Study project week for Georgian students from the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts at the BURG Halle
Project period 23.3. - 2.4.2025

Funded by the DAAD and BURG.

An artistic, art and design exchange programme with the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, Georgia, is interesting and future-oriented for Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle.

The programme includes subject-related joint workshops and joint excursions. The Georgian students and lecturers will be in close contact with their German colleagues. In addition, external experts from society, science and art will be involved, including museum directors, curators and employees of the Federal Environment Agency. In small groups, subject-specific content of art studies and art education, the artistic subjects of photography, graphics, sound and film will be taught. The small groups will be brought together on a daily basis to present the formats and project ideas they have developed to each other and to discuss the events to be developed together. Over the course of the week, subject-specific lectures, long film nights, concerts, sound installations, photo presentations and much more will be realised. To this end, content priorities are discussed, organisational skills are practised and specific displays are developed. 

Guests are welcome at public formats - specific programme announcements will follow.

The project is accompanied by Prof. Dr Nike Bätzner, Prof. Dr Sara Burkhardt, Prof. Philip Gaißer, Prof. Paul McDevitt, Prof. Nino Tchogoshvili, Prof. Baia Sikharulidze and Mikael Okropiridze. In collaboration with Dr Jule Reuter.

10 April to 4 May 2025
New Open Call series: The Gallery as a Stage #1_SOUND 
Opening: 9 April 2025

In our new Open Call series ‘The Gallery as a Stage’, we want to draw more attention to the gallery space and its potential and possibilities to function as a stage and show the public art and design from a different perspective. A stage lives from the performance and from the interaction with an audience.

The Open Call ‘The Gallery as a Stage’ will take place in two parts. In 2025, we will focus on sound, sound and the range of hearing in connection with space. 2026 will be about theatre, performance and dance.

In the context of an art academy whose spectrum of teaching ranges from industrial design and fashion to painting and book art, sound or sound are rather accompanying media. However, we have recently noticed that students' involvement with sound has increased, certainly motivated by technological and cultural developments and supported by the expertise of the BURG's excellent recording studio. Many students are also active as musicians, practise field recording or work for the radio. We want to dedicate the exhibition to these and other activities.

The 7-member jury selected 16 positions from the applications:

Katharina Briksi, Constantin Carstens/Paco Grasberger/Janis Binder, Marie Ehrentraut, Katrin Feldbauer, Emil Frederking/Luci Schwingen, Marina Hilken, Luis Kießling, Emilia Imberger/Jack Hilraius Rehse/Lisa-Marie Bünger, Elena Jung, Yannick Kurtz, Lukas Kurz, Nick Nägele in collaboration with Leonie Bogun, Axel Orozco Möhl, Josefine T. Schmidt, Michael Schroller, Carmen Voigt

Curated by Dr Jule Reuter

15 May to 9 June 2025 (Whit Monday)
Nora Mona Bach 
Art Prize of the State of Saxony-Anhalt 2024 
Opening: 14 May 2025

Since 2024, the Art Prize of the State of Saxony-Anhalt has been awarded alternately every two years to a young artist or to honour a life's work. In 2024, Burg alumna Nora Mona Bach was honoured with the prize.

The jury emphasised: ‘Despite using the traditional medium of drawing, Nora Mona Bach positions herself unmistakably in the context of contemporary art. Many of her works look like film stills or blurred shots of crime scenes, of places of remembrance. Against the backdrop of the energy transition, coal as a material has become a political issue and allows for numerous associations, which the artist - who comes from the lignite mining region of Saxony - consciously utilises.’

A large survey exhibition is planned in the Burg Galerie im Volkspark. Nora Mona Bach studied graphic art at the BURG from 2006 to 2012 in the class of Prof Thomas Rug and subsequently completed a postgraduate course with him.

Curated by Dr Jule Reuter.

