Call for applications: Department of Site-Specific Art

The Department of Site-Specific Art invites applicants for its Fine Arts diploma program of the academic year 2025/26.

Site-specific art confronts and explores material locations and sites to study the “spatial manifestations” of the world surrounding us. The practice operates at the interface between art and society and critically investigates places of art production and representation as well as the fields of discourse associated with them. Hence, the program encourages students to develop and realize art works in relation to sites, spaces and locations, ranging from nature and landscapes to architecture, the public space, the exhibition space, the digital space or fictional space.

We provide a field for experimentation, which invites students to explore their individual interests, methods and formats in relation to the given context. We encourage a free and multidisciplinary choice of means and artistic forms of expression, focusing on finding the appropriate method and medium for realization. This can include performance, intervention, installation, sculpture and painting to photography, sound, video or text. The students’ artistic projects are regularly presented in the department’s own exhibition space, in public space, and art institutions.

The program combines individual supervision and group feedback with diverse discussion formats, student-led groups, theoretical seminars, and practical workshops. The broad range of theoretical courses encourages the integration of knowledge and topics that determine our present into discussions and individual artistic practices. This includes discourses on ecology, nature/culture, public space, activism, awareness, queer-feminism, and counter-public as well as digitality and our technological conditions, among others.

What the Department of Site-Specific Art offers:

–A wide range of theoretical and practical courses
–Wood, metal, mold-making, and casting workshops
–Photo, video, and sound workshops
–Writing workshops
–Studio spaces and technical equipment

–Public exhibition space for students
–Students and lecturers from diverse backgrounds

–Individual feedback and group discussions
–Collective projects and group exhibitions
–Field trips, exhibition and studio visits 

–Artist talks, workshops, and round table events with international guests

–Exchange and cooperation with students and faculty members from other departments, e.g. painting, photography, graphic design, sculpture, and media arts

–International study abroad/exchange programs

–Participation in the university’s annual festival

Academic degree: Mag.art. (Magister artium)
Credits: 240 ECTS / Duration: 8 (2 + 6) semesters. Language: German / English. Head of the Program: Paul Petritsch (Six&Petritsch).

How to apply
Admission to the diploma program requires proof of artistic aptitude, which will be assessed as part of the entrance exam. (Application/Entrance exam). This includes the submission of a portfolio in the first round, and practical tasks plus a personal interview in the second round. Zoom interviews are only possible in exceptional cases.

Dates
November 5, 2024: Open house + portfolio consultations (on site)
December 3, 2024: Portfolio consultations via zoom
Online submission January 15–29, 2025
Entrance exam week: February 24–February 28, 2025.

Additional information on the application process can be found here.

Or contact the department’s office for additional information about the program: sitespecificart [​at​] uni-ak.ac.at / T +43 1 71133 2431.