ART AND VISUAL PRACTICE
The department understands art education as a research-based, ecological and socially effective practice. The focus is on the examination of perception, materiality and the relationships between people, nature and the environment. Artistic activity opens up opportunities to experience resonance, establish connections and take responsibility in dealing with the world.
Our teaching and learning spaces are places for joint research and design. Here we experiment, observe and negotiate - between individual expression and collective experience. Learning with and through art means exploring the world through sensory, tactile and material approaches, perceiving cyclical processes of becoming and passing away and trying out new forms of living and working together.
This attitude is combined with a critical examination of Western-influenced modes of perception and colonial image and discourse regimes. Art education thus becomes a laboratory for being-in-the-world: open, experimental and relational. It links aesthetic, ecological and social issues and promotes an attitude that aims for mindfulness, participation and sustainable transformation.
The department's artistic teaching is organized into studios: Drawing and Graphics, Painting, Photography and Moving Image, as well as Three-Dimensional Design and Space. Within these areas, students acquire subject-specific and technical competencies in working with a range of artistic media and forms of expression.
Media are not taught in isolation as mere techniques, but are understood as forms of artistic thinking, perception, and action. The work in the studios combines media-specific expertise with questions of materiality, space, body, perception, systems of reference, contexts, addressees, and modes of becoming public. This forms the foundation for an open, situation-responsive, and critically reflective artistic practice.
Studio 2D
The Graphic Studio is a central workspace for two-dimensional design. It teaches methods of visual recording—from portraiture to diagrammatic representation. Analog and digital drawing techniques are combined with printmaking processes such as relief and intaglio printing. Technical training, artistic practice, and experimental work are closely interconnected. Students develop design competence, conceptual thinking, and independent artistic positions.
Painting Studio
The Painting Studio offers space for painterly experimentation and focused artistic work. It supports the development of individual visual languages and conceptual approaches. Technical knowledge of different painting styles, techniques, and processes is taught, as well as knowledge of pigments and recipes, enabling independent artistic research.
3D Studio
The Studio for Three-Dimensional Design is a space for sculptural thinking and practice. A wide range of materials and techniques enables experimental and interdisciplinary approaches. The focus lies on spatial design, construction, and artistic research in interior spaces as well as in the public realm.
Photography Studio
The Photography Studio is equipped with professional facilities for analog and digital photography. The darkroom allows students to gain experience in black-and-white photography. The studio is a place for image production, image analysis, and experimental processes. Photography is understood as an artistic, documentary, and interdisciplinary medium.
