CCA News
Summer Abroad in Berlin
Posted on Monday, January 30, 2012, by Carol Pitts
Berlin Studio
Instructor: Kelli Yon, with April Gertler
August 6–24, 2012
As Germany’s capital city, home to almost three-and-a-half million residents from over 190 nations, and one of Europe’s most vibrant international arts scenes, Berlin is a magnet for artists and scholars worldwide. Its diverse architecture houses renowned universities, research institutes, orchestras, over 50 performance halls, 150 museums, and 700 galleries. Throughout the year, Berlin’s streets are filled with festivals, lively cafes, clubs, and a flourishing street art scene, while in the summer the long days contribute to its dynamic atmosphere.
Berlin Studio is an interdisciplinary opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students to explore their personal work through the lens of different practicing international artists and to be inspired by a rich cultural immersion. Informed by city walks, gallery visits, a film series, studio visits, discussions and critiques, students' personal work and work made during site-specific workshops provide the material for a 24-hour, pop-up exhibition in Berlin at the end of the course. Each week the class visits the studios of artists who live and work in the city. Workshops are structured around the discussions and projects generated by each particular artist.
Depending on the specific disciplines of the students, the following are possible guest artists:
- Lise Harlev, a Danish artist, focuses on public text and the interplay of graffiti.
- Joachim Schmid, a true Berliner, examines the book form and collaborates on a 72-hour project with participants.
- Carla Ahlander, a Swedish/Italian artist, uses Walter Benjamin's book, Berlin Childhood around 1900, as fodder and inspiration for her workshop.
- Filmmaker and curator, Florian Wüst, enriches the students’ cultural understanding of the political and social layers of the city through film.
- Several independent curators make studio visits and introduce students to other curators and gallerists, while also discussing their own curatorial practice in Berlin.
Berlin Studio promotes a cultural and intellectual exchange and allows students to observe and participate in the international art mecca of Berlin. Immersed in the art, music, performance, and culture of Berlin, participants produce as much work as possible while recording and documenting their observations and impressions, using the city as a site of inspiration.
Students live together in shared apartments, equipped with their own kitchens in the neighborhood Mitte, which is central Berlin. Students will be using the Schwartz Contemporary—a gallery space in the bordering neighborhood, affectionately known as KreuzKölln (Kreuzberg and NeuKölln) by locals—as a meeting room and project space.
The workshop culminates in a 24-hour exhibition in Berlin.
Prerequisites
Undergraduates: completion of sophomore level by summer 2012 and instructor approval.
Graduates: instructor approval
In addition all students must be in good academic, conduct, and financial standing for the 2011–12 academic year.
Course Satisfies:
For undergraduates, this course satisfies a Studio Elective, Upper Division Interdisciplinary Studio, or Interdisciplinary Critique.
For graduates, this course satisfies a Grad-wide Elective.
Program Fee
$4,300 + $50 registration fee
Program fee includes:
3 units, housing, workshops with guest artists, field trips
Program fee does not include:
Airfare to and from Berlin, meals, travel insurance, medical or personal insurance (Students MUST provide their own insurance).
About the Instructor
Kelli Yon is a senior adjunct professor at CCA. She has taught throughout the Bay Area for the past 12 years at both graduate and undergraduate levels in the field of media arts.
Yon’s personal practice focuses on photography-based ‘social landscapes’ that investigate spaces where mental states and belief systems directly inform one’s interpretation of place. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally since 1994 in such venues as Haines Gallery and SF Camerawork in San Francisco, Nicolai Fine Art in New York, Blankstudios in England, Secrist Gallery in Chicago, and Blue Sky in Portland.
Yon studied German at the University of Heidelberg as an undergraduate, and received her MFA from CCAC.
April Gertler’s work, consisting of collages, drawings, and photography, has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently in Denmark, France, Germany, and New York. In addition to work published in Camera Austria, Capricious, and Rojo magazine, she recently received a crowd-funding grant to publish her artist book Damp Patches in Paris. Along with her work as a practicing artist, Gertler has also taught photography workshops in Denmark, Tunisia, Turkey, and at CCA.
After studying at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main in 2003, Gertler moved to Berlin where she has been living and working since 2005. Gertler is involved with a number of collaborative projects, including an international critique group with artists and curators as well as an international on-going music exchange project, me2u.
Please make sure you read the related links in full:
Registration
Financial Aid
Passport, Visa, and Insurance
Code of Conduct
In-person registration begins on Thursday, March 1, for all Summer Study Abroad courses. Students should register no later than Friday, March 30. If spots are available in the course after this date, students may still register as long as accommodations have not been finalized.
Interested students should contact Kelli Yon right away to start the approval process for registration.
All CCA Summer Study Abroad courses (including the New Mexico and New York studios) are coordinated by the Office of Special Programs.
Questions
Office of Special Programs
Oakland campus, Ralls 201
Nina Sadek
Dean of Special Programs
510.594.3773
nsadek@cca.edu
Carol Pitts
Assistant to the Dean of Special Programs
510.594.3732
cpitts@cca.edu