12 July to 3 August 2025
Take Off 2025 
Meisterschüler*innen of BURG 
Opening: 11 July 2025

Under the title Take Off 2025, the Burg Galerie is showing the exhibition format Take Off for the third time with final works by master students after successfully completing their studies. A documentation will be published after the exhibition.

The presentation will open at the same time as the BURG's annual exhibition on 11 July 2025.

15 October to 9 November 2025
graduiert ≈ präsentiert (graduates ≈ presents) - scholarship holders of the Saxony-Anhalt Graduate Programme 2024 and 2025 
Opening: 14 October 2025

graduiert ≈ präsentiert (graduates ≈ presents) is a recurring biennial format that showcases the results of the Saxony-Anhalt graduate funding programme.

Curated by Dr Jule Reuter.

 20 November to 15 January 2025
KLASSE KLASSE (working title)
Exhibition of the class of Prof. Stella Geppert (sculptural and performative practice)
Opening: 19 November 2025

Current and former students of the class for sculptural and performative practice under the direction of Prof. Stella Geppert are exhibiting for the first time in the Burg Galerie im Volkspark. After 15 years of teaching, the exhibition provides an insight into the diversity of sculptural and performative practice in the class context. Individual artistic positions, collective interventions and exhibition concepts are modelled and in some cases transferred into the space. 

As of: January 2025
 

Art mediation formats

In addition to the conception and realisation of exhibitions, Burg Gallery im Volkspark sees its task as communicating the exhibition ideas and the contemporary art and design positions on display to a wide audience in a variety of ways.

To this end, an extensive accompanying artistic programme is being developed that provides various ways of accessing contemporary art. For example, aspects of artistic work will be examined in discussions with the artists in front of their works, contexts of creation will be illuminated, work contexts will be scrutinised and thematic explorations will be presented. The programme is constantly expanding its formats, also by taking into account the wishes and ideas of the exhibitors and visitors.

The following three focal points I. Actions by artists, II. Dialogue-based art education and III. Discursive events have crystallised and proven themselves in recent years of art education practice.

I. Actions by artists

The concept of an artistic work is constantly changing. Artists often not only work with different media, but also engage with other areas of art such as theatre, literature, music, entertainment and popular culture as well as social and scientific issues.
Artistic works such as performances, but also appearances such as lectures or readings, expand the spectrum of encounters between actors and audiences. In these forums, questions about the conditions of existence of artists and designers, the role of artistic networks and joint actions are also discussed.

• Performances
• Lectures by students and guest artists
• readings
• workshops
• Actions/Interventions

II Dialogue-based art education

In addition to the protagonists, visitors also have their say. We summarise various approaches under the heading of ‘dialogue-based art education’. Artist talks and guided tours are based more on the professional expertise of the mediators. In the art education programme, on the other hand, ideas for participatory forms of exchange are developed and implemented in the exhibitions together with the visitors. This also includes insights into teaching.

• Artist talks before the works
• Guided tours (with curators, professors, etc.)
• Guided tours with students (every Sunday at 3 pm)
• Insights into teaching
• Experimental formats

III Discursive events

Once or twice a year, we organise larger discursive events on relevant issues in art and design. These can be scientific-artistic symposia or panel discussions with representatives from various artistic fields. In this context, we are particularly interested in the type of presentation and exchange of ideas, which can be realised in the form of a controversy or as a creative short form such as a slam or Pecha Kucha.

• Symposia
• (Podium) discussions
• Lectures / keynote speeches
• Audio and film screenings with discussion
• Catalogue presentations

IV. Digital events

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Burg Galerie has also tried out and developed new art education formats. Due to the changed framework conditions, established formats such as artist talks via livestream were transferred to digital. This gave rise to new questions. At the same time, other avenues were explored and initial ideas were realised that incorporate the digital.

New questions have arisen and we are looking for answers to them:

• What does it take to make a sensory experience possible when it means being there without being physically present?
• What does it mean to no longer stand directly in front of the artwork?
• How can forms of dialogue be implemented in digital space?
• How can artistic processes and material handling be conveyed in digital workshops?