From the Studio: Zurich University of the Arts Degree Show MA Fine Arts 2018

From the Studio—this was the title of the annual degree show that recently brought together twenty-three MA Fine Arts graduates. From the Studio had several implications: on one hand, the show presented twenty-one artistic positions, including two collaborative works created in recent months in the studios—at the ZHdK and elsewhere—and visible for the first time in an exhibition context. On the other hand, From the Studio referred to the ways in which artists pursue their work in the studio. The exhibition focused on materials and media, themes, theories, and ideas. From the Studio also meant the moment of movement: from atelier to public sphere.

The studios were cleared out, freshly painted, cleaned. They became spaces with different connotations, spaces in which different rules apply, in which we move differently, in which our eyes are directed differently. Despite bearing occasional traces of the work process on walls or floors, the rooms appeared glistening white at first glance, even as neutralizing “white cubes,” The creations of the twenty-three artists addressed the nature of contemporary artistic work. They negotiated the rules of ZHdK as an art college and sometimes triggered the fire alarm. They broke the neutrality of the white cube exhibition spaces and revealed the struggle between artistic work and work to earn a living. Contributions by the curator and by the exhibiting graduates to a forthcoming MA Fine Arts publication from JRP|Ringier will further reflect these various aspects and dimensions “from the studio.”

Curated by Gioia Dal Molin.

Head of the MFA Program: Dr. phil. Donatella Bernardi

MFA Examination Jury 2018:
Nadia Schneider, Willen-Collection Curator, Migros Museum, Zürich
Jörg Heiser, curator, 2018 Busan Biennale 2018, South Korea; critic, professor, and vice dean, Berlin University of the Arts
Dominique Lämmli, artist and professor, Department Arts & Media, ZHdK
Swetlana Heger, artist and head of department, Department Arts & Media, ZHdK

All photos by Stefan Jäggi.