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Studio A1 - SPACE

Semester 1 · 97117 · Bachelor in Design and Art - Major in Art · 19CP · IT · EN · DE


The course conveys the fundamentals, specificities, working methods and theories of space and installation art, with a focus on the use of materials in the context of artistic space.

Lecturers: Andreas Bernhard Josef Metzner-Szigeth, Luca Trevisani

Teaching Hours: 90+60+30
Lab Hours: 0
Mandatory Attendance: not compulsory but recommended

Course Topics
This studio investigates sculpture as the production of situations rather than objects. Moving beyond conventional notions of permanence and materiality, the course explores air, water, traces, residues, copies, fragile materials and atmospheric phenomena as sculptural agents. The course proposes a shift from sculpture understood as the fabrication of stable forms towards sculpture as an ecology of relations, temporal processes and shared environments. Air and water are approached as common, circulating, and uncontainable materials, while disappearance, erosion, memory and transformation become operative tools for artistic production. Throughout the semester students engage in practical experiments, readings, collective discussions and individual research, developing works that privilege process, perception and material intelligence over finished objects. The studio combines artistic practice with references drawn from philosophy, literature, ecology and contemporary art. Space understood as a place: space as a container, as an arena, as a backdrop, as a self-representational diorama. Matter as a mother, as a resource for an authorial economy of scale. Sculpture as sensory wisdom, understood as a rich, multifaceted, and polymorphic practice, far removed from the reductionism perpetrated by Western art history. Particular attention will be paid to the construction of new hierarchies of value, addressing issues of gender, class, and artistic genres. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Propaedeutic courses
To have passed the WUP project and all the WUP courses; to have certified the language level proficiency B1 in the course language in years following the first.

Teaching format
The program adopts a seminar-based approach, centered on shared readings, group discussions, individual assignments, and personalized feedback. Short lectures and group exercises support the development of independent practices. The program culminates in a final project, developed using materials and tools sourced locally, outside the framework of industrial technology. The program includes fieldwork, a critical reinterpretation of existing traditions, and experimentation with alternative forms of knowledge and production.

Educational objectives
Knowledge and understanding have acquired their own project methodology in the field of visual arts, from the phase of planning to the phase of realisation of the project. have acquired the basic practical and theoretical knowledge necessary to realise a project in the field of visual arts. have acquired the basic knowledge to be able to turn a critical eye to their own work and to deal with contemporary complexity. have acquired the basic knowledge necessary for further Master's studies in all components of project culture as well as in theoretical subjects. Applying knowledge and understanding plan, develop and realise a project in the field of visual arts. be able to finalize the creation of an accomplished project in the field of visual arts, thanks to the basic knowledge acquired in the practical, scientific and theoretical fields. recognise the main phenomena of contemporary society, to observe them critically, also from an ethical and social point of view, and to elaborate appropriate solutions at the level of a design proposal/response. make use of the skills acquired during the course of study in the event of continuing studies in a Master's degree programme in the field of visual arts and to develop them further. Making judgements be able to make independent judgements for the purpose of developing their own design skills and in relation to all those decisions that are necessary to bring a project to completion. be able to make independent judgements, both in the critical evaluation of their own work and in their ability to use the right interpretative tools in those design contexts in which they will work and/or continue their studies, also considering ethical and social aspects. Communication skills present an independently realised project in the field of visual arts in the form of an installation, orally as well as in writing in a professional manner. to professionally communicate and substantiate one’s own decisions and justify them from a formal and theoretical point of view. communicate and present your own project at a professional level in another language and correctly in a third language in addition to their own language Learning skills have learned a work methodology at a professional level - in the sense of being able to identify, develop and realise solutions to complex problems by applying the knowledge acquired in the practical and theoretical fields - in order to start a professional activity and/or continue their studies with a master's degree program. have developed a creative attitude and learned how to enhance it and develop it according to their own inclinations. have acquired basic knowledge in theoretical and practical subjects as well as a study methodology suitable for continuing studies with a master's degree program.

Assessment
Grades will be based on the quality of the final paper, active participation, oral presentations, and/or written reports submitted during the course, as well as on the documentation of the semester-long work completed by the students. PLEASE NOTE: ALL STUDENTS WHO INTEND TO TAKE THE EXAMINATION AS NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS MUST AGREE ON THE EXAMINATION SYLLABUS WITH THE COURSE INSTRUCTORS IN ADVANCE.

