Sustainable Practice B WS27 - Is Artistic Practice Sustainable?
Most people would say no. But does that mean there is no way out? This course approaches sustainability of artistic practice as a structural question concerning how artistic practice can be sustained materially, economically, socially, and ethically within systems that may also compromise, exhaust, or instrumentalize it. Through readings, discussions, guest talk, and speculative exercises developed within the framework of the course, we will consider how artists might negotiate visibility (or invisibility), value, dependency (or independency), and compromise (or no compromise), within and beyond established institutional frameworks. After developing a shared understanding of the subject, the course will move into a practice-based format to investigate material conditions and artistic form. Through exercises, students will engage with imagined scenarios of artistic production and develop their own strategies in response to different conditions and constraints. Rather than searching for one ideal sustainable model, the course asks students to identify the conditions surrounding their own practices and to develop deliberate strategies in response to them.
Most people would say no. But does that mean there is no way out? This course approaches sustainability of artistic practice as a structural question concerning how artistic practice can be sustained materially, economically, socially, and ethically within systems that may also compromise, exhaust, or instrumentalize it. Through readings, discussions, guest talk, and speculative exercises developed within the framework of the course, we will consider how artists might negotiate visibility (or invisibility), value, dependency (or independency), and compromise (or no compromise), within and beyond established institutional frameworks. After developing a shared understanding of the subject, the course will move into a practice-based format to investigate material conditions and artistic form. Through exercises, students will engage with imagined scenarios of artistic production and develop their own strategies in response to different conditions and constraints. Rather than searching for one ideal sustainable model, the course asks students to identify the conditions surrounding their own practices and to develop deliberate strategies in response to them.
Sustainable Practice A WS26 - Assemblages - Repurposing narratives of Objects and Space
Assemblage is a fundamental component of contemporary sculptural and spatial practices, spanning various mediums. In this course, we will contextualize the techniques of assemblage as a critical practice, approaching it with openness and generosity. The reconfiguration of spatial dimensions and the alteration of object functions lead to a transformation of the narratives associated with both objects and space within artistic language. Through the technique of assemblage, these complexity of narratives acquire a poetic quality, and the artist's voice and imagination emerge through the thoughtful selection and combination of materials. With the ongoing challenge of being resourceful as artists, the objective of this lecture is to facilitate the navigation and use of found objects as material, along with the research required to source these objects from cultural, social, and historical perspectives. This process enables a critical examination of contemporary crises through the lens of material practice. The course includes studies in composition and form, exploring concepts such as the relationships among used objects, (dis/mis/re)location of objects and space, overcoding/undercoding, de/re-functioning, repetition, and accumulation.
Assemblage is a fundamental component of contemporary sculptural and spatial practices, spanning various mediums. In this course, we will contextualize the techniques of assemblage as a critical practice, approaching it with openness and generosity. The reconfiguration of spatial dimensions and the alteration of object functions lead to a transformation of the narratives associated with both objects and space within artistic language. Through the technique of assemblage, these complexity of narratives acquire a poetic quality, and the artist's voice and imagination emerge through the thoughtful selection and combination of materials. With the ongoing challenge of being resourceful as artists, the objective of this lecture is to facilitate the navigation and use of found objects as material, along with the research required to source these objects from cultural, social, and historical perspectives. This process enables a critical examination of contemporary crises through the lens of material practice. The course includes studies in composition and form, exploring concepts such as the relationships among used objects, (dis/mis/re)location of objects and space, overcoding/undercoding, de/re-functioning, repetition, and accumulation.
Sustainable Practice B WS26 - Material Economy
The concept of the material economy refers to the systems through which artistic materials are sourced, circulated, and imbued with meaning. Artistic production is situated within—and often shaped by—broader economic, social, cultural, and ecological frameworks, wherein material choices function not only as poetic, aesthetic decisions but also as metaphorical, political and critical acts. A critical engagement with the lifecycle of materials—spanning extraction, labor, transformation, use, and eventual disposal or reuse—reveals the embeddedness of artistic practices within global infrastructures of trade, resource exploitation, and environmental degradation. These trajectories reflect ongoing entanglements with neoliberalism, post-capitalism, colonialism, industrialization, and ecological crisis. Contemporary artistic practices often mobilize specific metaphors, strategies, and forms of resistance to navigate or disrupt dominant cycles of production and consumption. Such a perspective repositions materiality not as a neutral substrate, but as an active site of critical, social, and ecological negotiation. The course involves developing a related project.
The concept of the material economy refers to the systems through which artistic materials are sourced, circulated, and imbued with meaning. Artistic production is situated within—and often shaped by—broader economic, social, cultural, and ecological frameworks, wherein material choices function not only as poetic, aesthetic decisions but also as metaphorical, political and critical acts. A critical engagement with the lifecycle of materials—spanning extraction, labor, transformation, use, and eventual disposal or reuse—reveals the embeddedness of artistic practices within global infrastructures of trade, resource exploitation, and environmental degradation. These trajectories reflect ongoing entanglements with neoliberalism, post-capitalism, colonialism, industrialization, and ecological crisis. Contemporary artistic practices often mobilize specific metaphors, strategies, and forms of resistance to navigate or disrupt dominant cycles of production and consumption. Such a perspective repositions materiality not as a neutral substrate, but as an active site of critical, social, and ecological negotiation. The course involves developing a related project.
Repurposing, Redoing, Relearning Workshop This workshop invite you to explore making, un/learning, repurposing process and training technicality of unknown possibilities of discarded objects and found object. The objective of the workshop is to gain an understanding of the fundamental techniques involved in assemblage, including the ability to create connections and disconnections between components, as well as to gain collective experience of how others approach this process. At the beginning of workshop, we will walk around the Kurzbauergasse atelier, dive in dumpster, and walk in the yard and find any type of materials. The workshop will include group exercises as well as an introduction to the basic tools for handling everyday objects as part of the sculpture.