Leader: Hêlîn Alas (visual artist and art educator).
When studying at an art academy, one moves towards an often precarious field of work in which complex logics of power have an individualizing effect and reproduce inequalities. In addition, some of the socially anchored narratives of professional success in the art field have a mythical dimension. Following these simplistic images, the art world can be transposed into the world of fantasy with chosen ones, companions, ancient sages, rulers,.... This workshop aims to mobilize a moment of empathic distance in which collective imagination can shake the status quo and create real-utopian narratives. The fantasy genre will be used as a means of making ossified structural conditions tangible.
In the first part of the workshop, instances that influence the course of professional careers will be identified and named in an open discussion. The experience of dependency and limits will be contrasted with individual and collective resources. Text excerpts, for example from Marina Vishmidt on infrastructure criticism or Lauren Berlant on cruel optimism, will be read together and incorporated into the discussion. In the second part, a form is found for this collected "material", such as playing cards, which are associatively abstracted, fantastic or caricatured. Through the stylized and fantastic representation, we try to playfully appropriate the instances that influence us for our own purposes and thus gain room for manoeuvre. In the third step, these playing cards or figures are brought into a context with rules of the game and values are negotiated together. At the end, students have the opportunity to activate the game in an extended group, in a visit to an exhibition space in Kassel or in a public event (with exhibition).
The event is open to all degree programs at the Kunsthochschule Kassel.
The guest lecturer program "An empty Space" is a cooperation between the Kunsthochschule Kassel and BPA// Berlin program for artists.
Introductory lecture:
24.04.25, 16-18 h
Hörsaal Nordbau, KhK
Further dates:
08.-09.05.25
Thu, 14-17 h
Fr, 10-14 h
Hörsaal Nordbau, KhK
15.-16.05.25
Thu, 14-17 h
Fr, 10-14 h
Hörsaal Nordbau, KhK
22.-23.05.25
Thu, 14-17 h
Fr, 10-14 h
Location to be announced
Further information:
kunsthochschulekassel.de