News

“connect” graduation exhibition: Finally reconnected

5 Jul 2022

Students in the Art and Multimedia class of 2022 are showcasing their mixed-media art at the Kunstlabor on 15-17 July.

What do you actually do when you’re an art student? It doesn’t take long to find the answer if you ask the students on the Bachelor’s degree program in art and multimedia: Raffaela Kammer, Laura Mayr, and Theresa Zimmermann are part of this year’s graduating class, and their degree is about more than just digital art. “Our degree program is very diverse,” reports Theresa, who is 23. “In the first semester, we had classical painting in workshops. Because of the pandemic, a lot of that went digital, otherwise we would have gone into a photo lab as well. It’s a good mix of digital and analog.” Her fellow student Laura, also 23, adds: “We even have a 3D printer and VR headsets!”

Group photo of the Art and Multimedia graduating class

The artists behind the artworks

15 Jul
17 Jul

Exhibition: “connect”

Read more

Many of the semester concepts had to be changed due to the pandemic, and it was not even certain whether the graduation exhibition would be able to take place in a non-digital or hybrid way, but now the students are in the final stages of preparing for their live exhibition in Kunstlabor 2 in the building at Dachauer Straße 90.

The title of this year’s exhibition is connect. “We chose to call ourselves that,” explains Raffaela, 23, “because the pandemic meant we were not connected. We were disconnected. But now we are reconnected and back together.” It’s in the fourth semester that they begin the preparations for their projects, and everyone gets to do whatever they feel like doing. The implementation takes place in the fifth semester while they are writing their Bachelor’s thesis. “That does have its advantages,” agree the three students: “The stress of the Bachelor’s thesis leaves little room to be nervous about the exhibition.”

Game screenshot

Raffaela Kammer designed her own game for the exhibition.

There’s a lot for the students to organize — find an exhibition space, get catering organized, and then there’s the materials and the catalog, which is specially printed for the exhibition. The preparations are also a good exercise for their working life after university, as the students have to divide up the work: some handle the press work and the social media, others take care of the finances. But the artists are not left on their own with all this; there is always help to be had from lecturers and sponsors.

Card game

The hand-made playing cards by Laura Mayr

The artworks on display are as diverse as the art itself. “There’s everything,” says Theresa, “from oil painting to design to short films to card games. You get a chance to do whatever you want and whatever’s fun for you.” But most of all, Laura stresses, it’s about the idea of creating something that brings people back together. That’s why she chose to design a card game.

And so it may well be that the question of what art can or may or should do does not even arise. But if it does, once again it doesn’t take long to find the answer: Art can, art may and art should do one thing above all else: connect people.

Analog photography

Theresa Zimmermann realized a photo project for the exhibition.

What are you looking for?