Academy

The Alps Art Academy (Aug 25 – Sept 3, 2022) is an international summer academy in the Swiss Alps dedicated to the theme of Land and Environmental Art. With a changing thematic focus the academy takes place every two years at the Berghotel Alpenblick, in Tenna, Safiental (GR), 1650 meters above sea level.

The Alps Art Academy is equally aimed at artists, theoreticians, mediators, and curators, bringing them together to contest and further develop the traditional concept of Land and Environmental Art in the contemporary local Alpine landscape over a 10-day program. The Alps Art Academy creates a platform for proposals for a possible future Land and Environmental Art, which integrates not only landscape, nature and the environment but also history, local society, and politics. – The theme for 2022 is LEARNING FROM THE EARTH.

Learning from the Earth is a call to rethink our relationship with the earth and to critically propose alternatives to current developments and upheavals. Topics such as sustainability, biodiversity and the climate crisis as well as human-animal-plant hierarchy, holism and cosmology are the focus of this year’s academy. Learning from the Earth is a call to action and questions how we can artistically and scientifically shape a more ecologically sustainable and just future.

The program of the Academy consists of practical as well as theoretical modules and includes workshops and seminars, a symposium, field trips, and artist talks as well as a final presentation. While the participants are accompanied in workshops by coaches in their own projects, in the symposium, the seminars, field trips and artist talks they will learn about various aspects of art production in the landscape on the basis of theoretical inputs and case studies. The results produced during the academy will be presented and reflected upon during the course of the Land and Environmental Art Biennial Art Safiental (July 02 – October 23, 2022).

The publication series LANDSCAPE deals with the latest trends in Land and Environmental Art and Public Art, for the Academy and the Symposium it constitutes a reader on the topic. The academy is led by a team of artists, scholars and local and international experts. Participants should apply with a letter of motivation and a project idea, which can be realized while the academy is in session.

Edition 2022: LEARNING FROM THE EARTH
Edition 2020: ANALOG-DIGITAL
Edition 2018: HORIZONTAL-VERTICAL
Edition 2016: NEW LAND ART