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Univ.-Prof. Mag. Christian Kravagna

Institut für Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften
+ 43 (1) 58816 - 8500
c.kravagna@akbild.ac.at
Visitenkarte AkademieOnline

Lehrveranstaltungen

Christian Kravagna is an art historian, critic and curator. His main research fields are in postcolonial studies, global modernisms, migration, politics of representation and institutional critique. Since 2006 Professor of Postcolonial Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. He held positions as visiting professor and lecturer at University of Vienna, University of Zurich, Leuphana University Luneburg, University of Applied Arts Vienna and Art University Linz. He is co-founder of the research network Multiple Artistic Mobilities – Travelling Artists from/to African and European German-Speaking Countries (MAM). He is an advisory board member of Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational, Tate Modern, London.

Authored books: Transmodern: An art history of contact: 1920–60, Manchester: Manchester University Press 2022; Das amerikanische Museum: Sklaverei, Schwarze Geschichte und der Kampf um Gerechtigkeit in Museen der Südstaaten (with Cornelia Kogoj), Vienna/Berlin 2019. Transmoderne: Eine Kunstgeschichte des Kontakts, Berlin 2017;

Edited books: Privileg Blick: Kritik der visuellen Kultur, Berlin 1997; Agenda: Perspektiven kritischer Kunst, Vienna/Bozen 2000; The Museum as Arena: Artists on Institutional Critique, Cologne 2001; Routes: Imaging Travel and Migration, Frankfurt 2007; Transcultural Modernisms, Berlin 2013 (with Model House Research Group).

Essays and reviews in: Artforum, Tate Papers, Camera Austria, springerin, Texte zur Kunst, Third Text, Eikon, Forum International, Kritische Berichte, Kunst-Bulletin, Kunstforum International.

From 2005 to 2014 Christian Kravagna was artistic director (with Hedwig Saxenhuber) of Kunstraum Lakeside in Klagenfurt.

Curated exhibitions:

  • Ghosts of the Civil Dead, tranzit.sk, Bratislava, 2016.
  • Living Across: Spaces of Migration, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, 2010.
  • Planetary Consciousness, Kunstraum of Leuphana University Luneburg 2008.
  • Why Pictures Now, Museum of Modern Art, Vienna 2006 (with Achim Hochdörfer und Matthias Michalka).
  • Migration: Globalisation of Cultural Space and Time, Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi 2003 (with Amit Mukhopadhyay).
  • Routes: Imaging Travel and Migration, Grazer Kunstverein 2002.

Organized Conferences and Lecture Series:

  • From Alexandria to Tokyo: Art, Colonialism and Entangled Histories, online-conference (with Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, und Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational, Tate Modern, London) 2020
  • The Routes of Modernism: Artistic Mobility, Protagonists, Platforms, Networks, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and mumok, Vienna 2018 (with Simone Wille)
  • Universalisms in Conflict: Post-colonial Challenges in Art History and Philosophy, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, 2012 (with Ruth Sonderegger)
  • Concrete Media: Avant-gardes beyond Western Modernism, mumok, Vienna 2011 (with Sabeth Buchmann)
  • Transcultural Perspectives on African Art Histories, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna 2008 (in cooperation with the art history department of Free University Berlin)
  • International Art: Global Aesthetics or Cultures of Difference? mumok, Vienna 2006
  • Vorbei mit Alles klar, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne 2003
  • Museum Critique, Kunsthaus Bregenz 2000
  • Foreign Affairs – Private Homes, University of Applied Arts, Vienna 1998
  • Agenda. Perspektiven kritischer Kunst, Secession, Vienna 1997
  • Privileg Blick. Kritik der visuellen Kultur, Depot, Vienna 1995/96

Classes thought at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna:

Summer 2023
VO: From Euromodernism to Transmodernism
SE: Whiteness

Winter 2022/23
VO: African Cinema and Decolonization
SE: The Wretched of the Earth: Reading Frantz Fanon

Summer 2022
(Sabbatical)

Winter 2021/22
VO: A Postcolonial History of Modernism in 10 Exhibitions
SE: Postcolonial Perspectives on Enjoy – the mumok art collection 

Summer 2021
VO: The Artist and the Post/Colonial Museum
SE: The Artist and the Post/Colonial Museum

Winter 2020/21
VO: Memories, Monuments, Struggles
SE: Memories, Monuments, Struggles

Summer 2020
VO: The Black Atlantic
SE: Sex, Meat, Art, God: Affective Communities and the Politics of Friendship (Leela Gandhi)

Winter 2019/20
VO: A Postcolonial History of Modernism in 10 Exhibitions
SE: Identität, Ethnizität, Repräsentation: Stuart Hall lesen

