Free class
Free class is a contemporary art movement that has been widespread in Central and Northern Europe since the 1980s . The first free class was formed in 1987 in Munich; other free classes are occupied in Berlin, Braunschweig, Dublin, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stuttgart, Vienna and Hamburg.
Meaning of the name and goals
The name Free Class refers to the teaching in master classes (departments) that are customary at traditional art academies , which are divided into classes for applied arts (design, media, etc.) and free arts (sculpture, painting). The self-designation of the Free Class by the first Free Class in Munich ironically ironizes this issue and represents a subversive over- affirmation that calls for liberation from the constraints of the master class academy through self-liberation. The naming plays with the conceptual field of class : One of the first photographic works of the free class is called class! Free!
Common to the free classes
- a criticism of the art industry and of the teaching of art schools ,
- the, partly collective, collaboration of its members
- the self-organization of the group's economy.
In contrast to other art movements, free classes do not strive for an aesthetic school , homogeneous theory formation or a special art market representation. The movement is heterogeneous and individual groups are short-lived. Some groups see themselves as the collective author of their works, others as a connection between artistic personalities. The connection to a university is also not continuous.
History of the Free Class
In 1987, students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (including Thomas Demand , Wolfgang Groh, Hermann Hiller , Wilhelm Koch, Gottfried Weber-Jobe, and since 1991 Ralf Homann ) founded the Free Class in Munich as a radical artistic critique of artistic education. A first step was the allocation of space to the academy's vestibule as a classroom and self-organized exhibition space. The Free Class Munich celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2007 with the exhibition The Free Class thinks further in the gallery of artists of the BBK in Munich.
In 1988 the Free Class Munich received the challenge cup of the Free Classes in the then Hochschule der Künste in Berlin at the exhibition Play Off (with Bettina Allamoda, Marius Babias , Maria Eichhorn, Thomas Emde, Andreas Ginkel, Wolfgang Groh, Hans Hemmert, Christoph Hildebrand, Hermann Hiller, Wilhelm Koch, Markus Linnenbrink, Tynne Pollmann, Gottfried Weber, Frank Wiebe, Georg Zey).
In 1989 Gerard Green, Michael O'Cleary, Michael McSweeny, Mick Cleary, Catherine Phillips, Brian McMurphy, Colmn Brannon and others founded the Free Class of Dublin at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin , with a founding party in the wonderfull necessities / riachtanais exhibition iontacha together with the Free Class Munich. The Free Class of Danmark splinter group was founded in Copenhagen in 1990 on the initiative of Dublin .
In 1989 the Free Class Berlin was created as a result of the Play Off exhibition . At Faculty 1 of the HdK (now UdK), students from the former Strautmanis class, the Hrdlicka class and the Tajiri class come together. The rooms of the former Strautmanis class and the Hrdlicka class are occupied as work rooms for the free class. The Free Class Berlin is recognized as an interdisciplinary, student project by the then HdK (now UdK) and made, maintained and passed on to students by students. In this sense, the Freie Klasse Berlin is an institution within the university institution with its own rules, with (self) administration, rooms, equipment and a budget. The free classes in Munich and Dublin continue to see themselves as independent-anarchic contexts.
In 1988/89, in the course of the UniMut strikes at West German and West Berlin universities , free classes spread to other German art universities. The free women's class (including Ana Dimke, Alexandra Gerbaulet, Franziska Wicke) is created at the Braunschweig University of Art and the free performance class at the Berlin University of the Arts .
In 1994, after graduating from college, members of the Free Class Berlin formed class 2 in order to continue using the brand. This would otherwise not be possible due to the institutional embedding of Freie Klasse Berlin in the university.
In 1997 the Free Class of Vienna was established at what was then the University of Applied Arts in Vienna (including Christa Benzer, Sandro Droschl, Andreas Fogarasi, Ulrike Müller).
In 1998, at the invitation of the Munich Free Class, the first international meeting of the Free Classes and other self-organized art collectives took place: The Congress For a Better World - Free Classes of All Countries in the Munich artist workshop Lothringerstraße .
literature
- Free class Munich: The free class thinks ahead , Büro Wilhelm Verlag, Amberg, 2008
- Free class Munich: Free class totally failed , Büro Wilhelm Verlag, Amberg, 2003, ISBN 3-936721-12-2
- Holger Bär, Steffen Schlichter (Ed.): Interim Report No. 1 , Stuttgart 1997
- Ania Corcilius (ed.): Learning from Italy , In Superumbau, Hamburg and New York, 1996
- Free Class Berlin: Free Class Berlin , In Stephan Dillemuth (Ed.) Academy, Cologne, 1995, ISBN 3-931184-00-5
- Free class Munich: early years , Amberg, 1991
- Edition Play-Off: Play Off , Berlin, 1988
Web links
Free film class Braunschweig