The artist as entrepreneur has become a common topic of discussion. Here, however, we put forward the notions of “self” and “system.” First, every artistic practice is self-reflexive and self-contextualizing. Second, each system an artist builds allows for innovation. Let’s construct a space where we inevitably find ourselves together with others, even if we feel lonely, like a witch lost in a library of artists’ books. Let’s invent our right to do so. Let’s enter the world of smell and write about a megalomaniac art school while documenting a generation of art students and their studios with analogue photography. How does anyone even manage—from making objects to performing one’s own existence? Device, organon, animal.
328 pages, Sternberg Press, 2019
ISBN 978-3-956794-88-9
This book arises from the 2018 activities of the MA Fine Arts program at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). It reflects the conviction that an art school can be a pedagogic nexus dedicated to the transmission of knowledge, experimentation, and research, as much as a locus for civic and critical debate and exhibition, involved in its community, locally and globally.
Contributions by Jeremy Ayer, Velibor Barisic, Donatella Bernardi, Amos Bollag, Katharina Brandl, Clifford E. Bruckmann, Philip Frowein, Désirée Myriam Gnaba, Noëlle Guidon, Adrian Hanselmann, Vanessà Heer, Dijan Kahrimanovic, Maya Lama, Matthias Liechti, Romain Mader, Marisa Meier, Javor Milanov, Gioia Dal Molin, Fidel Morf, Angi Nend, Dominic Neuwirth, Elodie Pong, Dorothree Richter, Evan Ruetsch, Nils Röller, Antonio Scarponi, Christoph Schifferli, Aurélie Strumans, Raphael Stucky, Claudia Stöckli, Jan Vorisek
Art & Crisis. A Polyphonic Research on the Contemporary | Donatella Bernardi (ed.)
CHF 28.00
Polyphonic research into contemporary, Art & Crisis» is the first volume of a new series aiming to explore the state of the world and cultural theories as seen through the lens of contemporary artistic practices and educational tools. Stemming from the Master Fine Arts at the Zurich University of the Arts, and edited by MFA director Donatella Bernardi, the series’ ambition is to replace the traditional “degree show” catalogue with a theoretical publication showing the path followed by the students-turned-artists over the course of the year, and to explore how an educational institution based in Zurich can locate itself within the global (art) world.
320 pages, jrp|Ringier, 2018
ISBN 978-3-03764-525-3
We often think art’s all about money. Rather, it’s about energy. Immersing yourself in Lake Zurich, a hedge-fund office, a botanical garden, or a land-art piece built on ruins, is it possible to discern an energy particular to art? Art as a form of energy capable of encompassing the whole of life, more powerful than finance and its algorithms? Art as science or speculative fiction? We dwell in castles with Schrödinger’s cat until we give form to the formless: molecules and failed soldiers, art spaces previously owned by the mafia. We share tips about the tricks of the trade—only to intervene, emancipate, culminate, collapse, and (re)emerge. Let us look everywhere for ideas, and let us be gloriously out of touch: may we grow our capacity and courage to love. Catastrophism, miniskirt, particle.
Bildung, Praxistransfer und Kooperation | Charlotte Axelsson, Dana Blume, Benno Volk (Hg.) [E-Book PDF]
Praxistransfer in der Hochschule ist entscheidend, da er Studierenden und Lehrenden Einblicke in ihre Berufsfelder bietet, kritisches Denken fördert, Engagement steigert und Theorie mit Praxis verbindet. In diesem Kontext widmen sich die Beiträger*innen der Kompetenzentwicklung in kooperativen Netzwerken an verschiedenen Hochschulen und versammeln wissenschaftliche Beiträge, Hypothesen sowie Labor- und Werkstattberichte laufender Projekte. Damit spiegeln sie die Vielfalt von Arbeits-, Forschungs- und Lehrentwicklungsweisen sowie praktischen Herangehensweisen wider – und geben Bildungsforschenden und Didaktiker*innen unterschiedlicher Disziplinen wertvolles Material an die Hand.
Die Spekulationen über die Mehrdeutigkeit von Kunstwerken und deren Potenzial, sich in verschiedene Bedeutungshorizonte einzuweben, sind vielfältig und zahlreich. Das «Wind Tunnel Deck»-Kartenspiel nimmt diese Beobachtung ernst. Es gibt den Konzepten, Kräften, Akteur:innen, Artefakten und Happenings, die seit 2012 rund um den Wind Tunnel von Florian Dombois und seiner Forschungsgruppe an der ZHdK operieren, eine Stimme und fokussiert ihre noch offenen Potenziale.
56 Karten, art&fiction, 2022
ISBN 978-2-88964-042-3
ZHdK – A Future for the Arts | Hans-Peter Schwarz (ed.)
CHF 118.00
What do actors Bruno Ganz and Johanna Bantzer have in common with photographers Olaf Breuning and Ernst Scheidegger, or film directors Fredi M. Murer and Andrea Staka with dancer Kusha Alexi? Along with designers Adrian Frutiger and Max Bill, musicians Anne-Sophie Mutter and Yuka Tsuboi, artists Augusto Giacometti and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and actors Gustav Knuth and Laura de Weck, they all studied at Zürich’s legendary art schools.
In August 2007, these institutions, which were previously separated by discipline, merged to form one of Europe’s most multifaceted and significant art education centers, the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Published to mark its founding, ZHdK—A Future for the Arts recounts the history of the previous schools, examines the importance of their well-known alumni, and sets forth ambitious goals for the future of the institution. With over seven hundred color illustrations and accompanied by a companion CD and DVD, this volume traces the history of Swiss art education and features perspectives that span the entire curriculum. ZHdK—A Future for the Arts is not just a portrait of a single university, but a rendering of Swiss cultural history of the past fifty years.
352 pages, CD, DVD, Scheidegger & Spiess, 2007
ISBN 978-3-85881-709-9