STUDY PROGRAMME
Painting and Visual Arts

AFAM CODE
ABPR15

DISCIPLINARY AREA
Public Art

DISCIPLINARY FIELD
Public Art

CREDITS
8

APPROACH
Theoretical / Project based

Since the mid-80s, the clear objective of public art has been to intervene on infrastructures so that the historic function of squares or monuments could be recovered with a completely new approach, thereby recognizing the need to define a spatial whole as a social whole.

The course engages students in research and intervention projects that will lead them to critically conjugate architecture and urban design, urban planning and landscape architecture, visual communication and plastic arts in general. In particular, through careful analysis of the area, the students will take the city of Milan as an example, and will try to stimulate artistic processes that are capable of communicating with the physical and social environment. To this purpose, the course includes meetings with professionals from the world of art, sociology, anthropology, economics, and urban planning.

This course is made of a single module of 6 CFA credits.

Public Art aims at qualifying or requalifying public areas, articulating relationship strategies with the cultural context, and at defining common functional areas in which morphological elements can integrate with social ones. As such, Public art was not born as an individual expressive moment, but always tried to accommodate the needs and wishes of a multiplicity of referents and social contexts. Intervening in public areas, therefore, can’t be limited to thinking of the definition or re-definition of physical spaces through aesthetic-formal design, but must design or re-design the social environment taking into account the people living in the area.

The course engages the students in investigation and intervention projects that lead them to critically combine architecture and urban design, urban planning and landscape architecture, visual communication and plastic arts in general. The focus will be on the city of Milan, and the students, after careful analysis of the territory, will try to activate artistic processes capable of dialoguing with the physical and social context. To this purpose, a series of meetings with professionals from the world of art, sociology, anthropology, economics and urban planning is also planned.

• Theoretical/project based classroom lectures

• Workshops

• Use of tutorials, videos or other media tools for detailed study

• Classroom debates and presentations

• Individual study and research

• Field trips (conferences, meetings, visits to exhibitions as organized by the professor or department)

Assessment is based on the overall competence of the students and may include:

• Oral exam

• Written exam

• Submission of papers, projects or research work

Further details on specific tests can be provided by the professor during the course. Assessment criteria include commitment, active participation and personal growth of the students over the course.

Further bibliographic recommendations may be provided by the professor during the course. A lot of the referenced material, together with other in-depth study material, can be consulted online in MyNaba, in the Library section.