Site-Specific Art

Team: Heribert Friedl, Georgia Holz, Maria Stepanek, Johanna Tinzl

 

Site-specific art leaves the studio to confront and explore concrete sites and real spaces – to study the “spatial manifestations” of the material world of which we are also a part. Such a site can be an idea as well as built architecture, nature, landscape, society, the public space, the exhibition space, the digital space, the fictional space, our living space.

 

During the course of this study program we want to examine these sites closely, experiment with them, and transform them. How the student chooses to do so is up to him or her; the main thing is to decide on a method and a form and to find the right medium. This can be anything from photography, installation, painting, performance, intervention, or sculpture to sound, video, or text.

 

We see the program as a field for experimentation in which it is possible to develop one’s own independent artistic position. Being able to present work in the department’s own project space or in public space, think through what one is doing in one-on-one conversations or group discussions, learn theory as well as practical implementation, all these opportunities promote and stimulate the various interests of each individual student. The range of different course offerings makes it possible to integrate current topics into the lesson and one’s own practical work, issues that truly impact the present. These include discourses about ecology, public space, nature/culture, diversity, feminism, queerness, the counterpublic sphere, digitality, and our technological conditions.