COURSE SYLLABUS 1st Sem.

2nd Sem.  3rd Sem.  4th Sem.  5th Sem.  6th Sem. 7th Sem.

8th Sem. 9th Sem. 10th Sem.

 

1) Studio description

In the 5th (E’) Painting Studio, we explore contemporary art practices with an emphasis on experimentation and various techniques oriented toward research.

One of our main focuses is bridging the characteristics of design and art since the mid-19th century, with the Arts and Crafts movement serving as a starting point for a journey through creative production and the media that have been employed up to the present day.

At the same time, a methodology of use and action within the field of colour is followed, with references to contemporary artistic practices from around the world.

Students are also encouraged to draw inspiration from poetry, literature, and cinema, while priority is given to both innovative and traditional techniques of design, as well as two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms of artistic production. The educational process unfolds through progressive stages of exploring the artistic work and linking it to contemporary social concerns.

In addition, broader use of practices such as prototyping -originally an experimental process in the field of industrial design- serves as a starting point for developing and refining each student’s personal visual vocabulary. Through experimental technical workshops and presentations of other artistic practices, students are assigned projects based on different themes each semester for further exploration.

 

 

2) Studio Schedule

The studio operates daily from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., with weekly meetings held between the students and the studio director and professor.

 

1st and 2nd semester

 

• Design exercises
• Plastic arts exercises
• Study and development of scale
• Experimental workshops in technical applications
• Presentations and development of thematic units/exercises
• Visits to art exhibitions

 

During the first two semesters, students engage in foundational exercises focused on the development of drawing and visual language. A key component of the programme is encouraging students to explore the studio space using new materials and to experiment with variations in scale. Scheduled presentations and visits to art exhibitions contribute to fostering the necessary relationship of collaboration and feedback.

 

3rd and 4th semester

 

• Thematic exercises
• Colour exercises
• Experimental workshops in technical applications
• Research on artistic practices with theoretical support/ artistic sources
• Presentations of thematic units/ artistic applications
• Visits to art exhibitions

 

Each semester, students are assigned thematic exercises and take part in experimental workshops aimed at exploring both new and traditional techniques. They are encouraged to investigate foundational artistic sources, which -when accompanied by their own oral commentary- serve as personal reference points and contribute to the development of their individual visual language. Through a weekly schedule of presentations and visits to art exhibitions, the necessary framework of collaboration and feedback is cultivated.

 

5th and 6th semester

 

• Professional development of artistic research
• Preparation of the theoretical support framework for improving personal work
• Individual tutorials
• Group discussions
• Development of critical analysis
• Artist visits

 

In the 3rd year (5th and 6th semester), students begin to develop their personal artistic research. Through a series of scheduled visits by established artists, they develop and document their visual language, while critical thinking is sharpened through group discussions and visits to art exhibitions. Individual tutorials with the supervising professor assist in the search for sources and the improvement of the visual/plastic language.

 

7th and 8th semester

 

• Teaching and theoretical support techniques
• Development of artistic practice
• Preparation for future artistic career
• Individual tutorials
• Group discussions

 

Students receive instruction in methods for the theoretical support of their artistic practice, while continuing to develop and refine their creative work. Through structured seminars and targeted exercises in digital organisation and presentation, they are equipped with essential tools for their future professional artistic careers. One-on-one meetings with the supervising professor and studio collaborators aim to deepen the connection between form and content in each student’s individual project. Meanwhile, group discussions foster a dynamic environment of constructive critique and creative exchange.

 

9th and 10th semester

 

• Thesis project implementation
• Theoretical documentation
• Individual tutorials
• Group feedback

 

Students are required to design and develop the theoretical foundation of their thesis project. The completion and realisation of their personal work is discreetly supported by the studio’s supervising professor and collaborators.

 

The annual studio programme includes the course “Anti-Monument and Art in the Public Sphere”, taught in 2022 by Katerina Botsari. The course explores the observation of urban and peri-urban landscapes, as well as the potential for collective actions to serve as a starting point for a series of presentations and discussions. The process of exploring marginal or uncertain spaces redefines the boundaries and uses of the commons encountered in transient public space.

 

Through exercises involving both collaborative and individual approaches, students are encouraged to engage actively and meaningfully with issues concerning the community, as well as with the dynamics of forming an artistic collective. Weekly presentations focus on artist movements that have emerged in urban environments and inhabited cityscapes. Emphasis is placed on understanding public space as a common good, and both collective and individual visual art interventions are proposed as creative responses.

During the course of studies, collaborations with cultural institutions are carried out with the aim of organising group exhibitions or presentations of students’ work.

