Résumé 2023

OK. oskar: 70 Years School of Seeing

Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts

Résumé 2023

International course programme

17 July to 26 August 2023

Until 26 August 2023 in Hohensalzburg Fortress: A/P Practice (Germany/Italy), Maria Bussmann (Germany/Austria), Shu Lea Cheang (Taiwan/France), Jennifer Higgie (Australia/UK), Astrit Ismaili (Kosovo/Netherlands), KAYA (Germany/US), Shubigi Rao (India/Singapore).

This year, over 300 students from 49 different countries applied for the course programme, including 92 scholarships. There have been 216 regular applications for courses at the Summer Academy and around 500 scholarship applications for the  Society of Friends of the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts.  A total of 20 two- to three-week courses were held at the Hohensalzburg Fortress, the Untersberg Quarry in Fürstenbrunn and the ZT: Chamber of Civil Engineers | Architects for Upper Austria and Salzburg.

For 70 years, the Summer Academy has invited international artists, curators, collectives, art mediators, academics, and authors to teach in Salzburg. This year, courses were held under the artistic direction of: A/P Practice (Germany/Italy), Phila Bergmann (Germany/Switzerland) and Thea Reifler (Switzerland), Ángela Bonadies and Brígida Maestres (Venezuela/Spain), Maria Bussmann (Germany/Austria), Shu Lea Cheang (Taiwan/France), Marina Fokidis (Greece), Jennifer Higgie (Australia/UK), Astrit Ismaili (Kosovo/Netherlands), KAYA (Germany/ US), Delita Martin (US), Ulrike Müller (Austria/US) und Evie K Horton (US), Stanislava Pinchuk (Ukraine/Australia/ Bosnia and Herzegovina), Angelo Plessas (Greece), Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens (US), Karol Radziszewski (Poland), Shubigi Rao (India/Singapore), Francis Ruyter (US/Austria), Mette Sterre (Netherlands), Hannah Tilson (UK) and Munem Wasif (Bangladesh).

On the occasion of its 70th anniversary, the Summer Academy 2023 offers for the first time a focus on contemporary painting: beyond a Western art historical canon, beyond notions of abstraction versus figuration, beyond classical colour doctrines and beyond bad painting. At the same time, it celebrates the reintroduction of an architecture class.

The final Open Studios will take place on 25 and 26 August 2023 at the Hohensalzburg Fortress.

Parallel to the artistic course programme and the Open Studio, the festival OK. oskar (until 26 August) takes place with exhibitions, performances, talks, symposium, film screenings, concerts and music sets.

The gallery in the Zwergengartenpavillon will become both a walk-in archive and a stage. During the day, 70 years of the Summer Academy will come alive in photography, film, and text. In the evening, the curtain opens, and the space becomes a plural universe of contemporary art. 

The last exhibition in the OK. oskar series opens on 8 September 2023 in the Galerie Kunst im Traklhaus with students from the Department of Painting and Animation Film at the Vienna University of Applied Arts. They dealt with the artistic-pedagogical approach of Oskar Kokoschka’s “School of Seeing” in painting, drawing and photography.

OK. oskar: festival

The  International Summer Academy of Fine Arts invited the public to celebrate its 70th anniversary with exhibitions, film presentations, performances, talks, symposia, workshops, concerts, and music  sets. Founded in 1953 as a „school of seeing“ by the renowned Austrian painter Oskar Kokoschaka, the anniversary project OK. oskar redefined the pedagogical relationship of an art academy today. The focus is on artistic practices that approach seeing (perceiving) nowadays from a feminist´, queer, and non-binary perspective, thus exploring worlds of equality and common sense. 

In local cooperation with the Galerie Kunst im Traklhaus, the Stadtgalerie Museumspavillon and the Salzburger Kunstverein with more than more than 39 events, including 7 exhibitions, 7 music programmes, 8 open studios and a total of 24 performances, screenings and a symposium, the Summer Academy invited visitors to engage with contemporary art and its discourses. Around 5,500 visitors took part in the exhibitions and events on site. The YouTube documentation videos have been viewed 250 times so far (all data as of 22 August 2023).

OK. oskar: archive

17 July – 26 August 2023

Stadtgalerie Zwergelgartenpavillon

Memorable moments from 70 years were assembled into a visual essay under 26 associative terms. We looked back to the past and forward to the various laboratories of art and its informality and practicality. The anniversary film by Sina Moser and Joyce Rohrmoser combines archive material, interviews and current activities at the Hohensalzburg Fortress to create a unique collage of creative work and its individual and social reflection. At the same time, it shows the horizons of possibility of an art academy and thus an educational relationship to art today.

OK. oskar: performances, talks, symposia, workshops, screenings

17 July– 26. August 2023

Stadtgalerie Zwergelgartenpavillon

The discursive programme brought together artists, theorists and activists who deal with “seeing” (perceiving) today from a (queer)feminist, non-binary perspective. Artificial intelligence and machine vision, body extensions and queerdoms, migration and identity, temporality and historicity, archive and research were at the centre of artistic and theoretical reflection. They invited us to re-locate seeing in its social constitution as well as reading contemporary art.

OK. oskar: music sets

17 July – 26 August 2023

Stadtgalerie Zwergelgartenpavillon

The Criss-Cross Music programme by artist Zosia Holubowska consists of live acts and music sets that combine experimental and electronic club music. Invited musicians and DJs celebrated trans-local communities and connections. Each event followed a no-headlining rule, so different scenes and initiatives from Eastern and Central Europa met equally over the summer. Feminine with queer with non-binary with transsexual sounds and moves connected in Salzburg. 

