Design and Fine Arts diploma exhibition: Finale 21

It is always considered a highlight of the academic year when the final theses of the Design and Fine Arts students of Bern University of the Arts are publicly displayed and discussed as part of the diploma exhibitions.

Student work from the bachelor’s degree programme in Art and Design and Visual Communication, as well as the master’s degree in Art Education and Design will be on display throughout the various presentation areas located at Fellerstrasse 11. Furthermore, all student work can be viewed on the website finale21.ch. As always, the diploma exhibition of the Bachelor of Fine Arts will be housed in the various rooms of the Kunsthaus Langenthal. Here, the graduates present their work under authentic exhibition conditions, thus making the transition from the more protected school setting to that of the public sphere.

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Two surface areas, which can either be perceived as expansive or limiting, are the available spaces for the Bachelor of Fine Arts students’ diploma exhibition. The first floor of the Kunsthaus Langenthal and the showroom of the former Central Garage are the places where, from an individual but also collective perspective, current possibilities of art are contemplated, and presented to the audience. Creating space when walls are closing in is a shared experience that, when broken down into multiple facets, searches seismographically for opportunities for public speaking and thinking.

This year too, and for the second time now, the diploma graduations were held under the difficult conditions brought on by the pandemic. This meant initially having to live with a sense of unpredictability and inapproachability in the conception of the work, and finally having to make the decision of whether to exhibit it physically or only digitally. This is an artistically fundamental decision, and one which cannot be underestimated, as it affects the production as much as the product. It will be exciting to follow how these experiences will extend into a time that we all hope will come soon: the time after the pandemic.

There would be no final presentations without the help of the many people involved. Many thanks to all of them: first of all to the students for their work, the lecturers involved, the mentors, the responsible programme directors, the assistants, the internal and external jurors, the labs and workshops with all their staff and, last but not least, all the colleagues in the team and in the administration. Thank you very much!