Summer 2019
VO: African Cinema and Decolonization
SE: Race, Art, and Love

Winter 2018/19
VO: Die Welt als Bild – Die Welt als Ausstellung
SE: The Wretched of the Earth: Reading Frantz Fanon

Summer 2018
VO: The Cinema of 1968
SE: Keywords of Postcolonial Studies

Winter 2017/18
VO: Von der Euromoderne zur Transmoderne
SE: Das Weltmuseum

Summer 2017
VO: African Film and Decolonization
SE: The Wretched of the Earth: Reading Frantz Fanon

Winter 2016/17
VO: Die Welt als Bild – Die Welt als Ausstellung
SE: Die Verdammten dieser Erde: Frantz Fanon lesen

Summer 2016
VO: Race, Art, and Politics in the USA, part 2: From the Harlem Renaissance to the Civil Rights Movement
SE: Bilder der Flucht

Winter 2015/16
VO: Race, Kunst und Politik in den USA. Teil 1: Von der Sklaverei bis zur Harlem Renaissance
SE: Bilder der Flucht

Summer 2015
(Sabbatical)

Winter 2014/15
VO: Dekolonisation im Kino. Film als Dekolonisation
SE: Schlüsselbegriffe der Postcolonial Studies

Summer 2014
VO: Colonial Austria: Kolonialismen und Kolonialkulturen in Österreich
SE: Wien: Eine koloniale Geografie

Winter 2013/14
VO: Globale Moderne
SE: Zur Exkursion nach Dakar

Summer 2013
VO: Afrikanisches Kino und Dekolonisation
SE: Projektseminar Master in Critical Studies (mit Carola Dertnig)

Winter 2012/13
VO: Die Welt als Bild – die Welt als Ausstellung
SE: Methoden und Ästhetiken postkolonialer Gegenwartskunst

Summer 2012
VO: Afroamerikanische Moderne: Kunst und Politik in der Harlem Renaissance
SE: Afroamerikanische Moderne: Kunst und Politik in der Harlem Renaissance

Winter 2011/12
VO: Ali vs. Foreman: Boxen, (Post-) Kolonialismus und Kalter Krieg
SE: Exotismus und Primitivismus in der europäischen Moderne

Summer 2011
VO: Crossroads of Modernisms
SE: Analyse und Kritik des Globalisierungsdiskurses im Kunstfeld (mit Ruth Sonderegger)

Winter 2010/11
VO: Transkulturalität: Begriff, Geschichte, Kunst
SE: Migration darstellen/ausstellen

Summer 2010
VO: Afrikanisches Kino und das ethnografische Erbe
SE: Planetarisches Bewusstsein: Zur Genese des Eurozentrismus

Winter 2009/10
VO: Koloniale und postkoloniale Reisebilder
SE: The Black Atlantic

Summer 2009
VO: Räume der Migration
SE: Koloniale Kulturen in Österreich um 1900

Winter 2008/09
VO: Crossroads of Modernisms
SE: Exotismus und Primitivismus in der europäischen Moderne

Summer 2008
VO: Geschichte und Politik im afrikanischen Kino
SE: Planetarisches Bewusstsein: Zur Genese des Eurozentrismus

Winter 2007/08
VO: Afrikanisches Kino und das ethnografische Erbe
SE: Geschichte des Sehens

Summer 2007
VO: Transkulturelle Perspektiven in der Gegenwartskunst
SE: Ethnisierung von Lifestyle in populären Bildwelten (mit Doris Guth)

Winter 2006/07
VO: Postkoloniale Kunst und Theorie – eine Einführung
SE: Ethnisierung von Lifestyle in populären Bildwelten (mit Doris Guth)

Summer 2006
VO: Weiße Moderne und Schwarze Präsenz II
SE: Wo stehst du mit deiner Kunst, Kollege/in? Zur Verortung künstlerischer Produktion

Winter 2005/06
VO: Weiße Moderne und Schwarze Präsenz I
SE: Kunst und Globalisierung

Summer 2005
IKP: Wiener Ansichten (mit Doris Guth)
SE: Versionen des Politischen in der Kunst seit 1968

Winter 2004/05
VO: Künstlerreisen in der Moderne
SE: Migration, Exil, Diaspora in der Kunst der Gegenwart

Summer 2004
VO: Politik der Sichtbarkeit: Vom Kopftuchstreit in die koloniale Genderpolitik
VO: Der Westen und der Rest
SE: Yinka Shonibare: Kunst als Kulturkritik

Dissertationen

  • Arab Women Solidarity: The Rise of Visual Iconography Productions from the 1950s-00s


    Candidate: Lina Ramadan

    study_program: Dr.-Studium der Philosophie; Kunst u. kulturwiss. Studien (Stzw)