Participation by Antonia XM (Austria), Cat Gadget (Austria), DJ Steve (Austria), DJ Terror (Austria), Emma Helena (Austria), evil medved (Czech Republic), Freeride Millenium (Germany/ Austria), Hyeji Nam (South Korea/Austria), Ironica Los Culos (Brazil/Austria), Mala Herba (Poland/Austria), MONSTER (Poland), Odete (Portugal), Ornella Rodriguez (Austria), ROVA (Austria), sch4tzi (Austria), Tony Renaissance (Austria), Vani Vachi (Ukraine/Germany), ZEY (Czech Republic/Austria)

OK. oskar: exhibitions

22 April – 30 September 2023

Galerie Kunst im Traklhaus

On its 70th anniversary, the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts showed six exhibitions in the Galerie Kunst im Traklhaus from April to September 2023 with international artists who approach seeing (sensing) today from a feminist, queer, non-binary, intersectional perspective. The focus is on artistic practices of expanded painting and digital creation that explore worlds of equity and public spirit.

The Academy was founded in 1953 as the ‘School of Seeing’ by the renowned Austrian painter Oskar Kokoschka, the anniversary project OK. oskar seeks to redefine the pedagogic relation of an art academy today.

Schedule

22 April – 13 May Ad Minoliti

20 May – 10 June Mette Sterre

17 June – 08 July Karol Radziszewski

15 July – 05 August Ulrike Müller

12 August – 2 September Shu Lea Cheang

9 September – 30 September Students of the Dep. of Painting and Animated

On Solidarity

Films in Times of War

Showroom Kunst im Traklhaus 

On Solidarity is a curated film programme that explores films by Ukrainian artists in times of war and violence.

Schedule

22 April – 13 May Dana Kavelina, Letter to a Turtledove, (2020), 20 Min.

20 May – 10 June Anna Scherbyna / Valentina Petrova, Sisters (2019), 12 Min.

17 June – 08 July Svitlana Shymko / Galina Yarmanova, The Wonderful Years (2018), 9 Min.

15 July – 05 August Nikolay Karabinovych, Ici et ailleurs (2023), 8 Min.

12 August – 02 September Mykola Ridnyi, Temerari, (2012), 21 Min.

09 September – 30 September Angelika Ustymenko, Ukrainian Queer Fighters For Freedom (2022), 29 Min. und Rebel Queers: Ukraine’s Queer Resistance (2023), 15 Min.

OK. oskar: open studios

Festung Hohensalzburg and Untersberg Quarry in Fürstenbrunn

In the eight Open Studios in Hohensalzburg Fortress and the Untersberg Quarry in Fürstenbrunn, teachers and students opened their art laboratories to the public, offering tours, performances and conversation. Every summer, over 300 students engage in artistic and research activities at the fortress. A special opportunity to visit the fortress or the quarry and immerse yourself in the extraordinary atmosphere of the various art laboratories.

Studios talks

Artist talks with teachers and students in English accompanied the Open Studios

OK. oskar: cooperation

On the occasion of the jubilee, further events were planned in cooperation with international partners: Salzburg Kunstverein, Mozarteum University Salzburg, Elektrohalle Rhomberg, Dorotheum, Wiener Secession, Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawi and others

OK. oskar: team

Sophie Goltz (Programme, direction), Maximilian Lehner (co-curator), Fotini Lazaridou-Hatzigoga (Architecture Zwergelgartenpavillon), Benedikt Meixl (Architecture Traklhaus), Till Gathmann (Design), Luisa Lindenbauer / Sebastian Schindlauer (Production), Gabriele Winter (Office management), Rebecca Kahr (Archive), Adelaide D’Esposito / Gaia Tovaglia (Communication), Ban Ban (Sponsoring)

Facts and figures

Duration

17 July to 26.August 2023

Locations, student numbers and scholarships

18 courses were held in Hohensalzburg Fortress, 1 in the Unterberg quarry in Fürstenbrunn and 1 in the Architektenkammer. 

As of 17 July 2023, we have admitted a total of 300 students from 49 different countries, including 92 scholarships. There have been 216 regular applications for Summer Academy courses and 495 scholarship applications.

In Solidarität

Together with the province of Salzburg and the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Public Service and Sport, the Academy granted 15 scholarships (course fee, travel, accommodation, daily allowance) for interested persons who are currently fleeing or seeking asylum in Europe.

Scholarship and internship

Together with zt Upper Austria and Salzburg and Initiative Architecture the Academy granted 6 scholarships for participation in the architecture class in combination with an internship. Students at the Technical Universities in Graz, Innsbruck and Vienna could apply for ECTS credits.

Sponsors and patrons include the Province of Salzburg / Department of Culture, Federal Ministry for Art, Culture, Civil Service and Sport (BMKOES), Culture fund of the Town of Salzburg, ERSTE Foundation, American Austrian Foundation (AAF/Seebacher Prize for Fine Arts), Zurich Academy of Arts, Free State of Bavaria, Vienna University of Applied Arts, Münster Academy of Art, Kingston University / London, Society of Friends of the Leipzig Academy of Fine Arts, Province of Vorarlberg, and members and patrons of the Society of Friends of the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts. 

Further details and photo material:

Adelaide D’Esposito

E-Mail: presse@summeracademy.at 

Tel: +43 (0)662 842113

Press photos are available on request.