Walls and Spaces

The goal of the course is to provide a critical platform for students of different professional background to discuss the question of walls within visual art, design and architecture. The course aims to be an active seminar in which students are required to read texts for each class and take part in the discussions. 

The subject will provide a general overview of some of the defining critical and literary texts written on walls during the second half of the 20th century. 

The course maps the practice of contemporary artists, designers and architects who have fostered our thinking and imagination about walls.  

The subject invites students to integrate these theoretical discussions and practical examples to their own practice.

Walls are either physical or mental; they can separate rooms within a house or divide whole nations. Some walls are strictly personal and intimate, while others are public and political. New walls are put up, while previous walls are being taken down.

During the seminars we will discuss both the sheer physicality of walls (walls being the cornerstone of architecture) and the immense cultural connotations they carry (think about the Berlin wall, the Walls of Jerusalem, US-Mexico border etc.). We will begin the course with more general readings on walls and borders and then move on to discuss case studies from recent history (both local and international examples).

As walls form a central part of any spatial theory, we will look at the way various 20th century philosophers and writers have tackled the questions of walls, i.e. borders, centre and periphery, us and other, communication.