| Beschreibung |
We often believe that distance is measured in kilometres. Yet the greatest distances are often those between lived experiences. Photography has long promised to bridge them, but images do not simply reveal the world. They construct it. Every photograph is shaped as much by the person behind the camera as by the one standing before it. This five-week Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) workshop, taking place between October and November 2026, brings together students from Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (Germany), the Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco (Portugal), and the Lviv National Academy of Arts (Ukraine). Working in small international groups, students use nothing more than their smartphones to communicate visually across borders. Rather than documenting places, they create visual diaries that transform everyday life into a shared language. Morning rituals, places of study, friendships, objects, silence, waiting, or memory become starting points for exchange. Weekly conversations allow images to travel before people do. Photographs are discussed, reinterpreted, and understood through different cultural perspectives. In this process, photography becomes less a medium of representation than a practice of listening, curiosity, and encounter. Beyond the online exchange, the course extends into the physical world. Together, the participating institutions will develop the concept for a travelling exhibition hosted by all three partner universities and work collaboratively on a joint publication, bringing together the students' visual diaries, reflections, and artistic research. The publication will be presented during the Winterwerkschau at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, while the exhibition will continue travelling between the partner institutions. As an optional extension of the course, students are invited to join an excursion to Paris Photo (12–15 November 2026, Grand Palais). Visiting one of the world's leading photography fairs offers the opportunity to study contemporary exhibition formats, artist books, and editorial practices, providing inspiration for the collaborative exhibition and publication developed throughout the course. The course understands photography not as the production of images, but as a way of building relationships. The resulting works may eventually become submissions to the upcoming BAUHAUS4EU Photo Contest, which will be announced later this year. Yet the competition is only one outcome of a larger process. More importantly, the project asks how photography can become a shared language through which everyday life, memory, and belonging are explored collectively across cultures. (The COIL sessions will take place during the morning; the afternoon is reserved for local teaching.) |
| Leistungsnachweis |
Active participation – 25% Regular attendance, thoughtful contributions to discussions, and engagement in studio work. Weekly assignments – 25% Short visual or written tasks that respond to readings, discussions, or experimental exercises. Final project + presentation – 50% A self-directed visual project developed over the course of the semester, culminating in a final critique and presentation. |