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    https://webportal-test.akbild.ac.at/de/forschung/doktoratszentrum/dissertationen-und-phd-projekte/archiv-dissertationsprojekte/14506

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  • Rethinking the recent urbanization trend in Bosnia and Herzegovina: postwar reconstruction and the pursuit of lost identity


    Candidate: Mag.art. Majda Turkic

    study_program: Dr.-Studium der Philosophie; Kunst u. kulturwiss. Studien (Stzw)

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    abstract: Contemporary urban trends in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&amp;H) during the ongoing 24-year post-war period of architectural reconstruction are primarily reflected by the aftermath of the country’s specific past. Semi-colonial legacy of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires and socialistic past as one of six Yugoslavian republics affected urbanistic development which is dictated more by mainstream political relations than comprehensive cultural and architectural policy. The recent civil war ended with the involvement of the international community and the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which legalized and supported a unique pluralistic model that fostered nationalism in the Balkans. Architectural reconstruction and urban development have been characterized by the lawless, unrestrained, uncontrolled, and accelerated construction of residential areas; the dereliction of socialist-era cultural monuments and institutions; the ethno-simulacrum of various religious objects. Some architects argue that there is no visible trend in post-1995 architectural development and that its main feature is disorganized and anarchic (re-)construction.The thesis is an attempt to answer questions related to post-war reconstruction and urbanization processes, the leading political forces and interests behind recent urban planning, and how this relates to the specificity of the country’s postcolonial history. The main goals are to illuminate the contemporary urbanization and reconstruction concepts that characterize the post-war period. To do this, it needs to deconstruct the region’s history and modern geographies, which have in the recent past characterized it as a “weak” region, outside “real” Europe, and prone to being controlled and possessed. The thesis places B&amp;H in the unorthodox context of colonial and postcolonial theory, and their implications for race and imperialistic regimes. The first hypothesis postulates the association of “Habsburg nostalgia” with the discourse of self-victimization, the centuries-long feeling of Balkan inferiority and otherness. These two phenomena may be the stalling forces that draw the people of B&amp;H into a vicious circle of stagnation. The thesis further aims to elucidate the ongoing political processes that project an image of B&amp;H as an equal part of Europe while in reality, its perpetual European integration process can mislead the casual observer of the country and its history. The thesis challenges this question, along with the relationships between B&amp;H’s tumultuous past and idiosyncratic contemporaneity. It asks why the turmoil is happening, and if the past is reflected in recent post-war events. Methodologies borrowed from several types of qualitative research are used to construct and test the hypotheses, primarily ethnography and phenomenology, seeking to understand the interaction between architects, sociologists, and philosophers with the culture of urbanization and architecture of the place in which they live. Grounded theory was used to find patterns in the categories on which to test the hypothesis, and create a narrative and a substantive theory. Belonging to a family of critical studies, the thesis aims to analyze power relations, and critique and challenge them. Its major contribution is its re-questioning of B&amp;H identity in relation to architectural and urban development, especially privatization; international investments; the growing number of religious objects; or re-purposing of former public spaces into private and/or commercial ones. It adds to the literature a discussion on Balkan postcolonialism and contributes to original qualitative research through interviews with the main actors in the country’s urban development. In this way, the research contributes to ethnographic and anthropological analyses of former Yugoslavia and targets the evolution of rising nationalism and religious a

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    https://webportal-test.akbild.ac.at/de/forschung/doktoratszentrum/dissertationen-und-phd-projekte/archiv-dissertationsprojekte/14042

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  • Building Transnational Relations. Hannes Lintl, Carl Pruscha, Anton Schweighofer: drei Fallstudien über staatenübergreifendes Bauen und die Verflechtungen von Architektur und Politik während des Kalten Krieges


    Candidate: Susanne Rick

    study_program: Dr.-Studium der Philosophie; Kunst u. kulturwiss. Studien (Stzw)

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    language: de

    https://webportal-test.akbild.ac.at/de/forschung/doktoratszentrum/dissertationen-und-phd-projekte/archiv-dissertationsprojekte/14766

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  • Die UrhordePrimitivistische Begründungsfiguren des Sozialen in utopischen Gesellschaftsversuchen am Beispiel der Aktionsanalytischen Organisation bewusster Lebenspraxis (AAOBLP)


    Candidate: Mag. phil. Thomas Karl Georg Marschall Bakk.art.

    study_program: Dr.-Studium der Philosophie; Kunst u. kulturwiss. Studien (Stzw)

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    language: de

    https://webportal-test.akbild.ac.at/de/forschung/doktoratszentrum/dissertationen-und-phd-projekte/archiv-dissertationsprojekte/13982

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