“I do not go to work, I go to make love with the material” is one of the first statements Andreas Lolis shared with the audience, setting the tone of his talk last Saturday. Packed with people, the small living room of the stone sculpture class felt rather cozy, as the lecturer continued to tell about his practice. Known for sculptures that mimic cardboard boxes, wooden pallets and other types of disposable packaging materials all crafted in stone, Lolis transforms an ancient sculpting practice in a completely contemporary manner. His work is conceptual, environmentally conscious and fresh, while the stone gives it a timeless quality. Interestingly, all of the shapes he creates come out of his imagination, as a result of thousands of preparatory sketches and plans.

After the talk, Andreas and I chatted about his class at the Summer Academy and about the stone. One of the chief impressions I’ve taken with me is the strength of his attitude and determination as if they were made of clean, polished marble.

This year marks the second teaching experience for Andreas Lolis, with some of the students following him since last year. “Maybe I will be here also for the third time, but I don’t know yet. We’ll see,” said the artist, possibly revealing some of the plans for next year.

The stone sculpture course takes four weeks and it’s the longest lasting course at the Summer Academy. When I asked if that were enough time for students to finish a piece, the answer was clear: “No. It’s not enough.” Although some works are nearly done, the whole class had little luck with the weather, as the Salzburger side of Untersberg was rather rainy in the previous month. This, naturally, makes the outdoor-based work harder than it ought to be.

I was curious to know with what thoughts does Lolis approach teaching this course, knowing that four weeks is unlikely enough time for it. “I hope that they will leave happier than they were at the beginning. And I like to see the excitement on the student’s faces, as they look forward to coming back next year,” he said, mentioning that he already serves as a mentor to some of the attendees. Following his footsteps, the younger sculptors tend to learn, but as their teacher says - never to copy, as they all have their own styles.

The artist’s talk was embellished by two stone pieces completed at Kifer Steinbruch, one in Untersberg marble, one in marble Lolis brought from Greece. I wondered if they are comparable. “No, there is no reason to compare them,” the artist said, “because I’m not working with the material, I’m working with the feeling.”

At the end, I inquired why he chose the stone. To be truthful, similar installations can be executed in different materials, although the stone carries a strong historical subtext.

“The stone chose me,” said Andreas Lolis right off the bat, adding that no matter how often he would pose the same question to himself, the answer evades him. We can perhaps speculate that it’s a genetic attracting since the artist’s father and brother both work with the stone, but the firm conclusion to this idea has somehow slipped through the cracks in the stone.

***

Scroll down for a set of images from the quarry tour and enjoy a small portion of the beauty that Kiefer Steinbruch offers. It's a magical place.

Ana

A piece by Andreas Lolis

 

Goodbye, quarry!

Week number 4 at the Summer Academy hosted a very dynamic class in institution building led by Diana Campbell Betancourt. A keen and energetic group of students came with their own ideas, some of which changed completely in the course of one week, all in favor of laying a firm conceptual foundation of their future institutions. With the class ending in seven clearly defined solutions, all of the course takers united in making a unified list of the necessary steps when it comes to this type of venture. A jolly crowd agreed to share this information with me and here I am, sharing it with you.

Transcribed from the white board, I present you with:

Some guidelines for a good art institution

• Cognizant of the need for gender balance

• Promotes and is centered on artists

• Produces public value

• Engages diverse communities

• Can dynamically adapt/respond to shifting contextual needs

• Demonstrate sustainable impact (producing value, not draining the resources)

• Pays the team fairly (including the artists!)

• Is educational and accessible platform, generous with knowledge

• Has no power hierarchies

• Is transparent in terms of funding and sources (ethical funds sources)

• Respects intellectual property

• Defends artists’ voices and supports freedom of speech, while promoting safe communities.

Assuming that administrative steps in founding an institution are all similar and might vary depending on the locale, the list provided by the class can be seen as the ultimate guide in ethics and principles of a contemporary art institution. I trust it will be of use!

***

During the weekend, I went to the quarry again to hear the lecture of Andreas Lolis. I will follow up with this story tomorrow, as we welcome new teachers and classes at the Summer Academy today. Today, the final chapter begins and I am a little anxious, a little sad and a little happy at the same time.

Happy Monday all!

Ana

Tucked inside the big red Künstlerhaus structure, on the side, there is a small room with people working around strange tables, with miniature, ancient-looking tools, bent over their small creations. A regular visitor will not know that this is the Jewellery design class of the Summer Academy, led by renowned jeweler Marc Monzó and his co-teacher Andrea Durianová.

Oddly enough, I managed to get lost on my way to the Künstlerhaus, for some reason convinced that the famous Kunstverein is before, and not after the bridge. Still, I got there and got a lovely tour of the workshop from Marc, as him, Andrea and I engaged in a conversation.

Marc and Andrea are back teaching the jewelry class for the second time. Their group counts seven people and the structure is diverse. Some of them have extensive experience in jewelry making and design and some are dedicated to this noble craft seeing it more as a creative outlet. To be fair, none of the students dabble in the jewelry making superficially, some of them doing extensive and serious research in finding the right expression.

Moving through the narrow space of the workshop I saw all kinds of wearable pieces in the making, different materials and a rather curious set of objects. Never looking at the art of jewelry as an object-making craft, I inquired about it.

Where is the line between the object and the wearable thing, I wondered?

