Students Participate in "Global Studio Berlin"

Global Studio Berlin is scheduled to coincide with the events of the Berlin Biennale, which is organized by the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. As an immersive contemporary experience, students investigate the nature of this global metropolis, a mecca for artists from all corners of the globe since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The question asked is: Does the post-1989 global art scene as it manifests itself in Berlin overcome its location and defy “nation, ethnic and race thinking,” or does it reflect the Berliner Luft (literally Berlin air, meaning Berlin flair) and display a particular local character already discernible in Berlin’s historic art scenes, or both?

Visits to museums systematically juxtapose the social history surrounding Berlin’s artists and art movements as they traversed the dramatic political upheavals of the 19^th to the late 20^th century with an exploration of Berlin’s contemporary gallery scene. A Day trip to Sanssouci, Fredrick the Great’s summer residence in Potsdam, takes students to the lofty heights of the Baroque period, while a day trip to the concentration camp Sachsenhausen in Oranienburg, visits to the Jewish Memorial and the Jewish Museum in Berlin, and a guided tour of the former East German STASI prison and plunge them into Germany’s topography of terror.