MigAA – CouchSurfing

July 17th – 21st, 2011. Nida Art Colony, Taikos str. 43, LT-93121 Neringa

Migrating Art Academies (MigAA) project continues with its shaping format – a synthesis of mobility, art and sciences. The CouchSurfing laboratory aims to bring together more than 10 European art universities schools and other cultural organisations to set rules for a cooperation model which will offer emerging artists professional knowledge and feasible mobility. The proposed network of cultural organisations offers a low-budget model for artistic collaboration and tutoring based on “CouchSurfing”, the practice of moving from one friend’s house to another and sleeping in whatever spare space is available.

The CouchSurfing laboratory will reside at the Nida Art Colony quarters on the Baltic coast. Representatives from 13 art universities from 10 European countries: Lithuania, Norway, the United Kingdom, Estonia, France, Germany, Finland, Poland, Sweden and Belgium are all taking part in the project.

More than 20 emerging artists will participate in a 4-day long workshop led by Dr. Matze Schmidt (>top e.V, Berlin). Participants will be introduced to the technics of Streaming Media. The Couch Surfing metaphor is helpful here as it does not address the hotel service, it scores an environment based on hospitality and exchange. A 48 hour long programme for live streaming will complete the workshop.

The two day CouchSurfing seminar will focus on future collaboration among cultural organisations. Around 40 participants will discuss current problematics in art education and inter-disciplinary creative practice. Ideas that emerge from CouchSurfing should become a collaborative model for MigAA partner organisations while discussions on recent crises in art education will outline further theoretical and artistic aims of the project.

Further development of the project looks to implement proposed ideas; representatives of collaborating organisations will offer a list of planned international seminars, workshops and lectures while emerging artists, art students and other creatives will attend proposed events.

The MigAA project is an ongoing aggregate network of participating art academies, people and events. A radical departure from the traditional learning process within bricks-and-mortar, MigAA released a cadre of graduate art students for a series of mobile and located explorations that, literally, spanned Europe, from the Baltic beaches of Lithuania to the Gironde Estuary in France, the Tatras mountains of Slovakia and elsewhere. With public manifestations in Linz, Austria at the prestigious Ars Electronica festival, in Berlin at the Collegium Hungaricum, in Royan, France and numerous other places on the way, the students piloted their Media RVs (recreational vehicles) along the highways and byways of Europe.

Migrating Art Academies CouchSurfing is kindly supported by the Culture Support Foundation of the Republic of Lithuania, the Nordic Culture Point, the Embassy of Sweden in Vilnius and the Embassy of Norway in Vilnius. CouchSurfing is organised by Vilnius Academy of Art in cooperation with Academy of Media Arts Cologne, the Lithuanian German Forum Association in Vilnius, the >top Association in Berlin, the Goethe Institut, and Nida Art Colony in Neringa.

More information:
Website: http://www.migaa.eu
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/migratingartacademies
Contact: Mindaugas Gapševičius, mindaugas@migaa.eu, tel. +49 179 5462260

Download:
MigAA – CouchSurfing – English – pdf
MigAA – CouchSurfing – Deutsch – pdf

 

Programme

17th July 2011
16:00 Prof. Vytautas Landsbergis on Fluxus
18:00 Performance Video-Dinner

18th-21st July 2011
10:00-14:00 Workshop (participants only)

20th July 2011
Live streaming (over internet; follow announcements on the website)
10:00-14:00 Seminar

21st July 2011
Live streaming (over internet; follow announcements on the website)
10:00-14:00 Seminar

Participants

Žilvinas Lilas, Academy of Media Arts Cologne
Susanna Schoenberg, Academy of Media Arts Cologne
Alvydas Lukys, Vilnius Academy of Art
Sarah Kesenne, W&K Sint-Lucas Beeldende Kunst Gent
Raivo Kelomees, Artun Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn
David Butler, Newcastle University, School of Arts & Cultures, Fine Art Department
Alan Smith, Allenheads Contemporary Arts
Harri Laakso, University of Art and Design Helsinki, Pori School of Art and Media
Richard Widerberg, University of Gothenburg, Valand School of Fine Arts
Wolfgang Knapp, Universität der Künste, Institut für Kunst im Kontekst, Berlin
Brandon LaBelle, Bergen National Academy of the Arts
Andrzej P. Florkowski, University of Arts in Poznan
Mindaugas Gapševičius, > top e.V. – a registered association supporting cultural practices
Matze Schmidt, > top e.V. – a registered association supporting cultural practices
Vytautas Michelkevičius, Vilnius Academy of Art, Nida Art Colony
Fiona Flynn, Chelsea College Of Art & Design
Salomėja Sovaitė, Klaipeda University

Participating students

Andrew Wilson, Florian Heinzen-Ziob, Philipp Hamann, Julia Kotowski, Helene Førde, Niilo
Rinne, Mateusz Drabent, Raphael Dupont, Marguarita De Rycke, Arnar Steinn Friðbjarnason,
Liisalotte Elme, Hannes Aasamets, Dalia Mikonytė, Elena Petrėnaitė, Karolina Pronckutė, Šarūnas
Rudys, Agnė Jonynaitė, Daniel Masiulis, Ieva Bernotaitė, Kristina Sinkevičiūtė, Persefoni Myrtsou

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