 

3) Studio professors and collaborators

Yiannis Skaltsas, Associate Professor, Studio director

Katerina Botsari, PhD Candidate, University Scholar

 

4) Short CVs

Yiannis Skaltsas was born in Crimmitschau, Germany. He is a visual artist and Professor of Painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA). He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts and pursued supplementary studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York and the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich. He has held solo exhibitions and participated in more than 80 group exhibitions in Greece and abroad. He teaches and coordinates the module “3D Technologies in the Documentation and Restoration of Artworks” in the Lifelong Learning Programme of the Department of Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art at the University of West Attica. He served as ASFA’s project coordinator for the implementation of the STAY IN TOUCH programme and is a member of ARTICON, the Research Laboratory for Advanced Interdisciplinary Applications in the Conservation and Promotion of Visual Artworks and Archival Materials at the School of Fine Arts of the former TEI of Athens.

He also served as supervising professor for the implementation of the project Survival Kit 2014–2016, a collaboration between the Academy of Fine Arts Munich and ASFA, carried out under the DAAD programme Cooperation with Greek Institutions of Higher Education 2014–2016. As part of this initiative, the Circuits and Currents Project Space of ASFA was established and remains active to this day. Yiannis Skaltsas lives and works in Athens.

 

Katerina Botsari (b. 1980, Patras) studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA) and went on to complete a Master’s degree in Painting at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London (UCL). She taught at the Heatherley School of Fine Art in London until 2012. She is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Visual Arts at ASFA. Her research focuses on art in the public sphere and the anti-monumentality of billboard structures in the urban and peri-urban landscape of Athens. She has held solo exhibitions in London and Athens and has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Greece and abroad. She has designed the research project Materia Prima and the educational programme Ambivalent Grounds, both supported by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. She is also a founding member of Backspace, an experimental space that curates artistic actions engaging with the commons. She has curated several group exhibitions, including BOOBS – The Semiotics of the Breast at TAF (The Art Foundation), Athens. She has participated in artist-in-residence programmes such as TOR26 at Güterbahnhof (Bremen), Maison Maca (Athens), and the Florence Trust (London). She represented Greece at the 4th International Student Triennial in Istanbul and has been awarded an honorary distinction by the Greek State Scholarship Foundation (IKY).
Katerina lives and works in Athens.

www.katerinabotsari.com

 

5) Activities

As part of the course “The Anti-Monument and Art in Public Space” the artistic collective ASFALESS was formed in collaboration with PhD candidate Paraskevi Tektonidou, with the aim of organising collective artistic actions in public space

Presentations and Meetings – 2nd Semester 2022

 

 Monday, 14 March 2022

• Cabinets of curiosities/ The Practice of Artistic Collecting

Monday, 21 March 2022

• Flash Mob
• Collaborative artistic practices / Array Collective, B.O.S.S., Gentle/Radical, Project Art Works, Cooking Sections

Monday, 28 March 2022

• Practices of wandering in art: from Baudelaire’s flâneur to Francis Alÿs.

Wednesday, 30 March 2022

• Student meeting within the framework of the collective group “ASFA-less”

Monday, 11 April 2022

• Borderlands, Art 21

Wednesday, 13 April 2022

• Phyllida Barlow

Wednesday, 4 May 2022

• Student meeting within the framework of the collective group  “ASFA-less”

Monday, 9 May 2022

• Repurposing space: Aldo Van Eyck, Jenifer Bolande, Martin Kippemberger

Wednesday, 11 May 2022

• Student meeting within the framework of the collective group “ASFA-less”

Monday, 16 May 2022

• First collective public action by “ASFA-less”
• Α3, Autobus actionist Exhibition, Zagreb 1972, http://tranzit.org/exhibitionarchive/autobus-a3-action-and-anonymous-attraction/

Wednesday, 18 May 2022

• Student meeting within the framework of the collective group “ASFA-less”

 Monday, 23 May 2022

• Street and wall as tools of transformation: New Babylon, Superstudio, Borderwall,

Wednesday, 25 May 2022

• Student meeting within the framework of the collective group “ASFA-less”

Monday, 30 May 2022

• Audio walks , Janet Gardiff

Monday, 6 June 2022

• Terrestrial Records

Wednesday, 8 June 2022

• Student meeting within the framework of the collective group “ASFA-less”

Monday, 13 June 2022

• Gordon Matta Clark, Nancy Holt (land art), Walter De Maria

Wednesday, 15 June 2022

• Student meeting within the framework of the collective group “ASFA-less”

Monday, 20 June 2022

• The case of Luther Blissett