13 July 2024
Circle Point
The University of Arts in Belgrade traditionally organizes the Summer Art School with the aim of exploring artistically enticing cultural-historical and natural environments and reanimating them and making them more visible, using contemporary artistic language and tools. This year, the program is being held in Kikinda, where artists will engage with the challenges of nature conservation and ecosystem sustainability in its green surroundings.
Climate change, loss of biodiversity, and negative impacts of human activities are putting the future of our planet at stake. In this context, the ecosystem emerges as a key challenge, requiring innovative and sustainable solutions, and one of the responses to these challenges can be green art. Therefore, this year's Summer Art School puts the emphasis on green art, thus contributing to the local and wider community with one of the most important topics of contemporary society.
The interdisciplinary concept and green art will encompass artistic practices that transcend traditional boundaries and integrate elements from various disciplines, focusing on promoting environmental sustainability and addressing environmental issues, while encouraging collaboration and integration of ideas, techniques, and perspectives from different areas of art. The program will stimulate multidisciplinary collaboration, merging different practices, using interactive installations, applying technology and innovation, educational initiatives, considering cultural and social perspectives, creating site-specific projects, and engaging in discussions and activism. This dynamic and collaborative approach will enable artists to create powerful works that deepen their understanding of environmental issues and contribute to viable solutions for environmental challenges.
The theme of this year's school is "CirclePoint," which carries multi-layered significance, allowing artists to interconnect interdisciplinary perspectives into a unified whole. Each participant will endeavour to uncover the mystical connection between nature and ourselves as an integral part of it, from their own unique vantage point. Recognizing the cyclical processes in nature and seeking the starting and ending points of self-awareness through art are just some of the initial interpretations. Artists participating in the interdisciplinary green summer school in Kikinda will have the opportunity to integrate elements from visual arts, performing arts, literature, science, technology, and other fields. This fusion will enable a deeper and more nuanced exploration of ecological themes.
1. Sustainable Creation: Earth in Our Hands
Ceramics Workshop
Ljubica Knezevic, associate professor at the Faculty of Applied Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade
The primary concept of the workshop is the creation of an installation that merges different natural materials, ecology, and sound under the working title "Ecological Reflection." Throughout the workshop, lectures and presentations will be held on topics related to sustainable development, contemporary visual art, and successful projects by visual artists, designers, and architects who have expressed themselves through the use of clay and/or ceramic materials. Through various examples, participants will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with paradigmatic approaches in the art of ecological structures and biomorphic forms - bio art. Within the workshop, we will develop shapes that can serve as speakers, instruments, or special segments to be integrated into the whole. A tactile and sensory installation will be set up in a selected natural environment through the joint assembly of elements, light, and sound.
This workshop aims to explore and create experimental artworks using innovative ecological methods. The focus is on developing and enriching the personal artistic sensibility and poetics of the participants. Through participation in the workshop, participants will explore, connect, and understand postmodern visual art, applying acquired knowledge in contemporary interdisciplinary cultural practices of artistic projects.
Special attention will be given to the global ecological crisis and the growing problems arising from its impact on the environment. This includes dangerous pollution, urban development, privatization, and exploitation of public spaces, particularly in the Western Balkans. The workshop's goal is to direct and stimulate conversations essential to these topics through a universal visual language.
2. Green, I Love You Green
Theatre Workshop
Tara Manic, theater director and professor assistant at Faculty of Dramatic Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade
Inspired by the famous poem "Romance Sonámbulo" by Federico García Lorca from 1928, included in the collection "Gypsy Ballads," the interdisciplinary workshop idea of "Green, I Love You Green" aims to conceptualize a site-specific performance in nature. This performance will explore the motifs of this captivating poem through a performative, musical, and scenic form.
Drawing inspiration from nature, moonlight, music, and the diverse possibilities of human voices and bodies, the workshop "Green, I Love You Green" seeks to consider poetry as a potential template for drama workshops in nature. Simultaneously, it aims to explore the rich potentials of the motifs present in this romantic and poignant poem through collaborative artistic exploration.
The goal of this multidisciplinary workshop is to collectively explore the possibilities of staging this poem, using a non-realistic scenic language, ultimately leading to a multidisciplinary site-specific event. By considering the individual contribution and interpretation of the poem by each participant, the workshop aims to rethink this poetic material from various perspectives: acting, dramaturgy, directing, sound design, choreography, singing, visual arts, and music – synthesizing all these contributions into a performative rendition. Inspired by the ambiance and nature of the local setting, the workshop aims to conceptualize the entire workshop in relation to the specificities of performing in nature.
