What do upheavals do to a city? - Public programme of Viadrinicum summer school out now
Researchers, artists and activists will come together from Monday 18 August for the two-week Viadrinicum summer school at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder). In academic, artistic and participatory formats, they will be exploring the topic of "Urban Dis/locations. Ruptures and Reimaginations". In several workshops, participants will walk through the twin city and develop their own projects and ideas from a documentary and urban planning perspective. The public is also invited to participate in several events.
How do you design the future of a city? And who can take part? At the Zukunftsplatz near the Frankfurt (Oder) Stadtbrücke, people can think about and discuss these questions before the start of the summer school on Saturday, 16 August at 6.00 pm. At the free public event, guests can come together for an inspiring exchange, live music and a shared meal.
You are invited to the opening lecture of the eleventh Viadrinicum on the following Monday, 18 August at 6.15 pm in Viadrina's Logensaal, Logenstraße 11 (PLEASE NOTE: change of venue: the lecture will take place in the Senate Hall in the main building). Prof Dr Friederike Landau-Donnelly from Humboldt-University Berlin will speak about "Becoming a #PoeticAcademic: Dis/Locating the Writing Self in Urban Space Explorations". She will refer to the practices of writing in academia, especially in the context of urban research. The lecture take a closer look at a variety of artistic research-inspired projects in Sweden, Italy and Canada that seek ways to translate, communicate and thus make empirical data readable in different ways. Based on these research projects, Friederike Landau-Donnelly will offer some preliminary reflections on a theory of space.
There was also plenty of tinkering, discussing and painting at last year's 10th Viadrinicum Summer School.
Valeria Lazareva / Viadrina
In cooperation with the city of Frankfurt (Oder) as part of the "My City of the Future" project, a temporary architecture will be created on the Zukunftsplatz, which will be used for various event formats: On Wednesday, 20 August, the summer school invites all hungry people from 6.30 pm to "Cooking Franky O." on the Zukunftsplatz. An open-air cinema evening awaits all guests on Friday, 22 August at 8.30 pm. There will be at least one film about Frankfurt (Oder). Developing images with international students - Viadrina graduate Roman Boichuk will be taking participants on an excursion through his photo lab on Sunday, 24 August at the Zukunftsplatz. Spots are limited, so please register by 20 August by emailing viadrinicum@europa-uni.de.
Daily from 18 to 29 August (with the exception of Sunday, 24 August) wooden (street) furniture will be built at the Zukunftsplatz from 11.00 am. Anyone can participate. Younger guests will also be included in the second summer school week. From 26 to 29 August, a craft workshop for children (1.5 hours each) will be offered from 16:00. Another public event is the final presentation of the results of the summer school by the international participants on Saturday, 30 August, from 4.00 pm at the Zukunftsplatz. They have made films, analysed (historical) maps and created artistic interventions in Frankfurt's urban space.
Journalists are also invited to report on the summer school programme and get to know the participants. We will be happy to put you in touch with contact persons. Contact: viadrinicum@europa-uni.de
The Viadrinicum summer school 2025 is taking place for the eleventh time. Geographically, the focus is on countries of the Eastern Partnership and, in a broader sense, Central and Eastern Europe. Methodologically, the concept combines academic and non-academic formats and promotes dialogue between different types of knowledge from academia, civil society and the arts. The format has met a great response. There were more than 550 applications for the 35 spots this year. This year's participants come from 16 countries, including Armenia, India, Brazil, Japan, Kosovo, Ukraine and Italy. Building on the discussions surrounding the concept of the learning city in previous editions, the eleventh Viadrinicum will focus on (re)construction and upheaval in the urban fabric.
The Viadrinicum summer school is a cooperation with the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS, Berlin) and the Eberhard Schöck Foundation (Baden-Baden) as well as the Kyiv School of Economics and the General Student Committee (AStA) of the Viadrina.
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