University of Arts in Belgrade

MA IN INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE RESEARCH MAIPR

Student Handbook - 2014/2015

September 2014

Belgrade

Contents

1. THE UNIVERSITY OF ARTS IN BELGRADE

1.1. About the University of Arts

1. 2. Interdisciplinary studies

1.3. Interdisciplinary studies curriculums:

2. MA IN INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE RESEARCH (MAIPR)

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Background and Aims

2.3 Studying on the MAIPR at Belgrade

2.4. MAIPR 2013/14 Course Dates

2.5. UAB Courses list

2.6. UAB Courses description

2.7. Placement description

2.8. UAB MAIPR programme leaders

2.8. UAB MAIPR Professors

3. PREPARING FOR BELGRADE AND THE MAIPR

3.1. Before arrival

3.1.1.UAB registration- inscription procedure

3.1.2.Serbian Visa and Temporary Stay

3.2. Police Registration

3.3. Medical insurance

3.4. Accommodation

3.5. Buddy system support

4. CITY OF BELGRADE/ Basic information for foreigners

5. CONTACTS

1. THE UNIVERSITY OF ARTS IN BELGRADE
1.1.About the University of Arts

Four outstanding and distinctive faculties make up University of Arts in Belgrade: Faculty of Fine Arts, Faculty of Music, Faculty of Dramatic Arts and Faculty of Applied Arts.Drawing upon more than 50 years of experience, we remain the only university in South-eastern European region specialized in artistic education. At University of Arts in Belgrade we promote talent, creativity and intellectual excellence.Wide-range of our advanced academic programmes, from undergraduate to postgraduate and research degrees, makes a ground for talented students to develop and explore their abilities and ideas.Our mission as University of Arts is to be at the forefront of learning, creativity and artistic practice. We open up new possibilities for those with ground breaking ideas, fresh perspectives and new modes of practice. Generations of prominent artists, performers and designers began their careers at University of Arts and many of them gained international reputations.

1. 2. Interdisciplinary studies

The curriculum of interdisciplinary programs at University of Arts in Belgrade is modeled after newest developments in contemporary arts and critical theory.

Through an integrative and explorative approach to the ways different art disciplines interact, overlap and conflict, artists and theoreticians can change the way we view the world. Our interdisciplinary courses question conventional view, anticipate change and experiment with new accesses. We aim to challenge the boundaries of art practice and theory, to forge collaborations between disciplines, to support diverse approaches, to form constructive analysis and critique and to solve issues beyond the comfort zone of tradition.

The challenging and inspiring programmes fall into four broad areas: Polymedia Arts, Digital Arts, Theory of Arts and Media, and Cultural Policy and Management. The portfolio of programmes, ranging from MA to PhD, is one of the most diverse and most advanced in the region and is attracting more and more students from around the world. All programmes are shaped and developed within the credit framework system (ECTS).

Studies are complemented by lectures, seminars, workshops and tutoring designed to help MA or PhD students develop wider contextual understanding, research skills and professional awareness.

As well as our permanent academic staff, all of whom are active professors and artists, we employ a large number of associate lecturers and professors from abroad. Our students are from diverse cultural backgrounds and all age groups, many with a broad professional and life experiences.

More information is available on

1.3. Interdisciplinary studies curriculums:

Masterstudies programmes:

  1. Theory of Arts and Media,
  2. Cultural Policy and Management
  3. MA in International Performance Research – MAIPR

Doctoral Studies programmmes:

  1. Theory of Arts and Media
  2. Digital Arts
  3. Polymedia Arts
2. MA IN INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE RESEARCH (MAIPR)
2.1 Introduction

The MAIPR has grown out of a prestigious Erasmus Mundus five-year funding programme and, from 2013-14, it will run as an independent programme. The European Commission support was, however, instrumental in shaping the character and ethos of the programme, which continues to be strongly grounded in the sense of international collaboration. Funded by the European Commission through the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive

Agency (EACEA), the Erasmus Mundus MA in International Performance Research (MAIPR) programme (2007-2013) has included University of Amsterdam, University of Tampere, University of Helsinki and University of Arts in Belgrade.

The MAIPR 2014-2015programme will be offered by tree internationally renowned academic institutions:

  • University of Warwick (UK): coordinating institution for the Consortium
  • TrinityCollegeDublin (Ireland)
  • University of Arts in Belgrade (Serbia)

Students successfully completing the programme receive a degree from from the institutions at which they studied.

