Winter School 2019: Clay City

On Friday 25 January 2019 the final presentation of the Winter School 2019 took place at the Academy of Architecture. For two weeks 136 students, led by artist and architect Alexander Brodsky, built an imaginary city of clay of over 80 m2. During the final presentation there was a special guest: the Brodsky Quartet.

Alexander Brodsky
The Academy of Architecture has invited artist and architect Alexander Brodsky to be Artist in Residence for the academic year 2018-2019. During the Winter School 2019, a two-week research and design program, the three disciplines of architecture, urbanism and landscape architecture join forces, represented by first- and second-year students. Together with the students, Brodsky has taken the next step in a series in which he engages in the imagination and working with clay. Each student has built a fragment of an imaginary city, based on their own individual memories. Together the buildings form a completely new imaginary city.

Special guest: the Brodsky Quartet
During the final presentation there was a special guest: the Brodsky Quartet. Since its founding in 1972, the Brodsky Quartet has performed more than 3000 concerts on the world's major stages and has released more than 60 recordings. The Brodsky Quartet has the same name as the Artist in Residence and was in the Netherlands this week for an international tour. At the special request of the Academy of Architecture they played during the final presentation of the Winter School.

Artist in Residence program
The AIR program is an initiative in collaboration with the departments of the Amsterdam University of the Arts. It stimulates innovation and facilitates encounters with contemporary art practices. It offers guest faculties the opportunity to benefit from the experience of respected artists and to revitalize the educational and artistic structures of the Academy. The focus is on current interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary developments, and on interaction with the international 'state of the art'. Alexander Brodsky is the successor to Sarah van Sonsbeeck, Jeroen Musch, Gabriel Lester, Michiel Schwarz, Erik Kessels, Krisztina de Châtel and others at the Academy of Architecture.

1·Lectures
On 1 March 2019 Alexander Brodsky was back in the Netherlands to reflect on the Winter School during his lecture in the series 1·Lectures.

Links
View here the program booklet of the Winter School 2019.
View here the publication Clay City of the Winter School 2019. 
More photos from the Winter School 2019 (made by o.a Jonathan Andrew) are on Flickr.
Videos of students about the Winter School 2019 can be seen on Vimeo.