ABOUT THE PROJECT

The Outside Project is an official exchange program taking place between Florence Academy of Fine Arts and Belgrade University of Arts. The enrollment, however, is open to all international art students interested in a multidisciplinary, dynamic, workshop-based art program. The proficiency in the use of English language is required.

Since 2002, the task of the Outside Project has been to extend the didactic experience and explore methods of relating art education to contemporary art practices involving important schools, academies and institutions of contemporary art. The programs are held in Belgrade (May) and in Florence (July). These events have included participation of over 200 art students, professors and artists from Serbia, Italy and USA, lecturers from both guest and host cities, as well guest lecturers from other environments.

Exhibitions by international guest artists (see on this page links to EXHIBITIONS) are a regular part of the project. The program also includes a final show and documentation of students works produced in the workshops.

The programs held in Belgrade (May) and Florence (July) last 14-16 days each. The tuition and acomodation cost is 385 Euros for each program. Students are accomodated in hostels. One meal per day is included, as well as public transportation. Visits to major museum collections relevant to the program are included in tuition. Students are provided with excellent workshop spaces.

The information about the Academic Semester in Florence planned for the Fall 2008, its content, conditions and costs will be pubblished soon on this website.

The content of the program is based on representing the cultural reality of the host city, historical and contemporary particularities, and its position in an international artistic context. Students meet artists, art groups, critics and gallerists, and visit studios, galleries and museums. They attend lectures on the themes of contemporary art, art activism, urban identity, public space, history of art and architecture, and take part in workshops. The workshops have included a variety of methods and languages, and their final results have included works in form of photography, installation, video, painting, performance, and lately a fashion show (see: On Invisibility, Belgrade 07).

Thematically, the Outside Project has been primarily based on representing two diverse faces of Europe. The programs accomplished in Belgrade and Florence offer two essentially different views of the European reality, in and out of the EU, and allow for an analyses of a broad cultural space with both its uniqueness and its differences.

Students who enroll in the program through the Florence Academy of Fine Arts or the Belgrade University of Arts recieve university credits for their participation.

Until today, students and lecturers from the following university programs took part in the Outside Project:

Through the Outside Project we wish to promote the values of mobility in education, offer a valuable cultural experience and provide high quality seminars and workshops in the field of visual culture, contemporary art, system of art and art history.

With such goal, The Center for International Studies of Art wishes to open channels of communication with diverse European centers, and develop continuous projects of didactic and artistic exchange. In particular, we are interested in connecting cities with diverse cultural backgrounds and different visibility and 'weight' in the perception of the European cultural space.