University of Arts in Belgrade degree:

Master teorije izvođačkih i audio-vizuelnih izvođačkih umetnosti u oblasti Interdisciplinarnih studija/Masterin International Performance Research

2.2 Background and Aims

Background: the MAIPR was designed by the consortium members to attract the best theatre and performance-related students and practitioners from around the world, in order to create a truly pan-global Masters’ programme. 2008-09 was the first year of the MAIPR, when the programme attracted an intake of students from 22 countries. The MAIPR was one of only two arts-related Erasmus Mundus-funded MA programmes 2007-2013.

Aims: the aims of the MAIPR are manifold. However, an important aim is to introduce, develop and challenge the three concepts that make up the course’s title: ‘International, ‘Performance’, and ‘Research’. The MAIPR consortium hopes to demonstrate how these concepts are informed, questioned and perhaps disputed by local, national and/or global (pre)-conceptions and (pre)-perceptions.

2.3 Studying on the MAIPR at Belgrade

The University of Arts in Belgrade is a state university and one of the leading academic institutions in the field of theatre and performance research in the region of South East Europe. Our expertise in the field of performing arts, cultural studies, cultural policy and intercultural dialogue qualifies us as an eligible partner for large European academic projects. Interdisciplinary Master studies in Cultural Policy and Management (Interculturalism and Mediation in the Balkans) at the University of Arts in Belgrade were founded in 2002 and recognized as a UNESCO Chair in 2003, organized in partnership with the French university Lyon II and Institute of Political Studies in Grenoble, and guided by Professor Milena Dragicevic Sesic. The programme is founded on the idea of cultural pluralism aiming to educate young specialists and facilitate communication between future policy makers and managers to develop programmes or institutions in the field of culture, arts and media.

The University of Arts in Belgrade joined the MAIPR consortium as a full partner in the autumn 2011, receiving the MAIPR students in the autumn of 2011 and spring 2012. In 2012-13 and future academic years, Belgrade will receive all MAIPR students in the summer term (ST3), Summer School and supervise MAIPR dissertations. In addition to Curatorial Studies module modules designed onley for MAIPR, students can attend Optional seminars or optionalmodules on offer for the UNESCO MA in Cultural Policy and Management Studies, which aims to train the future managers of cultural organizations and cultural project leaders by providing necessary theoretical and practical tools for development and implementation of cultural policies and cultural projects. Lecturers on the course, coming both from Serbia and abroad, are actively involved in Cultural Policy, Management, Theatre Studies and associated disciplines giving the course its strong identity and firm foundations.

2.4. MAIPR 2014/15 Course Dates

In the 2014-15 academic year the MAIPR programme will be delivered as follows:

Autumn term ST1: 29th September to 31st December 2014: the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Warwick (Warwick) in the UK: Common Induction (one week) and teaching blocks that addresses common research questions and bibliography through offerings that highlight institutional expertise. The ST1 period may include a creative placement/internship in an arts-related organization in the UK, if not undertaken in Serbia.

Springterm ST2: Early January to mid-March2015 (exact dates to be advised): School of Drama, Film and Music, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

Summerterm ST3: 1st April to end-June 2015 University of Arts in Belgrade (UAB) in Serbia (website between teaching and research/fieldwork/placement. The ST2 period may include a creative placement/internship in an arts-related organization in Serbia, if not undertaken in the UK or Ireland.

End of May 2015: The Summer school (1week) features guest scholars and staff from partners; consolidation of learning (research questions), reports on ST2 research, preparation for dissertation/project. It is proposed that the MAIPR summer school will be held in Serbia, and will be hosted by University of Arts in Belgrade. The summer school will last for one week.

Summer vacation period 2015: the dissertation preparation period, dedicated to the dissertation or final project, student will spend on one of the partner universities.