“I think it’s a blurred line. I don’t like to talk about art or craft, everybody can define this for themselves. Also, every individual can decide what can be wearable or not. In different cultures, people can wear very big objects and in other, they like very tiny things. There’s no one truth about it. The line between jewelry and object is very interesting, it’s quite thin. That makes it more exciting,” was the response I got, which only opened more questions in my mind. Perhaps I’ve been viewing the art of jewelry all wrong - it a sovereign craft, but also art, depending on the perspective. Nevertheless, my remark that jewelry might be observed as the small sculpture was rejected by Marc. “Jewelry for me is just jewelry, sculpture is another thing,” he said, while Andrea was more open to the idea, continuing, “I think that you can understand jewelry as tiny sculpture, I don’t have a problem with this idea. It’s spatial, material, related to the body true, but still.”

Diverting the talk back to the course, I learned that there will definitely be some interesting ideas developed, but less completed work. Naturally, ideas carry the entire production process. “it's more about the experience which is like the seed for the future. Many of the practices they are doing here, they will for sure continue in the future,” said Marc, confirming a standpoint many of the Summer Academy teachers have, regardless of their area.

Finally, there will be connections and friendships, mentioned Andrea, while Marc reflected that the students are “not just doing jewelry - it means more to them. That’s inspiring to see.”

With great curiosity, I will be looking forward to the jewelry class Open Day.

***

Yes, it's Friday. Raining. And the week is not yet over - there are Open Days today and a talk by Andreas Lolis at the quarry tomorrow. He's fine, by the way.

Read ya later!

Ana

The road of a blogger is mysterious and mine has taken me on an unexpected journey through the most traditional and tasty Salzburger corners tonight. If you're guessing that I've been on the "Tasting" city walk with Professor Gerhard Ammerer, you're guessing right. Why I went on this walk, knowing that it will all be in German, one might think? Well, I went because I KNEW in my gut that the acclaimed connoisseur and foodie will give us a taste of something real. 

Before I continue, I must explain my obsession with food. It's important to me, almost as important as art. I care about what I eat, the taste and the quality, I will try anything, but you will always get my opinion. And I'm an omnivore. So, getting an insight into the Salzburger culinary history seemed like a must for me. Even if I had to follow it with my crippled understanding of the language. 

So, after struggling to finish a real post, at 6 pm today, the group met at the Traklhaus. The professor talked and talked, my friend Amy translated the important parts, but the most important part was about to come. Despite the rain, we got into the historic Cafe Tomaselli and got a taste of their cakes. Then, we went to a small family brandy place, Sporer, where some nice grandpas gave us space in a very cute back room and we toasted with a very interesting herbal brandy. Then, I finally learned where the original Bosna place is (Btw, in BHS "Bosna" literally means "Bosnia". I find it hilarious!), and at the end, we got some beer at the Sternbräu brewery. After a couple of hours of Salzburger culinary history I mostly did not understand and a couple of drinks, I had a happy buzz and followed the group down to the Johanneskeller for some food and more drinks. Comprised of people that could be [at least] my parents by age mostly, the group was rather interesting and open to talk to us, the young. As a gift, our guide handed out lovely traditional recipe books with the most typical recipes of the region to each of us, which was an especially kind gesture. I will [well, not 'me' per se] have to google translate it, but still - there's nothing so exciting like a new book on food!

Aaand, before I knew it, it was very late to finish my post on Marc Monzo, which you will get tomorrow. Instead, I've decided to share this experience of learning about a different aspect of local culture, one that many people deem the most exciting one. 

Oddly enough, the rain didn't bother me at all. 

As a good night, I'm sharing several images from the walk, to pass the time until I post the story about the jewelry class.

Bon appetit and Gute Nacht!

Ana

The fourth or fifth generation of Sporer brandy makers. Grandfathers know their stuff.

Although all three separate weather information sources I follow announced rain today in Salzburg, the day started off beautifully! Light breeze and pleasant 21 degrees Celsius promised a lovely time for some outdoor painting. Usually bound to their studios and enclosed working spaces, students of the Bernhard Martin’s class ventured outside today to collectively paint in public. The target was a large scale billboard, originally an advertisement for the Saalfelden Jazz Festival. I got there after the initial painterly frenzy but got a few testimonies. In between the heaviest traffic I’ve seen in Salzburg so far and a construction site, there they were - the eager art students of the Summer Academy.

Apparently, grown-up artists can act like children in a candy shop when presented with a new exciting challenge, since they all attacked the billboard and started doodling all kinds of images, from cute fish, eyes and other symbolic visuals. Since the short-lasting fun of the 22 participants was leading to chaos, the conductor of this collective experiment, Bernhard Martin put a stop to it and divided the class into groups of four. These small work-groups would then switch every 10-15 minutes and contribute to the work with very different interventions. About one and a half hours into the work, the piece started to look more coherent and in the end, a solution was reached. Co-teachers Petra and Jakob were there, intervening and helping with the technical problems, while artists kept going back and forth.

After chatting with several people, I gathered that this was a welcome experiment. None of them has worked in the public before, and not in this type of collective improvisation. They were nervous, excited, curious and finally - happy. It seems that Martin’s plan to jazz it up with this type of step out of the comfort zone was really successful as it might open new doors into different perspectives and modes of operation.

The work itself does appear a bit chaotic, but I quite enjoyed portions of it that reminded me of some expressive abstract miniatures or unconscious homages to old-school freestyle graffiti. I am curious to see if any of the partakers will ever venture outdoors to do something of this sort, be it a painting, a mural or an intervention. Until then, we have this piece to gaze upon, albeit briefly.

Scroll down for scenes of the collaboration, breaks in the shade, and several Kodak moments I snatched from the scene. And remember Bernhard Martin’s words - “It’s not about the result, it’s about working together!”

***

Tonight, Diana Campbell Betancourt will join the Global Academy with a lecture about Dhaka and tomorrow I am seeing a jeweler. Busy week, stay with me!

Ana