Application deadline: April 1, 2015
Sandberg Instituut
Masters in art and design
Gerrit Rietveld Academie
Fred. Roeskestraat 98
1076 ED Amsterdam
T +31 20 5882400
[email protected]
In September 2015 the Sandberg Instituut launches two new temporary Master’s programmes: Fashion Matters and Materialisation in Art and Design (MAD). Permanent departments include Critical Studies, Design, Dirty Art department, Fine Arts and Studio for Immediate Spaces. More information and the online application can be found here.
New temporary Master’s programmes
Fashion Matters
Course director: Christophe Coppens
Coordinator: Martine Zoeteman
Tutors and guests: Anne Marie Commandeur, Pieter van Bogaert and others to be announced.
The new temporary Master’s programme “Fashion Matters” will be directed by LA-based, Belgian-born artist Christophe Coppens. Innovation—in technology, material use and craftsmanship—is at the cornerstone of this course. This is why students will collaborate closely with organisations where innovation and experiment are central, such as G-Star, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, TextielLab, Wageningen University, CLICK-Next Fashion and Fashion Council NL. The course challenges students to rethink the current fast-paced and at times wasteful fashion model. Fashion Matters is looking for ambitious and independently working designers and artists. A background in fashion or expertise in affiliated fields is required. We are looking for designers who want to research and re-define their possible role in the fashion world today, based on previous studies or first experiences in the field. What do you stand for? How will you make a difference? How do you see the future of fashion? And how will you be part of it?
Materialisation in Art and Design
Course director: Herman Verkerk
Coordinator: Linde Dorenbosch
Tutors and guests: Maurizio Montalti, Jens Pfeifer, Alexander van Slobbe, Marjan van Aubel, Pascale Gatzen and others to be announced.
This new temporary programme is both a continuation and a disruption of Material Utopias (MU), the Master’s course that started in 2013 and which will end in June 2015. Materialisation in Art and Design (MAD) aims to create a strong link between experimenting with various materials and media, and the development of ideas. Materials and techniques—both traditional and modern—carry a wealth of characteristics. In addition to their physical possibilities, their diverse cultural and historical references are of great potential for the artist or designer. Materialisation could be intended as the process originating from materials’ performativity. Within this framework, MAD challenges the conventional hierarchy between “concept” and “making” and “content” and “process” by making the material expression of works paramount. Throughout the programme students will explore different working methods, including building temporary constructions and installations, working with and observing new (bio-)materials transforming over time, and improvising through trial and error, allowing failures to turn into inspiring discoveries.
Permanent departments
Critical Studies
Course director: Tom Vandeputte
Coordinator: Laura Pappa
Tutors and guests: Amelia Groom, Ellen Feiss, Fatima Hellberg, Jan Verwoert, Joost de Bloois, Pieternel Vermoortel, Vivian Ziherl; Binna Choi, Simon Sheikh, Brian Holmes, Sven Lütticken, Mike Sperlinger, Maria Fusco, Mark Leckey, Hito Steyerl, Marina Vishmidt and others.
Critical Studies is a two-year postgraduate programme in research and theory. It offers an open, interdisciplinary environment for the development of an independent research practice, while providing a rigorous grounding in critical theory, research methods and writing techniques. The programme supports forms of inquiry and study which are at odds with a traditional academic context, including practice-led research and other exchanges between artistic practice, research and writing. We welcome applicants from a range of backgrounds, including artists, curators, designers, writers, editors, theorists, educators and cultural practitioners.
Design
Course director: Annelys de Vet
Coordinator: Femke Dekker
Tutors: Nikki Brörmann, Agata Jaworska, Dimitri Nieuwenhuizen, Rob Schröder, Daniel van der Velden and others.
With a selfless, committed, curious, serious, humorous and above all hazardous mentality, plus a wide diversity of tools, the Design department offers a frame for survival in our fluid future. The programme works as a think tank for visual strategies where Master’s students solidify their social, political and technological observations into research-based design projects. With a strong radar for social change, they touch upon the contradictions of contemporary society. And after two years they graduate as investigative designers, critical optimists, generous collaborators, contagious initiators, natural cyber-pets, eternal students, storytellers, friends, lovers or fighters.
Dirty Art department
Course director: Jerszy Seymour
Co-director: Catherine Geel
Coordinator: Sjoerd ter Borg
Tutors and guests: Saâdane Afif, Noam Toran, Florence Parot, Guillaume Dupetit, Michael Beutler, Parking Club, Fabien Vallos, Provost&DeNicolai, Ulay, Martin Heller, Tim Ivison, Delphine Bedel, Daniel Dewar, Nathaniel Mellors, Rotor, Melanie Bonajo and others.
Although the Dirty Art department comes from a background of applied art/design and flirts with the world of the pure, its goal is the creation of singular practices that can challenge our reality and have the potential to create new contexts and new inhabitations of the planet, be that in art, design or… pizza-making. The department supports students to develop strong singular practices with a relationship to the world “zeit” through deep reflection and analysis as well as its consequence in action and realisation. With a strong theoretical agenda, dangerous attempts and spectacular failures in practice are promoted. We welcome students from all backgrounds, including designers, artists, bankers, sceptics, optimists, economists, philosophers, independent thinkers, poets, farmers, anarchists and the curious… see you.
Fine Arts
Course directors: Krist Gruijthuijsen, Maxine Kopsa
Coordinator: Judith Leysner
Tutors: Gintaras Didziapetris, Nicoline van Harskamp, Lucy Skaer, Jeroen Boomgaard, Aaron Schuster, Raimundas Malasauskas, Jason Dodge and others.
Sandberg Instituut’s Fine Arts department retains a focus on autonomy and making, while addressing the social and economic roles of art production. The programme structurally redefines conventional notions of artistic labor in three open modules: Language, Image and Play/Object. A main tutor develops the curriculum of each of these modules over the course of two years. Throughout this period, the Sandberg Instituut functions as a base, while encouraging each programme to modify and manifest itself both internally and externally. We are looking for eager, active, and ambitious students, authentic makers and thinkers who are willing to reflect fundamentally on their work. A sound background in art or expertise in affiliated fields is required.
Studio for Immediate Spaces
Course director: Anne Holtrop
Coordinator: Hélène Webers
Tutors: Lionel Devlieger and Tristan Boniver, Elise van Mourik and Laure Jaffuel, Nicholas Lobo Brennan, Hanne Hagenaars, Tom Vandeputte, Margaret Tali and others.
The Studio for Immediate Spaces sets out to actively rethink and expand the field of interior architecture and explore its immediate boundaries. In doing so, ‘space’ is understood in any way. Whether it concerns physical spaces or imaginary ones, temporary situations or political outlines, whether we deal with a site or a mind-set, it is the common interest of the Studio and its participants to explore those possible spaces and find ways to open them up. We welcome participants from various backgrounds, including design, architecture, performance arts, fine arts, marketing and sociology.
About Sandberg Instituut
As the postgraduate department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam, the Sandberg Instituut offers Master’s programmes in Fine Arts (MFA), Interior Architecture (MIA), Applied Art (MAA) and Design (MDes). The institute was established in 1990 by former Rietveld director Simon den Hartog, and developed into a fully recognised educational institution with several Master’s programmes by its first director, Jos Houweling. Jurgen Bey, Director since 2010, looked for a way to align the institute with the dynamic of contemporary society. He introduced temporary, two-year programmes developed around the urgent issues of our time such as vacancy, art and healthcare, political spatial design. Whereas the temporary programmes reflect on situations with a sense of urgency, the main departments aim to deepen the practices of artists, designers and critics.
