About Autocenter Summer Academy

For its twentieth anniversary, the HMKV (Hartware MedienKunstVerein) will focus on its sustained commitment to artistic training and education – an important aspect of its history – by launching a new format. The first Autocenter Summer Academy (ACSA) at HMKV will be organised in close collaboration with the Berlin-based project space Autocenter, which has been successfully hosting summer academies in its venue since 2009. With Düsseldorf, Cologne and Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia boasts some of the country’s largest art academies, yet the Ruhr is largely excluded from this network. Based on this assessment, the HMKV has developed a concept of a temporary academy with internationally renowned teachers and lecturers aimed at local and international art students that will put the Ruhr on the international academic map.

Over the past 14 years Autocenter has established itself as an unconventional art space with a dynamic, innovative and autonomous strategy and philosophy towards Art. It is Autocenter's goal to offer a space for exchange and experimentation in every section of the arts, it was therefore a logical choice that in 2009 Autocenter should open its doors to the first Summer Academy in Berlin.

With this wide and long-standing experience behind it and with its ongoing close cooperation with artists and institutions. Autocenter offers the ideal infrastructure for the exchange of knowledge and art production. But certainly not in the sense of relying upon existing institutional structures or economic strategies but rather in terms of passion for the arts and a focus on the specific needs of artists and their own practices.

Two artists; Maik and Joep run the Autocenter; they have been stubborn enough to continue their path over the past 14 years by staying autonomous and focused on art and its producers. As ACSA goes into its fourth year - with its infamous reputation intact - 2016 welcomes another year within its summer school program. In addition to the workshops, the supporting program of lectures, talks and guided tours have been hand-picked to supplement the program both in the practical and the two-week theory course. Both promise to give a profound insight into staging and re-thinking art.

We are looking forward to welcome about 70 guests over the 2-week period, for 7 amazing, vibrant workshops and experience a stunning, artistic exchange. Which will be fun but an intense journey through ACSA 2016.

About HMKV

The HMKV (Hartware MedienKunstVerein) is a platform for the production, presentation, and communication of contemporary and experimental (media) art. The term ‘media art’ is intended here not as a technologically defined genre, but as contemporary art that is concerned both in content and concept with the present-day world, which is profoundly influenced by media and technology. Among the major goals of the HMKV are exploring contemporary themes and questions, addressing the wider public in its educational work, and an interdisciplinary artistic agenda. The aim common to all of the HMKV’s projects is to implement art in an attempt to facilitate public understanding of the multi-layered social, political, economic, and ecological conditions prevailing today. In a globalised world based on the interaction of these systems and accelerated through technology, this approach fosters a new perspective on contemporary life that enriches individual perception and makes it easier to understand complex connections.

Thus, the HMKV occupies a singular position in North Rhine-Westphalia – and in Germany. It has grown out of a widely variegated international network, which the institution brings together in a multi-faceted programme of exhibitions and events. The exhibitions of the HMKV have met with a high degree of recognition regionally, nationally, and internationally; they are characterised by a broad understanding of the term ‘media art’, which features multiple intersections with other artistic disciplines such as fine arts, film, and the performance arts. In 2011, HMKV was awarded the JUMP Annual Sponsorship Award for Art Organisations funded by the Arts Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia (Kunststiftung NRW). In 2014, the HMKV was nominated for the fifth time for the ADKV – ART COLOGNE Prize (following 2007, 2008, 2011, and 2013), and in 2013 it received Honourable Mention in the context of this prize.

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