2.5. UAB Courses list
3rd Semester
Summer Term UAB
1st April–mid-June 2015 / Summer vacation period 2015:
1. Mandatory course:
Curatorial studies (10 ECTS)
2. Special seminars (attendance, no ECTS)
3. Internship(if not undertaken in UK or Ireland)
4. Summer school (10 ECTS) / Master thesis (30 ECTS)
4 Seminars (every two weeks)
2.6. UAB Courses description
Course title: Curatorial Studies
Course status: Mandatory
ESPB: 10
Course director: Irina Subotić, PhD, professor emeritus
Professors:Dr. Branislav Dimitrijevic, Assistant Professor, New Academy of Arts, Belgrade
Paul Murray, PhD, guest lecturer Academy of Arts, Alfa University Belgrade
Internship consultants: Vida Knežević (PhD Candidate), Marijana Cvetković (PhD Candidate), Jelena Vesić (PhD Candidate), etc.
Course goals: to investigate and study the multiple modes of curatorial theory and practices; to develop student’s awareness of curatorial tasks entailed in the production and presentation, especially in relation to international visual and performance art, to develop students’ skills for developing concepts and solving chosen curatorial tasks; to provide solo and group learning opportunities and exercises; to develop critical capacities for individual and collaborative curatorial research.
Content of the course*
  1. Introduction to Curatorial Studies,
  2. Brief history of displays and exhibitions,
  3. Contemporary models and strategies of exhibition display,
  4. Curating contemporary curatorial debates,
  5. Practices of Curatorial Education: Curator as Symptom of Spaghetti Bolognese Politics and is There a Way Out
  6. Curatorial Practices and Production of Contemporaneity: Ideologies of Contemporary Art
  7. Showing images: Curating and visual theory
  8. Site-specificity and curating in public space,
  9. White Cube and its (Dis)Contents
  10. Curating Social Engaged Art
  11. Curating Live Performance
  12. Towards Non-Representationalist Curating: Examples of Experimental Exhibitions in the 1960s and 1970s
  13. Discursive formation of Eastern European Art and Exhibition-Making after 1989
  14. Curating the Balkans – Contemporary Art and Anthropology
  15. Student concept presentations
16. Evaluation of Curatorial Projects – student presentation, etc…
Workshops*:
  1. Facilitation/Curation, part 1
  2. Facilitation/Curation, part 2
  3. Performing Curation, part 1
  4. Performing Curation, part 2
  5. Curating in the performing arts: new trends (discussion topic),
  6. De-festivalisation (discussion topic)
  7. The performing arts and non-institutional practices
  8. Curating a dead body: Visit to the Museum of Yugoslav History
  9. Exhibition and Conference: Invisuble Violence (meetings and visits),
  10. Post-representational curatorial practices – museum/gallery visit 1
  11. Post-representational curatorial practices – museum/gallery visit 2
  12. Post-representational curatorial practices – discussion with guest artist
  13. Post-representational curatorial practices – discussion with guest curator
  14. Student's essays: topic selection, discusion about literature and possible thesis 1
  15. Student's essays: topic selection, discusion about literature and possible thesis 2
*subject to change
Bibiliography and recomended furder readings:
  1. Bruce W. Ferguson, Reesa Greenberg, Sandy Nairne (eds.), Thinking About Exhibitions, Routledge, 1996, (texts by Jean-Marc Poinsot, Tony Bennett, Bruce Ferguson and Mieke Bal)
  2. - Douglas Crimp, “This is not a museum of art” in On the Museum’s Ruins, The MIT Press, 1993.
  3. - Andrea Fraser, “Isn’t This a Wonderful Place? (A tour of a tour of the Guggenheim Bilbao), in Museum Frictions: Public Cultures / Global Transformations (Ivan Karp ed.), Duke University Press, 2006.
  4. - Boris Groys, Going Public, Sternberg Press, 2011. (pp. 50-120)
  5. - Mika Hannula, Politics, Identity and Public Space – Critical reflections in and through the practices of contemporary art, Expothesis, Utrecht, 2009, pp. 10-43, 116-186. (
  6. - W.J.T. Mitchell, “Showing Seeing – A Critique of Visual Culture”, in What do pictures want?, Chicago University Press, 2005.
  7. - Curating and the educational turn (eds. Paul O'Neil & Mick Wilson), Open Editions/De Appel, London/Amsterdam, 2010
  8. - Jacques Rancière, The Emancipated Spectator (Introduction)
  9. - Alain Badiou, Handbook of inaesthetics, Stanford University Press, (pp. 1-15)
  10. - Bruno Latour, “Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern” (
  11. - Brian Holmes, “Extradisciplinary Investigations. Towards a New Critique of Institutions” ( and “The Flexible Personality: For a New Cultural Critique», (
  12. - Branislav Dimitrijevic, «A Magnificent Tomb. The Kunsthistorisches Mausoleum», in Agency, Ambivalence, Analysis – Approaching the Museum with Migration in Mind (Ruth Noack ed.), Melo books
  13. - Simon Sheikh, "Representation, Contestation and Power: The Artist as Public Intellectual" (
  14. - Jelena Vesic, "The Canons of Contemporaneity", "The Canon of Curating", Manifesta Journal 11, Amsterdam, 2011.
  15. - Issues 4, 7, 11 and 16 of the e-journal On Curating (
  16. (vrs. issues)

