Practice 4: Untitled 2021/2022 

Nummer und TypMFA-MFA-Pr00.21H.004 / Moduldurchführung
ModulPractice: 
VeranstalterDepartement Fine Arts
LeitungJudith Welter, Shirana Shahbazi, Pascal Sidler
Anzahl Teilnehmendemaximal 16
ECTS21 Credits
VoraussetzungenCourse language: English
ZielgruppenMA Fine Arts students
Open for exchange students
Lernziele / Kompetenzen• Engage with your own practice and especially aspects of formal and technical decisions
• Discuss your work and decisions in exchange with the group
• Get to know contexts of different contemporary artistic (image)productions
InhalteUntitled 2021/2022: at the end we give each artwork a title, even if it is untitled. Or is this decision made at the beginning of the production process? Where do we start and when does it end?

The artist Pati Hill used the photocopier as a world imaging medium. How does a photocopy become a work? Photography, in turn, is a pictorial technique with a long tradition both inside and outside of art. What makes a photograph an artwork? What distinguishes it from, say, advertising images or private photographs, we ask ourselves when we look at works by the artists Gili Tal or Josephine Pryde, for example? Creating images also means choreographing – an activity that does not end with the selection of the image detail, but goes further and entails formal as well as technical (production) decisions: The technique, paper or surface, dimensions, framing but also the hanging or display and the caption: title, year, material and size. These elements, which at first sight seem of technical-framing nature or questions of the display of the actual (pictorial) works – which apply to all disciplines, be it painted, printed, sculpture, performances - are part of an artistic attitude. Or one could also say: the fetishization of material choice and technical decisions become part of the work itself, which thus also produces a social or socio-political attitude.

In this practice seminar we will talk on the one hand about the relevance of formal decisions and the fetishization of certain techniques or technologies and on the other hand discuss which decisions are important for your own artistic practice.

About the lecturers:


Judith Welter (*1980) is a curator. She studied art history, Spanish literature and Religious Studies at the University of Bern. In 2014, she completed her PhD on the role of rumors and anecdotes in contemporary. From 2015 to 2021 she has been director of the Kunsthaus Glarus. From 2004 to 2015 she worked for the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich where from 2012 on she was the Collection Curator. Since 2016 she has been teaching at different universities. From 2016-2021 she was the jury president for the Kiefer Hablitzel I Göhner Kunstpreis. Since 2015 she is co-editor of the online magazine for art criticism Brand-New-Life.

Recent curated solo exhibitions include Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) (2021), Caroline Bachmann, Jan Vorisek (2020) Sam Pulitzer (2019), Bonnie Camplin (2018), Marta Riniker-Radich (2018), Birgit Megerle (2017) and Shana Moulton (2016). Curated group exhibitions include Tourism (2021, in collaboration with Stadgalerie Bern, Luca Beeler and Richard Sides), Im Volksgarten (2021), Sie sagen, wo Rauch ist ist auch Feuer (2017, in collaboration with Kunsthalle Bern), Unruly Relations, 2016, Toys Redux, (2015)


Shirana Shahbazi (*1974 in Teheran, Iran; lives and works in Switzerland) creates conceptual works in the medium of photography. Her practice is characterized by a variety of photographic production processes, printing techniques and spacial installations. Pure forms, radiant colours and sharp contrasts are the protagonists of her photographs, as well as landscapes, portraits and other historical genres, which are inspired by the fundamental question of the reception of pictorial reality.
Her works are represented in the collections of important institutions worldwide, such as: Centre Pompidou, Paris; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Kunsthaus Zürich; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; Sprengel Museum, Hannover.


Pascal Sidler is an artist, currently working as a teaching assistant at the MA Fine Arts. His paintings are often based on photographs from everyday life. His work has been shown in various exhibitions, including “European Southern Observatory”, Hamlet in Zürich (2019). In 2019 he was the recipient of the Grant of the City of Zürich and in 2013 of the Grant of the Canton of Zürich. www.pascalsidler.ch
Bibliographie / LiteraturWill be handed out during the course.
Leistungsnachweis / TestatanforderungMandatory attendance (minimum 80%); active participation; semester report
TermineTime: 09:00 - 17:00 o'clock

CW 39: 28 / 30 September, 01 October
CW 45: 08 / 09 / 10 / 11 / 12 November

Critiques:
CW 02: 10 / 11 January
Bewertungsformbestanden / nicht bestanden
Termine (10)