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From 30 November 2018, the University of the Arts will be showing the exhibition “40 Years of Art in Context: the Path of an Institute”.
The postgraduate master’s degree “Art in Context” of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Berlin University of the Arts will be 40 years old this year. In April 1978, the first students were enrolled in what was then known as the “Modellversuch Künstlerweiterbildung”, a unique course of study. In order to celebrate this anniversary and at the same time to get an overview of the history of the Institute for Art in Context, where the postgraduate master’s course “Art in Context” can be studied, an exhibition will take place from December 1 to 21, 2018 in the main hall of the UdK building at Hardenbergstraße 33.
Based on a first time table on the history of the institute, which Katja Jedermann – from 1980 to 2012 co-designer and lecturer in the course – developed together with students, the exhibition shows central milestones of this forty-year educational history, which was at the same time a specifically West Berlin history until 1989. Visible is that part of history that has materialized in texts, images or books, that has acted externally and could be reconstructed on the basis of the archive materials available at the Institute. The focus of the exhibition is therefore on a selection of projects realized jointly by teachers and students in a wide variety of social contexts. A selection of publications will also be presented in order to incorporate the underlying discursive work of the teachers.
Copyright: Kunst im Kontext
Both together allow a look at the themes and working methods that have played a role in the context of the Institute for Art over the past 40 years. Social moods and political questions become perceptible, as do the artistic, pedagogical and political attitudes of those involved in the course. Also repetitions of questions across time begin to be reflected, as do aesthetic preferences that have developed in a time-specific way in the field of “art in context”. It becomes clear how this artistic course of study was shaped by the people who implemented it. The manifold possibilities of connecting art and contexts, which also include a piece of Berlin’s city history, also become clear. Within the framework of block seminars and the event programme “Art in Context Now”, the exhibition will be activated and the history of the course will be reflected upon and further developed.
The exhibition was curated by Claudia Hummel, a research teacher at the Institute for Art in Context. It was realized with a team of current and former artists studying at the Institute.
The exhibition “40 Years of Art in Context: the Path of an Institute” contains a first version of the examination of the history of the institute. Further developed, in a second version, medially, artistically and supplemented by the interfaces to the nGbK (Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst), the exhibition is entitled “40 Years of Art in Context. Positionen, Schnittmengen, Kommentare” from 16 February to 17 March 2019 at the nGbK, Oranienstraße 25, 10999 Berlin.
Opening: Friday, 30 November 2018, 6 p.m.
WHERE? Berlin University of the Arts, Main Hall Hardenbergstraße 33, 10623 Berlin
WHEN? Friday, 21 December to Friday, 21 December 2018, daily 10 am – 08 pm
40 Years of Art in Context: The Path of an Institute – Universität der Künste | ART at Berlin