Number of classes of active teaching / Other classes
Lectures:30 / Workshops:30 / Other forms of teaching: / Study Research: 30
Teaching methods: Lectures, study visits, workshops, debates, practical work: analysis of curated events, preparation of curatorial concept, presentation of curatorial concept and Essay writing
Evaluation (optimal number of points 100)
Pre-exam obligations / points / Final exam / points
Activity during the course / 10 / Essay (2400 words) / 70
Oral exam /presentation / 20
Total / 100
2.7. Placement description

The placements in ST2 provide students with opportunities to experience a second culture and language situation in the professional arts or associated industry first hand, working in appropriate arts venues such as theatre companies, galleries, museums, at festivals, on journals, or on web-based projects. The placements at Belgrade take place in the summer term (10 February - 30 May 2015). Depending on the start and end dates, the placements can last between 5 and 10 weeks. It should normally be completed in the summer term week 7 (early June 2015) or (exceptionally) week 10 (end of June 2015). Notional total time commitment is 100 hours to be used on completing the placement; a notional minimum of 25-30 hours should be spent in situ with the placement partner. Placements, as appropriate, may also serve as the research base for the dissertation/project.

Placement projects should focus on international research questions/problems relevant to the placement partner, to be investigated primarily through one of the modalities: scholarship-curation-practice. Projects should have a significant research value to both student and placement partner, benefiting the latter by bringing the students knowledge and expertise to bear on partner projects and topics that might otherwise not receive dedicated and close attention. Hence, students are assigned to undertake fieldwork in settings appropriate to their developing knowledge, skills and interests: e.g. theatre and performance, companies, cultural industry companies, creative production groups, etc. For example, National Theatre, DAH Theatre, APS Art Community Theatre, BITEF Festival, Ring-Ring Festival, DomOmladineCulturalCenter, Remont Gallery, Museum of Yugoslav History, EthnographicMuseum, as well as experimental artist groups such as The Third Belgrade, etc.

By the middle of February, students will be offered a choice from a range of potential placements arranged by staff. In arriving at arrangements for suitable placement projects with partners it is essential that staff and students follow the Module Guidelines for the creation of formal partnership agreements which detail the nature of the student’s project. This agreement will be a written document that outlines the nature of the project, the questions/topics to be pursued, aims/objectives, activities/tasks, schedule/milestones, anticipated outcomes, etc.

Once a suitable placement has been identified each student will be assigned a placement supervisor. In addition, appropriate placement partner staff normally will be nominated by the organisation as co-supervisor. Assessment of the project ideally will be shared between nominated department and placement partner staff. Assessment submissions will normally be in the form of an evaluative report (2500 words) to the placement partner based on the project undertaken.

2.8. UAB MAIPR programme leaders

UAB MAIPR programme co-leaders and JAB members are DrMilena Dragićević Šešić(), Full Professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, UNESCO Chair holder, Full Professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade and ProfessorIvana Vujić Kominac(), Full Professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade.

Milena Dragićević Šešić, PhD, former President of University of Arts, Belgrade, now Head of UNESCO Chair in Interculturalism, Art Management and Mediation and Professor of Cultural Policy and Cultural Management, Cultural studies and Media studies at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. She has lectured widely across Europe, Euroasia, and in North America. Expert in Cultural Policy and Management for: ECF, Council of Europe, UNESCO, Foundation Marcel Hicter, Pro Helvetia, and British Council. Her research focuses on the cultural policy and cultural management, media studies, and culture of memory. Active in networks: ELIA, ENCATC, IETM, and ORACLE. She has published 16 books and more than 100 essays, translated into 18 languages.

Ivana Vujić, former vice-rector of the University of Arts is Full Professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade (Theatre Directing), guest lecturer at the Academy of Art in Utrecht, BelgradeOpenSchool and StockholmTheatreAcademy. She was artistic director of Bitef Festival in Belgrade, Festival FIAT in Montenegro, and curator of theatre program for Belgrade Summer Festival (BELEF). In her performance research and theatre work she focuses on the relationship between director, actor and spectator, confronting theatrical acts - past, avant-guard, present, postmodern and intercultural. Her productions participated at national and international theatre festivals (Edinburgh, Mittelfest, La Mama Festival, and others).

2.8. UAB MAIPR Professors

MAIPR Program professors are mostly from the University of Artsin Belgrade faculties and from foreign partner Universities on the joint programmes. They are teaching on the Interdisciplinary studies programmes: Theory of Arts and Media on MA and PhD level, and the MA UNESCO studies for Cultural Policy and Management.