Happy to present to you ...
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Happy to present to you… marks the start of the newly founded multifunctional exhibition space “spce” at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts. From 13 to 23 July, the art academy will present itself in all its artistic-academic breadth.
An art academy is a heterogeneous entity. Founded in 1907 as the Städtische Handwerker- und Kunstgewerbeschule, Muthesius was recognised as an art academy in 2005, making it the youngest of its kind in Germany despite a history of more than 100 years. But what is an art academy?
Starting from the individual departments and their specific competences and requirements regarding the basic question of how to show oneself, how to appear in public, spce | Muthesius engages in dialogue, both internally and externally. What happens in terms of aesthetic-artistic production through the simple task of presenting one's "work"? And what happens in this special moment, the act of exhibiting, of showing?
Centrally located in Kiel's city centre at Andreas-Gayk-Strasse 7-11, spce | Muthesius forms a sounding board that resonates both within the university and very specifically to the outside. Impulses from the university from all areas of design, artistic and scientific research are taken up, are reinforced through the act of exhibiting, and are opened up to both a local and (inter)national audience.
Happy to present to you... is not just the title of the opening event, rather it reflects the fundamental approach of spce, as well as an ongoing question – one that cannot merely be negotiated within a short period of time, but repeatedly: What kind of place of production is an art academy when it concerns socially relevant questions, and how can it be presented and opened up using various forms of publicity, analogue as well as digital.