This course is intended to enable artists to compensate and channel personal experiences such as discrimination, systemic injustices, abuse of power, experiences of violence, etc. through artistic action and ultimately to find a suitable form of artistic expression in order to produce works of art with socially critical  value.

This is by no means about therapeutic processing of personal traumas through artistic techniques! Rather, the aim is to use personal experiences to discuss socially and politically relevant topics that go beyond one's own sensitivities.

In the bi-weekly course,  at first personal experiences are described and shared in group discussions, the resulting topics are then examined for general social relevance by asking a series of questions:

Is my experience exemplary? Which group is affected by this topic? What is the context of this topic? What am I asking for? What should change? How can this change be achieved? How can this topic generate attention? Who do I want to address, who is my target group? What (formal) language should I use? What artistic means of expression do I have at my disposal? Can misunderstandings occur? Where is the line between political art and propaganda? How can instrumentalization or woke-washing be avoided? What kind of target do critics have? What legal framework do I operate within? How far can I go? What is covered by artistic freedom?

The aim is to try out artistic practices that best suit the respective content in order to examine the context in which the artwork can be presented stringently and coherently.

Excerpts from Nietzsche's “Birth of Tragedy” and Immendorf's artist's book "Hier und Jetzt: Doing what needs to be done". Art-historical examples of political art will also be presented and discussed.

The outcome of the course is basically open-ended. A documentation of the course in the form of a zine (booklet) is planned.

oral exam, project related practical exam

This seminar lasts 2 semesters: WS2025/2026 and SS2026