GESTALT - Theory and Design in the New Objectivity Age
"Integrated Whole, Experimentation and Identity"
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The GESTALT Program has been conceived especially for Pakistani audiences. It is a way to share experience and reconsider the relationship between tradition and modernization, while considering the Swiss-German contribution in the fields of theory and design.
Over 2500 students have been invited to participate in the GESTALT Program.
Gestalt theory and the Bauhaus design are two of the important aspects to be explored along this cycle of fifteen lectures and workshops. Figure and ground, chance and intention, form and function, the rational and the irrational, repression and expression are some of the various topics debated in the GESTALT Program, which examines the modern idea of form and function integrated in a single, effective configuration.
This concerns disciplines such as the arts and visual communication, but also all kinds of other languages. Yet, close observation may reveal that modernity is not only based on functionality and common sense. It may involve unexpected characteristics too. Is ornament a crime? Tradition is generally associated with identity. Yet, can abstraction and mass-produced fabrications provide it? And which is the common, ultimate raison d'être behind the work of German-Swiss creators so diverse as Gropius, Alberto Giacometti, Arp, Le Corbusier, Meret Oppenheim, Johannes Itten, Mies van der Rohe, Paul Klee, and Max Ernst?
A possible answer is that it was precisely around the 1920s that such inventive artists provided us with the best of Modern Art. Following their example and characterized also by a truly experimental nature and a full-of-prizes Collage Contest, the GESTALT Program aims to open a window towards the achievements of geographically and historically distant cultures, stimulating local productivity and inventiveness, but without rejecting identities or ancestral traditions.
Mariano Akerman - Painter and Art Historian
Born in Buenos Aires in 1963, Mariano Akerman studied at the School of Architecture of Universidad de Belgrano (Argentina), completing his formation with a prized graduation project on the limits and space in modern architecture (1987). Abroad from 1991 onwards, he has researched the paintings of Francis Bacon and the architectural projects of Louis Kahn.
In Asia, Akerman developed the educational series of conferences In the Spirit of Linnaeus (2007), Discovering Belgian Art and Raisons d’être: Art, Freedom and Modernity (2008-10) and German Art (2010). Specializing in visual communication, Akerman is an experienced educator. He lectures on modern art at renowned institutions such as the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, The National Museum of the Philippines in Manila, The University of Modern Languages in Islamabad, The National College of Arts and Beaconhouse University in Lahore.
An artist himself, Mariano Akerman exhibits his paintings, drawings and collages since 1979 onwards. He has been awarded with at least twelve major international prizes. Artwork featured in various collections, including those of the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, in Paris, and the Statenkonstråd (National Public Art Council of Sweden), in Stockholm.
