Preamble
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is a place of diverse artistic, academic as well as social practices and positions. Perceiving itself as societal power the academy aims, in the near future, to pro-actively enforce its impact in public debate.
By creating a „Referat Akademie | Kunst | Öffentlichkeit“ (a coordinating unit for Academy | Art | Public Sphere) for artistic intervention and the public sphere the academy wants to enable a better coordination and initiation of artistic and scientific projects in public space. Discourse and networking with local as well as international institutions and movements is thus to be extended and cultural-political visibility will be generated.
At the same time the Academy’s claim to artistic and scientific research is recursive, minting public discourse within its original supposition. The work of a recursive university must be based on a well coordinated and inter-connected event policy which opens artistic interventions and political debate, as well as academic conferences to a wider public.
Taking this into regard it is paramount to create structures which allow to think the relation between art and public within the academy anew. As such the structure is to be embodied on three levels. First: a connection to various organisational structures (committees, institutes, departments etc.) to ensure that public interventions and events can be included and coordinated. Second: an extensive view onto urban space and extended audiences is to be developed. Cooperation with local art institutions, initiatives and movements need be intensified, embedding the academy securely into the city’s cultural and political proceedings as well as refining its network. Thirdly such a structure is based on intensive cooperation with international academic and artistic partner institutions: an extended network. This interaction ensures a foundation for one's own work, generates international visibility, and also asserts discursive standards that are articulated in the networks.
On the one hand the Academy | Art | Public coordinating unit will collect in house activities and on the other hand it responses out of its own initiative to current political developments. In addition, it has its own project budget, which is awarded by a jury in the form of a call for proposals. The initial responsibility is to build up local and international networks and establish internal communication within the Academy. In addition to the project funding all, the Academy | Art | Public Sphere consists of an international board that councels and multiplies as well as an internal board as an advisory structure consisting of students and staff members who organize the action day, support project ideas and accompany the call for project funding.