Only a few times a year the gates of the Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague are open to the public. The most anticipated and most visited event is ARTSEMESTR, a presentation of final and semester projects by UMPRUM students.
It takes place from January 30th to February 3rd and will present works by more than 500 young artists and designers from 24 studios.
Artsemestr is not a curated exhibition. It is a showcase of what students solved last semester and is evidence of how their approach to creating is ever-evolving during their studies. Visitors can look forward to a plethora of works by various art disciplines on diverse topics.
“Assigned projects lead our students into a deeper study and understanding of various problems. Through them, they learn to cooperate and communicate with clients, companies, specialized workshops and last but not least they cooperate with colleagues from various fields. We purposefully lead students to learn to orientate themselves within the requirements of real practice. This approach also helps establish important contacts and the ability to engage in a creative dialogue with the client”, as rector prof. Jindřich Vybíral states about cooperation, one of the school’s main priorities.
Such projects were, for example, dealt with by the Studio of Architecture III, addressed Innovation Space – Brotfabrik Wien, the Studio of Furniture and Interior Design designed the restaurant spaces in the Palladium Shopping Center, and the Studio of Product Design merged with the Nachtmann glass factory and the Studio of Concept – Object – Meaning (K.O.V.) participated in the prize competition for the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic. From projects that will be realized in the near future, we can mention the Studio of Architecture I creating designs for a brick gazebo for the company Brispol and the entrance building to the new vineyards of St. Michael in Kadaň.
It is also worth mentioning the cooperation of the Studio of Fashion and Footwear Design with the Studio of Graphic Design and Visual Communications, in which they made a garment collection of graphically processed knitwear with NOVIA FASHION a clothing and fabric manufacturer. The results of their several months of work will be presented at Milano Design Week and other shows.
On the theme of cooperation is built a seminar and team project, in which the team has prepared a performance Za dvě minuty Dvanáct for the opening of the Artsemester in the school courtyard. Students of all departments participated in the project including The Department of Theory and History of Art. The theme is the political policies of the climate crisis: the symbolic doomsday clock shows how close the world is to a global catastrophe, and 2 years ago it was moved to two minutes to twelve (Za dvě minuty Dvanáct). Following the opening of the UMPRUM Artsemestr, there will be an after-party at FUTURUM starting at 10 pm.