Artistic Practice and Society at BCB

This studio art course introduces the materials, techniques, and principles of oil painting. Through practical demonstrations students will learn the properties of oil paint; how to stretch canvases and prepare painting surfaces; and how to apply oil paint using traditional and experimental approaches. Assignments develop an understanding of color theory (hue, value, chroma, color temperature), compositional design, perspectival space, surface texture, glazing, and the depiction of form through light and shadow. Students will establish their studio practice by working from direct observation, using photographic references, and building abstract compositions. Studio work is supported by assigned readings, group discussions, gallery and museum visits, and slide presentations of historical and contemporary paintings. Particular attention is given to painters, past and present, with strong connections to the city of Berlin. The semester culminates in the “Open Studios'' exhibition in the BCB arts building at Monopol. 

Hardly any project has been more controversial than the rebuilding of Berlin’s City Palace. Since its opening in 2021, the Humboldt Forum has brought in more than 2.5 million visitors, constituting one of the centerpieces of the capital’s New Mitte. Yet, the recently opened cultural venue – which gathers five institutions under its roof – is still very much in the process of considering how to address the challenges that arise from the contradictions between its form (a hybrid of Baroque and modern) and its contents (serving as a home to and meeting place for the cultures of the world). Most delicate is its role as the new home of the Ethnological Museum (previously housed in Berlin-Dahlem) with collection histories that are often inextricably linked to European colonialism. The seminar provides an introduction to the history and current operation of the Humboldt Forum and to the various institutions and collections that it accommodates on more than 16,000 square meters. Furthermore, as a collaborative project with the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss, the class seeks to give students insights into the conceptualization and planning of cultural events, exhibition projects and educational outreach. Members of the Humboldt Forum's team will introduce students to not only the building and its collections, but also to their day-to-day tasks and overall aims.

She She Pop is an internationally renowned feminist performance collective based in Berlin. Over the course of their 30 years of collaboration, they have challenged established theater aesthetics and traditional hierarchies of theater-making. Their experimental and provocative body of work, for which they received Germany’s highest theater prize in 2019 (Theaterpreis Berlin), has been deeply influential and groundbreaking for many theater and performance artists. Considering the private as deeply political, the inclusion of their own autobiographies has been a crucial element of their artistic practice. In this course we will practice and reflect on She She Pop’s particular approach to “autobiography as method.” Classes will be taught partly in weekly sessions and partly in four hour-long hands-on workshops with members of the collective. We will study She She Pop’s art-historical influences by conceptual (performance) artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Sol LeWitt, Yoko Ono, John Cage, Allan Kaprow, Marina Abramović, Valie Export, Chris Burden, Sophie Calle and Forced Entertainment. Investigating techniques of (self-)instructions, tasked-based performance art, conceptual rule-making, and collaborative creation for both rehearsal and performance, students will be asked to develop short autobiographical group performances, which will be presented at the end of the semester.