5 Questions – Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe

SHH I remember very well the moment I first entered the Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe. What perhaps not everyone knows: KUBAPARIS was my diploma project at the HfG. I am curious: What was it like for you, when you first arrived at the school?

AV My first impression was that the hall in which the HfG is housed possesses an endearing charm of the sort found only in former industrial buildings that have been repurposed. The combination of embedded (in this case: problematic) history, the structures of a production environment, and all the overlays and rewrites brought about by its new use creates such a compelling blend that the moment I first set foot inside was, above all, one of sheer excitement.

SHH A core element of studying at the HfG is a model that barely exists anywhere else. No fixed classes, all courses open across disciplines, theory and practice inseparably intertwined. As the new rector: How do you plan to protect this model and where do you see potential to develop it further?

AV First of all, I would not have applied for the post of Rector at the HfG if this model were not practised and lived out here. For me, a wide variety of reform ideas dating back to the university’s founding – which undoubtedly include the study model – play a central role in the university’s self-image and in the way it operates. We will not be able to meet the challenges and problems of the present and the future in our fields simply by working through pre-determined study programmes. Our model at the HfG presents an enormous challenge to everyone – but the new, interesting and unexpected outcomes that result from it are absolutely worth it.

SHH Karlsruhe does not always top the list for prospective students; most are drawn to cities like Berlin, Munich or Cologne. I myself experienced Karlsruhe as a true oasis, a surprisingly vibrant place to study and live. What makes Karlsruhe attractive to you and to future students of the HfG?

AV Unlike many cities that appear ‘hip’ at first glance, Karlsruhe offers interesting fissures and gaps where alternative spaces and playgrounds are very much possible. Karlsruhe is not a gentrified blueprint, but a synapse, a space of possibility that ultimately offers everything needed to try things out at every level during one’s student years. And it is a student-oriented city with six higher education institutions (including a conservatoire and an academy of fine arts), which invites people to help shape it rather than simply standing in the way as a self-contained entity.

SHH You bring an exceptionally wide range of experience, as a curator, as head of the Department of Design and Art and member of the university board at the Hochschule der Künste Bern, and most recently as director of the Department of Cultural Analysis and Education at the Zurich University of the Arts. What are your biggest learnings from these positions and how are you applying them to your new role at the HfG?

AV Universities are, to a large extent, organisations of experts. We must not only accept this, but also make the most of it with enthusiasm and conviction. Anyone who believes the HfG is a place that should be developed in a top-down manner is definitely in the wrong place here. What I have learnt above all from my previous roles is that it is always about creating opportunities. Curators, too, in the true sense of the word, take care of something. As Rector, I help to ensure that everyone can perform to the best of their ability and that, together, we shape the university in the way we believe is right. It is not about the HfG becoming something that I propose as a vision and then stubbornly implement. It is about opening up spaces for communication, taking an interest, tolerating dissent, negotiating consensus, and ensuring transparent coordination of the whole.

SHH What can students expect at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe and why should someone choose to study with you?

AV In addition to what has already been said, I consider the HfG’s trans- and interdisciplinary approach to be one of the school’s outstanding features. This is not merely a fancy label, but part of our DNA, which is constantly reflected in the interplay between theoretical and practical degree programmes, as well as in the HfG’s close cooperation with the ZKM. The project-based study programme, which is only possible in this form at the HfG, finds its ideal environment here. Anyone looking for a clearly mapped-out course of study may initially find our model a bit of a challenge. However, all those who are prepared to respond to the uncertainties of the world with a course of study that they shape in a diverse and self-determined way are in the right place here.