The End of Modernity
Alexi Kukuljevic
Institute of Studies in Art and Art Education, Art Theory
2026S, scientific seminar (SEW), 4.0 ECTS, 2.0 semester hours, course number S05943
Scientific bachelor seminar for teacher education
Description
“The correct question regarding the horrors committed in the camps, therefore, is not the question that asks hypocritically how it could have been possible to commit such atrocious horrors against other human beings; it would be more honest, and above all the more useful, to investigate carefully how—that is, thanks to what juridical procedures and political devices—human being could have been so completely deprived of their rights and prerogatives to the point that committing any act toward them would no longer appear as a crime (at this point, in fact, truly anything had become possible)”
- Giorgio Agamben, What is a Camp?
It is only when something is at its end, when it comes to an end, that we can grasp conceptually, not only its beginning but its significance. The “end” does not only or simply mean a terminus, the place where something comes to a halt – “the end of the line” – but the place of its fulfilment or completion. The end does not only gesture towards what comes after – the post-modern so to speak – but towards its beginning. The end of modernity, in this sense, cannot be thought without conceptualizing its beginning. The end of modernity poses the problem of its origin. In the end, the origin does not belong to the distant past but becomes present and perhaps for the first time. Only when something is at its end, when its limit is reached, can we conceive the condition of its possibility. It is this conceptualization of the “end” that is the condition of true critique. To conceptualize the end of modernity is a condition of its critique, of bringing it to an end.
What then is the end of modernity? And where can we locate it? Giorgio Agamben’s Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life is a provocative attempt to answer these questions. The most extreme possibility of the modern, he argues, is to be located in the emergence of what he terms the “biopolitical paradigm” of the camp: “a space in which power confronts nothing other than pure biological life.” The camp (the concentration camp and the refugee camp) is not an exception to the liberal order with its discourse on human rights, democracy, and freedom, but a fatal manifestation of the logic of its political and ontological foundation. It is this logic that Homo Sacer conceptualizes and that we will investigate in this seminar.
S05943 - The End of Modernity (SEW)
13.03.2026 - 11:30 bis 14:30 | Seminarraum 25 (VZA, EG)
27.03.2026 - 11:30 bis 14:30 | Seminarraum 25 (VZA, EG)
17.04.2026 - 11:30 bis 14:30 | Seminarraum 26 (VZA, EG)
24.04.2026 - 11:30 bis 14:30 | Seminarraum 26 (VZA, EG)
08.05.2026 - 11:30 bis 14:30 | Seminarraum 26 (VZA, EG)
22.05.2026 - 11:30 bis 14:30 | Seminarraum 26 (VZA, EG)
05.06.2026 - 11:30 bis 14:30 | Seminarraum 26 (VZA, EG)
19.06.2026 - 11:30 bis 14:30 | Seminarraum 26 (VZA, EG)
Examination Modalities
Attendance, short essay or text (or an equivalent)
Key Words
Giorgio Agamben, Critique of modernity, Homo Sacer
Dates
Fri, 13 March 2026, 11:30–14:30 Seminar Room 25
Fri, 27 March 2026, 11:30–14:30 Seminar Room 25
Fri, 17 April 2026, 11:30–14:30 Seminar Room 26
Fri, 24 April 2026, 11:30–14:30 Seminar Room 26
Fri, 08 May 2026, 11:30–14:30 Seminar Room 26
Fri, 22 May 2026, 11:30–14:30 Seminar Room 26
Fri, 05 June 2026, 11:30–14:30 Seminar Room 26
Fri, 19 June 2026, 11:30–14:30 Seminar Room 26
Course Enrolment
From 02 February 2026, 09:00
Via online registration
Curriculum Allocation
Art Education: subject kkp (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: aus Kunsttheorie 067/003.20
Art Education: subject kkp (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 067/003.80
Art Education: subject kkp (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: IT: Bachelorseminar Wissenschaftliche Praxis 067/003.85
Art Education: subject kkp (Master): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE 067/003.80
Art Education: subject kkp (Enhancements study): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Seminar aus dem Bereich Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften 067/003.25
Art Education: subject kkp (Enhancements study): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 067/003.80
Art Education: subject tex (Master): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE 071/003.80
Art Education: subject dae (Master): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE 072/003.80
Art Education: subject dex (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 074/003.80
Art Education: subject dex (Bachelor): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: IT: Bachelorseminar Wissenschaftliche Praxis 074/003.85
Art Education: subject dex (Master): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: Lehrveranstaltung nach Wahl aus wissenschaftlicher Praxis, SE 074/003.80
Art Education: subject dex (Enhancements study): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Seminar aus dem Bereich Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften 074/003.25
Art Education: subject dex (Enhancements study): Wissenschaftliche Praxis: FOR: Lehrveranstaltungen nach Wahl aus Wissenschaftliche Praxis 074/003.80
TransArts - Transdisciplinary Arts (Bachelor): Theoretical foundations: Theoretical foundations 180/003.01
Expanded Museum Studies (Master): Electives: Art Theory 537/080.12
Stage Design (2. Section): Kunsttheorie und Kulturwissenschaften: Kunsttheorie 542/207.03
Media Arts: Specialisation in Transmedia Arts (2. Section): Wissenschaft, Theorie und Geschichte : Kunsttheorie 566/208.13
Media Arts: Specialisation in Digital Arts (2. Section): Wissenschaft, Theorie, Geschichte: Kunsttheorie 567/208.13
Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften (Master): Electives Area 1: Art Theory 568/005.05
Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften (Master): Electives Area 2: Art Theory 568/006.05
Design: Specialisation in Design and Narrative Media (2. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Fundamentals: Humanities 576/203.02
Design: Specialisation in Communication Design (2. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Basics: Humanities 577/203.02
Conservation and Restoration (2. Section): Geisteswissenschaften: Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte 588/204.10
Fine Arts (2. Section): Scientific and Research Practice: Art Theory, Cultural Studies, Art History, Philosophy 605/202.01
Fine Arts (2. Section): Scientific and Research Practice: Free Electives out of Scientific and Research Practice 605/202.80
Design: Specialisation in Applied Photography and Time-based Media (2. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Basics: Humanities 626/203.02
Co-registration: possible
Attending individual courses: possible