STRUCTURE 
The academic year is divided into a winter and a summer semester, with presentation of works and assessments at the end of each semester. Weekly individual studio meetings and less frequent group critiques are accompanied by lectures in theory within the studio; art history lectures and electives are taught separately along with other AVU students. Regular study excursions and lectures including studio visits are a part of the curriculum.

Course annotation for the lecture
Contemporary Art of Václav Magid
This planned two-semester course has been tentatively subtitled “A Critical Theory.” The course’s objective is to introduce students to the basic questions in the debate surrounding the term contemporary art (from the perspective of its historical, formal, and institutional definition) while engaging in a critical interpretation of the concept. In a loose reference to Fredric Jameson, we will look at contemporary art as a “cultural dominant” of the neoliberal era – i.e., as a cultural form that perfectly exemplifies (meaning that it simultaneously embodies and reveals) the contradictions of the global processes of the past four decades. In line with this interpretation, we will date contemporary art as “art after 1977” (Franco Berardi’s “year when the Future ended”), with its peak in the years 1989–2008, followed by a decade of “crisis,” and culminating in debates regarding possible ways of stepping out from under its shadow. In view of the fact that the planned start of instruction is the 2022/2023 school year, the question arises whether, in this post-pandemic period, contemporary art will already be a closed chapter in the history of art.

Course annotation
for Studio Practice of Jiří Kovanda
The teaching method is the absence of a method, for the course will not involve “teaching” in the true sense of the word. Rather, it will involve collaboration on specific things on a purely individual basis. The students will work on what they wish; they will do what they need to do at the moment. There are no assignments, no tasks, no limits regarding content or means. At this stage in their studies, each student should know which direction they want to take, and the teacher’s job is to guide them on this path and act as a source of support. Skills, knowledge, and manual dexterity are like talent – they are not necessary, but merely an advantage. The studio should be an open space for everyone who wants to work in it, regardless of education, social background, religious belief, or political standpoint… We must always realize and emphasize that the essence of art does not lie in skills and knowledge. Even someone with no knowledge or skills can be a good artist – which is purely theoretical, of course, because everybody is capable of something, everybody knows something. Our shared task will be to discover and to reveal things that lie hidden, to identify possibilities overlooked in the practical world, and to make use of these as best as possible, not just in art but in everyday life.

MORE INFO → CURRICULUM

CLASSES 
Theory, Issues in Contemporary Art after 1989, East/Central European Art of 20th and 21st Centuries

Electives
Drawing, graphic techniques, stucco, metal and wood workshop, introduction to 3D and 3D printing, robotics, video postproduction, foreign language 

Requirements
Studio work per semester, 2 (1?) electives per term, diploma project and thesis, exams and final state exam in Art History

Assessment
Semester assessment of studio work based on self-evaluation, group critique