Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts’ Berlin Field School offers a broad introduction to Contemporary Arts in Berlin and their critical and theoretical context. Founded in the 12th century, Berlin has been both shaped and divided by history. Today, it is once again the capital of Germany, and is recognized as a global cultural hub; a city where history is intertwined with artistic intervention and innovation, and where international visual art, theatre, music, dance, and film thrive. Over six-weeks, a comprehension of the correspondence between the arts and their social, political, and material context is enriched through simultaneous study, discussion, and experience of art and the urban fabric of this complex city.

Field School Director 2022: Professor Sabine Bitter
Students: Kaila Bhullar, Teresa Donck, Mia Hope, Rebecca Kabesh, Audrey Kerridge, Kevin Kiju Kim, Joni Low, Alexandra McDougall, Carmen Milne, Taya Van Dyke, Samantha Walters, Viviane Wu

This website documents the Berlin Field School 2022 with its focus on artistic practices, which are engaged in urban contexts and collaborations between artists, architects, and activists. Initiatives such as Floating University, Haus der Statistik and Prizessinnengarten add to Berlin’s uniqueness, and offer insights and unexpected possibilities of how to imagine, shape, and produce the contemporary city. These projects serve as examples for an artistic agency that shapes both the cultural spaces and urban fabric of Berlin.
Below you find a list of highlights during our 6 week period.

HIGHLIGHTS BERLIN FIELD SCHOOL

COOPERATION WITH university of COLOGNE

Questions for Learning Spaces

SCA field school students teamed up with students form Cologne and Hamburg in a collaboration through workshops, lectures, and art-based experiments on Questions for Learning Spaces.

trip to exhibition in Kassel

documenta 15

SCA field school attends documenta 15. Taking place every 5 years, 2022's artistic directors, Ruangrupa, are a Jakarta-based artists’ collective that base their values, traditions and ideas on Lumbung.

experimental project at Tempelhof

Floating University

SCA field school students participate in a guided tour of Floating University by Berlin-based architect Rosario Talevi. Seen as a place and concept, this natureculture learning site focuses on interaction, coexistence, and collaboration.

cooperative urban project at Alexanderplatz

Haus der Statistik

SCA field school attends a tour of Haus der Statistik and Haus der Materialisierung, learning about their urban contexts and their recent significance for local artists projects and communities in shaping the city.

Paneltalk at HAU, Hebbel am ufer

Stefano Harney and Fred Moten

SCA field school students attend American activist and scholar Stefano Harney and cultural theorist and scholar Fred Moten’s Q&A facilitated discussion at HAU, engaging with the topic of violence.

trip to Dessau

Bauhaus

SCA field school students partake in a day trip to Dessau, Germany where they had a personal tour at the Bauhaus Museum Dessau with head of the Academy and Deputy Director of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation Regina Bittner.

A divine Comedy at Volksbühne

Florentina Holzinger

SCA field school students attend Austrian choreographer and dancer Florentia Holzinger’s performance A Divine Comedy at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Her eye opening performance left students inspired, queasy, hysterical, emotional and speechless.

artist talk

Heba Y. Amin

SCA field school students gain artistic insight into Egyptian artist Heba Y. Amin’s research-based practice at her solo exhibition When I See the Future I close my Eyes: Chapter II. at Zilberman Gallery, Berlin.

artist talk

Ines Schaber

SCA field school students take part in a conversation with Berlin-based artist Ines Schaber. Her engagement with archives and photographic archival material raises multiple questions of how to read images and what knowledge we gain from them.

artist talk

Stefan Römer

SCA field school students attend a discussion with Berlin-based artist and writer Stefan Römer at nGbK. His interest in new forms of presenting Minimal and Conceptual art combines images, writings, sound, and ecological awareness.

artist talk

Lisa D.

SCA field school students visit fashion designer Lisa D.’s Veränderungsatelier (studio for change) where she housed Bis es mir vom Leibe fällt, (until it falls off my body) that specializes in repairing and redesigning garments in Berlin.

Exhibition at HAU, Hebbel Am Ufer

GOB Squad

SCA field school students attend Gob Squad’s exhibition Elephants in Rooms (2022) where interdisciplinary ideas converge. The space was curated to expand visitors' relationship with technologically produced environments.