Contemporary Art and Society

The course explores how artistic practices respond to, reflect, and shape urgent social and political realities. Drawing on key strands of critical theory, the course examines works that engage ecology and climate crisis, globalization, migration and refugees, gender and sexuality, class and labor, nationality, and other contested identities. Through case studies from modern and contemporary art, students will analyze how visual strategies, media, and institutional contexts both challenge and reinforce dominant narratives, developing tools to critically interpret art’s role in contemporary public discourse.