"Transgressing boundaries" is the motto of the 2018 course programme. 18 courses – 17 in Hohensalzburg Fortress and one in the Kiefer quarry in Fürstenbrunn – take diverse approaches to topical questions of art production

"Transgressing boundaries" includes political and social topics as well as questions concerning art. Art in the global field means that both art-works and people are constantly in motion worldwide, crossing borders, transgressing boundaries. In respect of artistic production, the participants transgress not only, as they have long done, the boundaries    between genres, thus progressing, for instance, from painting to sound (Ei Arakawa), from performance to installation (Yorgos Sapountzis), or from photography to film and video (Emeka Okereke). Participants attend the Summer Academy also in order to transgress their own artistic boundaries, to discover and conquer new terrains for themselves. Communication within the diverse mixture of participants demands that each should keep exploring his/her boundaries and be ready to transgress them.

In some courses, the current socio-political situation, in which national borders have once more come to play an important role, will be explicitly addressed; in others, it will be considered more metaphorically. Photographer Ahlam Shibli shows us in her work a highly complex and multi-faceted exploration of the question of demarcation and transgressing boundaries – often addressing the question of what the term "home" can signify for Palestinians. Her course, which takes a far more comprehensive view of the topic, focuses on The notion of home, a theme frequently associated – particularly in recent times – with (re-)erecting borders.  In Emeka Okereke's course Exploring a void, participants will consider the post-colonial concept of hybridity, which implies that diverse, originally separate materials (concepts) may be mixed to form something new. In Portraiture/animism, on the other hand, Caroline Achaintre pursues the question of how objects (can) become animate – that is, transgress the boundary between "dead" object and "living" subject, and Ei Arakawa lets paintings sing. With Yorgos Sapountzis, performative exercises/acts will give rise to sculptures and installations, Hubert Scheibl takes a film as the starting-point for image-finding in painting, and Till Megerle explores the possibilities offered by drawing, and how boundaries between "high" and "low" art are blurred. The following courses concentrate more on specific, sometimes time-honoured techniques: Aisha Khalid in Miniature painting – technique and beyond, Mark Van Yetter in painting, Andreas Lolis in stone sculpture, Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair in many different printing techniques, Ciara Phillips in screen-printing, and Jakob Kolding in the technique of collage. Finally, Tony Chakar and his students roam "incuriously" through the town.

In addition, 2018 offers two courses on curatorial theory and practice: Diana Campbell Betancourt deals, under analysis and scrutiny, with large-scale exhibitions in the 21st century, and Ruth Noack looks at the potential of form to resist.

Martin Herbert teaches writing about contemporary art; Sabrina Steinek and Sabine B. Vogel show participants how to write and run an art blog and how to target readers. 

Detailed course descriptions and biographies of the teaching artists, curators and writers are available at: http://www.summeracademy.at/COURSES-2018_230.html

Application, grants, deadlines, fees
Course fees are between € 450 and € 1,200, depending on duration. Some 80 grants will be awarded. Applications for grants should be submitted (online only) by 3 April 2018. 
Details: www.summeracademy.at/grants

All applications received by 2 May 2018 will be treated equally. Later applications are welcome, and will be processed in the order received, according to vacancies in the courses.
Details: www.summeracademy.at/application