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2016 Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts – Résumé

  • 24 August 2016

160824_Presse_en

Press release
Résumé 18 July–27 August 2016

 

2016 Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts – Résumé

 

Global Academy
This year, the 64th Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts was held under the motto Global Academy – a long-term Summer Academy project dealing with its future and increasing global networking. Global Academy? was the title of a comprehensive international conference held on 5/6 August 2016.

 

All 2016 teachers are successful in the global art market as artists, critics or curators, and were able to share their experience gained in Egypt, Argentina, Brazil, France, Ghana, Greece, the UK, Morocco, Pakistan, Palestine, Poland, Russia, Spain, the USA, and of course Austria and Germany.

 

This year, 275 participants have attended 22 courses of between one and four weeks in Hohensalzburg Fortress, Galerie 5020 premises and the Kiefer quarry in Fürstenbrunn. The students, average age 35, came from 51 different countries.
31 public events held in the course of the six weeks were attended by some 2260 visitors.

 

Highlights of the course programme

The central theme of artistic techniques was once more expanded this year. First-time teacher Imran Qureshi introduced miniature painting, an ancient technique cultivated in the Indian subcontinent and in recent years redefined and developed by Imran Qureshi, with great international success. In Aaron Angell‘s course, students learned how to use clay as a sculptural material – another ancient technique that is now starting to play an outstanding role in the art scene. One activity included building historical Roman kilns on the Mönchsberg and using them to fire ceramic sculptures in the traditional way, the glazes being mixed by the students themselves.

 

In the Kiefer quarry on the Untersberg, Andreas Lolis showed a contemporary and conceptual approach to working with stone. By contrast, Marc Monzó dealt with the fragmentary aspect of jewellery design and under the title The Big Bang and you, and encouraged his students to express their own visions of the beginning of the universe in sometimes unbelievably filigree objects.

 

Lukas Pusch expanded the repertoire of the printing workshop, which is equipped for etching, by adding screen-printing and woodcuts.

 

The painting courses directed by Varda Caivano, Melissa Gordon, Irina Nakhova and Tex Rubinowitz explored both traditional techniques such as nude painting (Nakhova) and experimental or playful approaches – as for instance in Melissa Gordon’s course where, in a performance by the entire class, the pictures began to dance.

 

Nora Schultz‘s course, entitled When sculptures walk out, also included performative experiments questioning the paradigm of static sculpture. The students worked with found material – e.g. from the scrapyard – to make their own sculptural objects and installations. Performances and interventions by the Public Space class were exhibited in the town. Under the direction of the feld72 architects, students went on various expeditions, which resulted in video works or performances. A documentation of Daphna Mero’s performance will soon be available on the Summer Academy’s YouTube channel.

 

The curatorial courses dealt with ethical dilemmas of curating (Joanna Warsza I can’t work like this) and the question of how the global art scene can be grasped and researched in the current extreme speed of its development (Alya Sebti Curating / translating the polyphony of voices). In Kimberly Bradley’s course (Images into words: Writing about art), students had five days to write a magazine which will shortly be available to download from our website.

 

2016 Programme of events

The highlight of the programme of events was the conference Global Academy? Learning and teaching art in the globalised world, held in the Künstlerhaus on 5 and 6 August 2016, with lively public participation.

 

The first evening was devoted to the history of innovative models and current developments, with lectures by Regina Bittner (Bauhaus Dessau) and Sam Thorne (Nottingham Contemporary). On the second day, nine lecturers presented their own institutions in Amman, Arnhem, Dakar, Dhaka, Jakarta, London, Medellín and Mexico City, and projects, such as the Silent University, which can take place in different locations. Eight participants from the UK, India, Cameroon, Colombia, Latvia, Pakistan and the Philippines received travel grants from the Austrian Federal Chancellery (Arts and Culture), which enabled them – especially in the closed workshops on Day Two – to contribute their experiences and questions. The colourful mix of nationalities and cultural experience resulted in fascinating questions, discussions and suggested approaches and solutions. The animated and fertile discussions, in which everyone participated, brought new perspectives on international art education and further training. The highly enthusiastic audience, who came not only from Salzburg, but from all over Austria and Germany, expressed the wish for the discussion to be continued very soon.

 

The Artists’ Talks at various locations in the town (Galerie 5020, Fotohof, Traklhaus, Galerie Ropac, Museum der Moderne and Kiefer quarry, Fürstenbrunn), offering insights into all the teachers’ working methods, proved very popular.

 

Four City walks in the series Exploring Salzburg dealt with places that reveal a longing for peaceful retreats allowing dreams of distant climes. Father Virgil Steindlmüller gave a guided tour of the garden in the Monastery of St. Peter, which is generally reserved for the monks. In the Künstlerhaus, Tom Maakestad and Johanna Binder spoke about their experiences as Artists in Residence. Elisabeth Vogler shared her extensive knowledge of the Aigner Park, and Ferdinand Aichhorn presented his own collection of Asian textiles.

 

Two exhibitions entitled Records A-Z, by the Summer Academy co-teachers in the periscope project space, gave an insight into their work, under the aspect of collecting and archiving.

 

At the Friday Open Days, visitors were able to view the works produced in the various courses.

 

Documentation
Daily blog entries by Göksu Kunak, this year’s Blogger in Residence, told of her experiences and observations during the Summer Academy. She visited the classes, went on excursions with them, and interviewed teachers and students: www.summeracademy.at/blog

 

The Summer Academy Facebook account offers a photo documentation by Mira Turba of the classes and events: www.facebook.com/summeracademy.at/

 

Salzburg artist and film-maker Sina Moser documented the conference, three Artists’ Talks and a performance by the Public Space class. The videos will be available in the coming weeks on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/SummerAcadOfFineArts

 

Further information and photo material 

Simone Rudolph
, presse@summeracademy.at, +43 (0) 662 842 113