Program

14h30 — Lorenza Mondada, Re-praxeologizing art objects

on Ben Vautier (Le Magasin / Tinguely) and Vittorio Santoro (Veterans / Fondation Fernet Branca)

16h30 coffee break

17h00 — Art conversation with Vittorio Santoro

with the participation of the artist and

Daniel Kurjakovic (curator), Olga Osadtschy (dir. F. Fernet Branca), Lorenza Mondada

19h00 apero

This seminar aims at reflecting on how the video documentation of artistic work gives insights on art practices and makes possible a praxeological perspective on art. Instead of considering the art object as a final product – largely privileged in the visit of exhibitions and museums, as well as in catalogues and books — the use of a video methodology enables an analytic gaze on the production of the art object, the making of art and the situated practices that make art, not only of the artist but of other professionals as well. This praxeological view will be discussed on the basis of several videos documenting the activities of various workers, including the artist, re-assemble installations for an exhibition. A careful look at the embodiwork shows how important decisions are made until the last moment before the opening and more generally on how art practices are situated in courses of action dealing with practical contingencies, emergent questions, and serendipitous insights. This seminar is an occasion to reflect about the contribution of video-based praxeological and interactional detailed analyses rooted in Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis for the understanding of art making.

Lorenza Mondada is professor for linguistics at the University of Basel and member Eikones.

Vittorio Santoro is an artist living between Zürich and Paris, working with poetry, photography, sculpture, installations and video/film playing with literary, political, historical and perceptual sources. He recently exposed various installations in the collective exhibition “Tempesta” curated by Daniel Kurjakovic at the Fondation Fernet Branca directed by Olga Osadtschy. The work of unwrapping, re-arranging and re-wrapping the installations was video-recorded by Lorenza Mondada and David Monteiro and the results of this collaboration will be discussed here.

This event is part II of a 2-days workshop held on 26-27.11.2026 on 

“Artistic Practices: a video-based ethnomethodological and conversation analytic perspective”

If you are interested in participating contact lorenza.mondada@clutterunibas.ch