Highlights Fine Arts

[Translate to English:] Collage
[Translate to English:] Collage

    ยซArt and research come together especially when it is a matter of meaningfully discussing the challenges of our time and initiating negotiations.ยป

    Dr. Marcel Bleuler, Head of the Institute for Contemporary Art Research (IFCAR)

      Scientific, Artistic and Creative Output and Impact

      Besides their wide range of publications, through which IFCAR researchers actively engage in international discourses, in 2022 they also increasingly made their research processes accessible in exhibitions. For example, parts of the ยซLatent Spacesยป project (headed by Prof. Felix Stalder) were presented in the exhibition ยซCan you see me now?ยป at AIA Awareness in Art, Lรถwenbrรคukunst Zurich, while the project ยซHands-Onยป (headed by Christoph Schenker) peaked in a final exhibition titled ยซOn Observing the Printingยป at the ETH Zurichโ€™s Graphic Arts Collection. Particular success was also achieved by Julia Weber, whose dissertation ยซHerumlungern?! Begegnungsrรคume an urbanen Ortenยป (ZHdK, Linz University of the Arts) was awarded the Austrian Award of Excellence.

      โ†’ Overview ยซScientific, Artistic and Creative Output and Impactยป

        Promotion of Talents and Careers

        In 2022, the IFCAR took important steps towards promoting emerging researchers. For example, the PhD in the Arts programme at the Salzburgโ€™s Mozarteum University was secured as a new cooperation partner for the implementation of artistic PhD projects. Furthermore, IFCAR relaunched its internal start-up funding and the promotion of ยซrisky projectsยป. This new funding format for process-oriented and collaborative projects enables emerging researchers in particular to deepen their research experience and develop innovative approaches at the interface of art and research.

        โ†’ Overview ยซPromotion of Talents and Careersยป

          Cooperation and Internationality

          International cooperations are central to IFCAR research. In view of the global political situation, in 2022 the institute increased its cooperation with partners in Eastern Europe. ยซContemporary Art, Popular Culture, and Peacbuilding in Eastern Europeยป (headed by Jรถrg Scheller), a project conducting research in Poland, Moldova and Armenia over a period of three years, is in contact with various cooperation partners. In addition, the partnerships with the Academy of Fine Arts Prague (CZ) and the Center for Contemporary Art in Tbilisi (GEO) were further expanded with a collaborative contribution to the Tbilisi Triennial (GEO).

          โ†’ Overview ยซCooperation and Internationalityยป

            External Funding

            In 2022, IFCAR achieved further success in terms of third-party funding with Jรถrg Schellerโ€™s SNSF-funded project. Together with the SNSF projects directed by Felix Stalder (ยซLatent Spacesยป), Hannes Rickli (ยซListening to Data Flowsยป), Michael Hiltbrunner (ยซF+F 1971ยป) and Kris Decker (ยซAcademized Artistsยป), a total of 15 artistic researchers and PhD candidates can conduct in-depth research thanks to third-party funding.

            โ†’ Overview ยซResearch Projectsยป

              Reading Tips

              In their co-edited volume ยซTrading Zonesยป Barbara Preisig, Laura von Niederhรคusern and Jรผrgen Krusche present camera-based practices at the intersections of artistic and ethnographic research that critically examine their own production means and social embedding. In collaborative practices such as field recording, post-production editing and forms of presentation, the camera is understood as an actor. How does it engage with the invisible and reveal what the camerawoman cannot see? How do films, videos and photographs provide access to vulnerable knowledge and what forms of presentation can extend linear narration?

              Book cover Trading Zone

                Event Highlight

                Felix Stalder and his team presented works from their SNSF project ยซLatent Spaces: Performing Ambiguous Dataยป for the first time in the exhibition ยซCan You See Me Now?ยป at the Zurich art space AIA. The show focused on ยซThe Infrastructure of a Migratory Birdยป, a diagram that captures ecological, social, technical and informational elements and their different temporal-spatial scales to create a new foundation for wilderness. The work is a collaboration between artists Gordan Saviฤiฤ‡, Vladan Joler, and theorist Felix Stalder.

                Diagram Infracstructure of a Migratory Bird

                  Noteworthy

                  Artist and researcher Ji Yun Park is the first Visiting PhD at the DFA. As a PhD student at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, she works with various orchid species native to Hong Kong, seeking to visualise their ecosystem from a plant-centred point of view. Central to her artistic research is the film ยซ(Welcome to) The Planet of Orchidsยป, which brings into dialogue research from the fields of multispecies ethnography, orchid conservation biology and ecocinema. The film features orchids as protagonists and presents their multispecies relationships in plant-centred visualisation and storytelling.

                  Commerical