Prof. Dr. Boyan Manchev
The Future of Art
Lecture & seminar series in English,
Einführungsveranstaltung (Einführungsvorlesung ODER Seminar), 2 SWS, 2 ECTS
Seminar sessions: 15.6./16.6., 10-14:30 h, HZT, studio 8; 20.6./21.6., 13-17 h, HZT, studio 9
Lectures: 14.6. and 21.6.2017, 18-21 h, HZT, studio 11

The question of the future of art seems to be discredited nowadays. It is seen as unavoidably grounded in the modernist metaphysics of the last two centuries and therefore overdetermined by radical utopias, often with ambiguous outcomes, especially in their relation to 20th c. totalitarian political projects. As a result, by over-signifying the structural moment of “contemporaneity”, contemporary art in general neglects the question of the future for the sake of the present.

However - and this will be the starting hypothesis of this lecture series - the art practice can’t freeze as permanent “contemporaneity”. Neglecting its openness to the future would not only risk to erase history and therefore the subjective forces, but it would also mean that art wouldn’t have any transformative potential in itself, that it would be inapt not only to change the world but even to imagine other possibilities for existence, for acting in the world and making it.On the basis of the starting hypothesis of the lecture series, we will formulate the questions: What future of art could artists and theorists imagine? Moreover, what future of art do contemporary art practices imply or imagine themselves? The intensive seminar and lecture series will try to mobilize the collective forces of imagination in order to open space for critical discussion, for critical imagination of the future.

Leistungsanforderungen für den unbenoteten Studium-Generale-Schein: the students are expected to attend regularly.

Boyan Manchev is philosopher, Professor at the New Bulgarian University and Guest Professor at the HZT/UdK (from 2011), Hollins University and Sofia University. He is also former Director of Program and Vice-President of the International College of Philosophy in Paris. His actual research, which advances the perspective of a dynamic ontology and transformationist materialism, is focused on the fields of ontology, philosophy of art and political philosophy. In the last years Manchev collaborates often to theatre, contemporary dance and visual arts projects.
Manchev is the author of eight books and around two hundred book chapters, catalogues and other publications in various languages. In the last years appeared “Clouds” (Sofia, 2017), ”Logic of the Political” (Sofia, 2012), “Miracolo” (Milano: Lanfranchi, 2011), “L’altération du monde” (Paris: Lignes, 2009); “La Métamorphose et l’Instant – Désorganisation de la vie” (Paris: La Phocide, 2009). His book “The Body- Metamorphosis” (Sofia: Altera, 2007) deals extensively with contemporary art, performance and dance.