear, 7 ink jet prints mounted on panels, various dimensions ; Matteo Zoccolo, So Heartbreaking, 57 fiber-based silver prints, 12.6 x 17.7 cm, display case
eleitolf@unibz.it