Evaluation criteria
The final assessment will take into consideration students’ active participation in lectures, their ability to critically analyse the topics discussed and the case studies presented, as well as their capacity for thoughtful reflection on their own work and on the work of the group. Assessment will also consider the ability to communicate ideas clearly and effectively, the coherence and clarity of written reports and oral presentations, the capacity for synthesis, evaluation, and establishing connections between the different themes addressed throughout the course, as well as the ability to collaborate and engage in critical dialogue with diverse perspectives. Particular attention will be given to the clarity and effectiveness in responding to questions concerning the submitted work and to the quality of the presentation of the achieved results.

Required readings

Giorgio Agamben, The Open

Gaston Bachelard, Water and Dreams

Lucy R. Lippard, Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object

Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Visible and the Invisible

Tim Ingold, The Life of Lines

Daniele Del Giudice, Staccando l'ombra da terra

Clarice Lispector, The Passion According to G.H.

Virginia Woolf, The Waves

Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener

Franz Kafka, selected stories




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Sustainable Development Goals
This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the following Sustainable Development Goals.

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Modules

Semester 1 · 97117A · Bachelor in Design and Art - Major in Art · 8CP · IT

Module A — Spaces and their production

The course should provide fundamentals, skills, working methods, theories and practices of Spacial Art and Installation, with a particular focus on integration with the second subject “Material sciences and their use in an artistic space contest”.

Lecturers: Luca Trevisani

Teaching Hours: 90
Lab Hours: 0

Course Topics
This studio investigates sculpture as the production of situations rather than objects. Moving beyond conventional notions of permanence and materiality, the course explores air, water, traces, residues, copies, fragile materials and atmospheric phenomena as sculptural agents. The course proposes a shift from sculpture understood as the fabrication of stable forms towards sculpture as an ecology of relations, temporal processes and shared environments. Air and water are approached as common, circulating, and uncontainable materials, while disappearance, erosion, memory and transformation become operative tools for artistic production. Throughout the semester students engage in practical experiments, readings, collective discussions and individual research, developing works that privilege process, perception and material intelligence over finished objects. The studio combines artistic practice with references drawn from philosophy, literature, ecology and contemporary art.

Teaching format
The programme adopts a seminar-based approach, centred on shared readings, group discussions, individual assignments and personalised feedback. Short lectures and group exercises support the development of independent practice. The course culminates in a final project, developed using materials and tools sourced locally, outside the framework of industrial technology. The programme involves fieldwork, a critical reinterpretation of existing traditions and experimentation with alternative forms of knowledge and production.

Required readings

Daniele Del Giudice, Staccando l'ombra da terra.

Daniele Del Giudice, Atlante occidentale.

Daniele Del Giudice, Nel museo di Reims.

Clarice Lispector, La passione secondo G.H.

Virginia Woolf, Le onde.

Herman Melville, Bartleby lo scrivano.

Franz Kafka, Un artista del digiuno.

Han Kang, La vegetariana.

W.G. Sebald, Gli anelli di Saturno.



Supplementary readings

Eva Franch i Gilabert, Mireia Luzárraga, Alejandro Muiño (eds.)

100 Words for Water, A Projective Ecosocial Vocabulary, Lars Muller, 2025

Bruno Munari, Arte come mestiere. Laterza.

Bruno Munari, Da cosa nasce cosa. Laterza.

Bruno Munari, Codice ovvio. Einaudi.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Fenomenologia della percezione.

Gaston Bachelard, L'acqua e i sogni.

Gaston Bachelard, La poetica dello spazio.

David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous.

Tim Ingold, The Life of Lines.

Tim Ingold, Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture.

Tim Ingold, Being Alive.



Semester 1 · 97117B · Bachelor in Design and Art - Major in Art · 6CP · EN

Module B — Material sciences and their use in an artistic space contest

The course should provide through historical and contemporary examples, the use of different materials used in artistic production, with the possibility of expanding the term 'material' also in a political sense.

Teaching Hours: 60
Lab Hours: 0

Semester 1 · 97117C · Bachelor in Design and Art - Major in Art · 5CP · DE

Module C — Sociology of space

Il modulo integrato “Sociologia dello spazio” trasmette specifici punti di vista della disciplina oggetto del bando, tenendo conto dei particolari processi di realizzazione di progetti artistici. Ciò riguarda principalmente i modelli di appropriazione socio-culturale e di riproduzione dello spazio, lo sviluppo delle società moderne e il modo in cui esse modellano la dialettica tra il “globale” e il “locale”, così come le riconfigurazioni mediatizzate dello spazio, del tempo e le nostre percezioni degli ambienti virtuali e materiali.

Lecturers: Andreas Bernhard Josef Metzner-Szigeth

Teaching Hours: 30
Lab Hours: 0

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