Austria | Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts 2021 - scholarships available

The Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts invites applications to its programme for 2021. Courses will be held at the Fortress Hohensalzburg (hybrid classrooms), the Fuerstenbrunn Quarry (on site) or as Webinars (online). There are numerous scholarships for artists, curators and writers to participate in one of the courses.

Applications for grants close on 3 May 2021.

Some 80 grants, usually covering participation fees only, are available for participation in one of the classes at the Summer Academy. Additional subsidies for travel and living costs are offered by others.

Teaching artists/curators/critics 2021: Rossella Biscotti (Italy/Belgium), Cäcilia Brown (France/Austria) / Anna Hofbauer (Switzerland/Austria) / Mikkel Holm Torp (Denmark/Italy), Cosmin Costinaş (Romania/Hong Kong) / Inti Guerrero (Colombia/Hong Kong), Anna Daučiková (Slovakia/Czech Republic), Shezad Dawood (United Kingdom), Christina Dimitriadis (Greece/Germany), Louisa Elderton (United Kingdom/Germany) / Klaus Speidel (Germany/Austria), Léuli Eshrãghi (Australia/Canada), Flaka Haliti (Kosovo/Germany), Ho Tzu Nyen (Singapore) with Jan Gerber / Sebastian Lütgert (Germany), Nadira Husain (France/Germany) / Flora Klein (Switzerland/Germany), Leon Kahane (Germany), Wasif Munem (Bangladesh), Christian Nyampeta (Ruanda/USA), Shubigi Rao (Singapore), ruangrupa (Indonesia/Germany), Francis Ruyter (USA/Austria).

At the Academy, instructors translate their practice and research into a pedagogical relationship with participants, in order to explore contemporary art practices in mutually interrogative, personal and persistent ways. Conversations are undertaken with a view toward materializing art-related ideas or transmit them into research and life. The programme reflects current trends in contemporary art such as performance and poetics (Eshrãghi, Nyampeta), VR/AR animation/algorithms (Dawood, Ho), archiving (Kahane, Munem, Ruyter) and collective/community-oriented practices (ruangrupa) as well as methodological approaches to decoloniality (Costinaş/Guerrero, Husain/Klein, Rao), eco-criticism (Biscotti, Haliti) and (queer-) feminism (Daučiková, Dimitriadis) in art.

Detailed descriptions of the individual courses and information on how to apply for courses and the various scholarships are available here.

Why study at Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts?

Founded in 1953 by renowned Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980) as the “Schule des Sehens” (school of seeing), the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts at Hohensalzburg Fortress is the oldest of its kind in Europe. Approximately 20 courses are offered each summer and attended by more than 300 participants from over 50 countries, making the Academy a vibrant venue for international artistic and creative exchange. The Academy offers:

- open application process to anyone interested, no degrees required;

- unique opportunity to study with outstanding international artists, curators, collectives, educators, scholars and writers;

- devote time exclusively to making art or developing ideas while also learning about and reflecting on art and its discourses;

- classes based on one-on-one supervision as well as group discussion;

- stunning historic course environment surrounded by an alpine landscape;

- public programmes with cultural partners in Salzburg and elsewhere;

- access to art literature and magazines.