3. Image + Film = Еcology
Visual Arts Workshop
Nemanja Nikolic, assistant professor at Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade
The workshop will consist of practical work on executing the idea of movement and moving images through a wide range of visual techniques, as well as theoretical lectures and discussions on various topics. Throughout the workshop, young artists will have the opportunity to develop and deepen their artistic practices through diverse approaches dedicated to envisioning and shaping a future conducive to life. Through the development of a fast-paced one-week artistic project, students will learn skills and build networks necessary to push the boundaries of artistic engagement with ecology.
Lecture topics:
Attraction of Film;
Landscape Studies;
All Art is Ecological
4. Music Production Towards Sound Recycling
Music Production Workshop
Marko Stojanovic, assistant professor at Faculty of Music, University of Arts in Belgrade
The workshop involves the simultaneous work of participants, with mentorship from the workshop moderator. Prior to each step during the workshop, the mentor will hold lectures and presentations so that all participants can complete their tasks. Collaboration with participants from other workshops is desirable, in the form of a common theme (multimedia synergy in creation). The proposal for collaboration to take into account is between the music workshop and the ceramics workshop, in the form of joint works - sound objects.
Chronological steps:
- introductory lectures on the music production process and sound in ambient installations;
- the concept of soundscapes and analytical listening, listening to the environment, the concept of acoustic pollution or noise;
- work processes: preproduction (designing a project, planning steps for implementation);
- work processes: production (recording musical/sound content, processing, editing, and mixing in order to create a sound image - dynamics, volume relationships, spatiality, depth, etc.);
- work processes: post-production/mastering (application of recordings for a specific purpose, i.e., multichannel spatial installation resulting from collaboration with participants from other workshops);
- technical aspects - in the domain of audio technology: designing and connecting devices for sound reproduction and implementing electroacoustic converters into sculptural/spatial elements of the installation;
- the implementation of recordings and preparation of the exhibition;
- the final exhibition of works.
Music Production Towards Sound Recycling represents a workshop in which participants develop their abilities of sound perception and, through procedures of sound and music production, create a recording that will become part of a multimedia exhibition. The idea is to alter the existing soundscapes, with their recordings in a specific space, through sound installations, drawing attention to the problem of acoustic pollution, or noise. In this process, participants will first explore the sound characteristics of the environment or soundscapes and attempt to expand their own sensory perception capabilities. Nature will be their inspiration, and through production procedures characteristic of the field of music production, they will endeavour to create a sound image by combining their own recorded music (sound) material with previously recorded materials. These recordings will then be re-emitted in a space intended for the installation exposure (sound recycling). Such work will become a part of a spatial installation, which will emerge as a result of collaboration with participants from other workshops, representing the ultimate goal of this workshop.
Course leader
Prof. Ljubica Knezevic, Sculptor, Faculty of Applied Arts
Prof. Tara Manic, Theatre director, Faculty of Dramatic Arts
Prof. Nemanja Nikolic, Visual artist, Faculty of Fine Arts
Prof. Marko Stojanovic, Music producer, Faculty of Music
Uni Arts Belgrad
Target group
1. Sustainable Creation: Earth in Our Hands
Ceramics Workshop
Students of fine arts, applied arts, and design from the country and abroad.
2. Green, I Love You Green
Theatre Workshop
A diverse profile of participants is encouraged, especially students of acting, theater directing, dramaturgy, sound recording, and design. Additionally, students of scenography, costume design, music, composition, solo singing, and visual arts are welcome to apply.
3. Image + Film = Еcology
Visual Arts Workshop
Students of fine arts, applied arts, and design from the country and abroad
4. Music Production Towards Sound Recycling
Music Production Workshop
Students of art faculties from the country and abroad. You need to know how to work in DAW software for music composition and/or production (Cubase, Nuendo, Logic Pro, Pro tools...), and have a personal computer with installed DAW software and a pair of headphones.
Fee info
EUR 200: The student participation fee €200 covers tuition.
All other expenses – course costs, venue costs, room & board (triple rooms in student dorm, 3 meals per day) for the entire one-week stay, as well as organized bus transportation from Belgrade to Kikinda (venue) – are covered by the Summer Art School.