„Feel the Touch“

With the "Invited Artist" concept, the university invites internationally renowned and innovative artists to Tübingen each year to provide students with personal insights into contemporary art from different cultural backgrounds. This gives them the opportunity to improve their skills by interacting with the artist on a social and artistic level. The university's third "Invited Artist," Zurab Bero is from Tbilisi, Georgia.

He was born in Georgia in 1982, and lives and works in Tbilisi and Berlin. He studied fine arts, sculpture and German literature in Berlin and Tbilisi, Georgia. In 2010, he won the Diffring Prize for Sculpture from the Jacqueline Diffring Foundation. He is currently a visiting professor at the Visual Arts, Architecture & Design School of the Free University in Tbilisi.

From October 15 to November 30, Bero offered two workshops on sculpturing at the University of Tübingen, working with two student groups with participants from all faculties. Students learned impression techniques that were used to capture surfaces and create three-dimensional objects. "It's about the interplay between object, surface texture and artist," Bero said. "Touching the material is like meditation." The seminar aimed to consciously experience the texture of surfaces and encourage a haptic dialogue. "By teaching casting techniques in this workshop, individual and very interesting works were created in the course of this project. [...] Remarkable are the different conception of the works, the students’ visions of general human themes and the reflection of personal experiences."

The results of the workshop were a part of the special exhibition "Feel the touch" in the Kabinettraum | Schloss Hohentübingen, which ran from February 18 to April 18, 2022. A bilingual available accompanying publication will also be published about the project and the exhibition.

Vernissage

The opening of the exhibition took place on February 17th at 7pm in the Rittersaal at Hohentübingen Castle. Speakers included University Director Bernd Engler, MUT Director Ernst Seidl, and project participants such as Ursula Schwitalla, Stephan Potengowski, and of course artist Zurab Bero. Additionally, students presented their experiences and impressions from the project.

Publication

As with the former Invited-Artist-projects a publication called: „Feel the touch. Invited Artist Zurab Bero“ highlighting the project, workshop, exhibition, and the created works will be released. Participants and artist give a personal insight into the mutual exchange that occured while working together on the project.

E. Seidl (Hg.): Feel the touch. Invited Artist Zurab Bero (Series: Invited Artist of the University of Tübingen, volume 3), bilingual, Tübingen: MUT, 2022;
ISBN: 978-3-949680-01-4;
34,90 €
available in the museum store and in the webshop of the MUT

In the first, theoretical, part, the focus was on contemporary sculpture and installation. The second, practical, part dealt with molding techniques, casting, and molding itself. By touching material, structure, and form, a dialogue between artist and object and its surfaces was created. With the support of the artis, the students were given the opportunity to realize their own small projects. As an example, body parts were molded and then cast in plaster or wax. The practical seminars of the Invited Artists are very popular with the students, filling a gap previously open. Since the response was overwhelmingly positive the artist even offered a second workshop to satisfy the demand.

Invited Artists at the University of Tübingen

The "Invited Artists" project at the University of Tübingen was created to offer young and aspiring artists from all over the world a chance to visit Tübingen and present their works. Together with students, the artists may present their methods and create new works of art during workshops, practical seminars or summer schools.

Invited Artist of the University of Tübingen

Zurab Bero Tiflis/Georgien Summer/Fall 2021

Sculpting-Workshop participants
„Feel the touch“

Viviane Arnold, David Beilharz, Hakan Deymeci, Gaia Di Pasquale, Viviane Ehret, Maya Hepper, Kristina Janackova, Emel Kücükosman, Jia-Lin Liu, Pia Lohfeld, Miriam Mauthe, Anja Mezger, Maximilian Molitor, Meret Müller, Lisa Reitmayer, Charlotte Roschke, Sabrina Schmid, Julia Janina Vielguth, Maria Zioga.

exhibition

Museum of the University of Tübingen MUT | Ancient Cultures | Hohentübingen Castle Februar 18th to April 18th 2022