In her course “Arte útil”, one of the leading political and performance artists Tania Bruguera will share strategies on how to deal with the issues of implementing the merging of art into society. She will work with the students in an open manner, through discussions, printed texts, action groups and public events, examining what it means to create “useful art”. Her course takes place at Alte Saline Hallein from 12 to 31 August. Tania Bruguera was shortlisted for Artes Mundi 5 in Cardiff and has just won the associated Derek Williams Trust Purchase Award.

Austrian painter Hubert Scheibl will give a two-week course at Hohensalzburg Fortress from 22 July to 3 August. Through image-finding and -realisation he will discuss with the participants personal style and questions of how to position oneself within the art world. Hubert Scheibl’s work comprises – besides painting – photography, film, trash and everyday cultural phenomena. Some of his works are currently on view at 21er Haus and at Albertina in Vienna.

Berlin based artist Thomas Kilpper is well-known for his huge floorcuts and large-scale printed banners. The students in his course, taking place in Hallein from 22 July to 10 August, will cut pictures into the existing flooring of an empty building, scheduled for demolition: Pictures like journals, pictures of the place, images or texts that are moving. Kilpper’s plans for Lampedusa are currently on view in the exhibition Newtopia. The state of human rights in Mechelen (BE).

The artistic gesture of taking something familiar out of its context to make it visible again is a method often used by contemporary artists. Felix Gmelin will examine this method of displacement in his course he will be teaching at Hohensalzburg Fortress from 22 July to 10 August. Recently his work was presented in a solo exhibition at Nordenhake, Stockholm.

She is almost an inherent part of the Summer Academy. Internationally renowned Düsseldorf artist Katharina Sieverding, whose work plays a decisive role in German photography, will teach the photo and video class at Alte Saline Hallein from 12 to 31 August. Sieverding considers art as a social terrain, which is dependent for survival on the autonomy of those who produce it. A selection of her works that came up between 1969 and 2012 are currently on view at Christian Lethert gallery in Cologne.