It is difficult to label Tex Rubinowitz. This is not due to the diversity of his occupations – he has a reputation as cartoonist, writer (winner of the Bachmann-Preis 2014), musician (Die Mäuse), and painter – but more because he doesn’t want to fit into the different roles for artists like into a perfectly fitting suit. His works rather obtain their energetic and erratic pulse from sudden turns and odd combinations. 
 

Rubinowitz taught already last year at the Salzburg Summer Academy. His 2017 course "Telling stories" will start from a new angle. Together with the students he will explore how to develop a story. The focus is on text/image relations, which are not illustrative, but keep a narrative moving between both, visual and linguistic expression. If you like to learn more about the artist, you may read his new book „Lass mich nicht allein mit ihr“, that merges autobiographical and fictional elements.

This great introduction is some years old now, but still worth seeing, have a look! 

If you like to sharpen your curatorial ideas, or if you like to become a curator and don’t know where to begin with, attend Diana Campbell Betancourt’s course „Institution-building as curatorial practice“. The american curator based in Manila and Dhaka will share her experiences in how to implement ideas and institutional structures, in contexts where they were rare before. Diana Campbell Betancourt has an excellent global network, among many other activities and positions she is the artistic director of the Samdani Art Foundation in Dhaka and chief curator of the Dhaka Art Summit, which she has developed into the world’s leading research and exhibition platform for art from South Asia. 2016 she was nominated for the ICI Independent Vision Curatorial Award. 

Here she reviews the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2014

And there you find another interview with her. 

We are going to introduce all the teachers of the Summer Academy 2017 in the blog, one by one starting with Michael Beutler, who is well known for his large scale but light and open installations. We are happy and proud having him in Salzburg this year.

Michael Beutler works in situ and uses industrial materials, which he repurposes and reinterprets in modular makeshift constructions with the help of hand-built tools. These tools are often shown alongside his installations as an integral part of the work. His works incorporate the knowledge and skills of those involved in them. The social structure of the team forms acts as a catalyst for the development of the exhibition as a whole. Participants in his course learn to deal with processes of uncertain outcome, which is a productive component of his work. Recent exhibitions were at Spike Island in Bristol in collaboration with Nottingham Contemporary. 2015 he had a big show at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. A lot of images you find here as well.

Video from Haus der Kunst Munich, where Beutler was included in a group show called „Sculptural Acts“ in 2011

all the best for the viewers of the webpage, teachers of the courses, lecturers ... for 2017, come and participate

I’m tired. While climbing up the stairs to the Fortress, I’ve decided to sit on the stairs for a moment and open the small bottle of prosecco that I've bought to celebrate. While having some sips, I've started writing these lines on the notebook full of scratches from the past weeks. Tourists are ascending and descending – I’ve learned to ignore their presence and generated a weird relationship with them, so to say.

In the cocoon like environment of the Academy, I’ve learned not only different approaches to art but also to life. Dilşad, a student from Cappadocia, who has been here from the beginning until the end taking different classes, said that she’d like to find her way with art, which medium to use to go further. During this time, I haven’t found myself in relation to my writing, but my perception has seriously transformed. In a way, this residency helped to throw off the shackles that for some reason prevented me to act upon certain decisions. As a freelance writer in Berlin, from time to time I find myself in a bubble of isolation. Here, the more I’ve interacted with the teachers, students, technicians and the team of the Academy, the more I got influenced to keep pace with my surroundings to create.

During 6 weeks, my emotions were intense. Was it the architecture of the Fortress or all the earnest conversations and connections I've experienced? Besides that, Weltschmerz didn’t let me go as problems in the world keep piling up. To be honest, although I’m extremely happy to go back to Berlin –  writing, working on new deadlines, watching choreographies from Tanz im August, lying on my couch with my dog with a book and cup of tea – a part of me is scared. I don’t know how I shall respond to this transformation I feel in myself, while handling regular acts of daily life... For sure, I’ll be remembering my days in the Academy with all those idiosyncratic beings… Funny enough, I think I’ll even miss the presence of tourists…