During the Master of Arts in Fine Arts program, an intensive, application-oriented exploration of artistic strategies and formats takes place according to the principle of an informed practice. In the StudioLabs, which vary in content, current social debates are taken up and explored in depth, artistic methods are used for research, and projects are implemented. The StudioLab sees itself as a content-focused, collaborative workshop at the intersection to project work and individual artistic work. It’s a competence center for context-specific artistic practice, which is continuously developed by the students and the lecturers. The StudioLabs cooperate with external institutions on a project-specific basis, thus opening up different perspectives and approaches for students' own professional practice.
- In the StudioLab "eco!" working methods and strategies of a radically ecological and socially committed current artistic practice are developed.
- The StudioLab "post?" deals with posthuman body images and spatial politics. In this StudioLab the influence of the digital transformation on human identities, bodies, communicative constellations and spaces is examined and contemporary discourses and artistic strategies are questioned.
- The StudioLab "¿Where?" asks: Where are we? Where am I? What does the environment look like? What does it demand? What does it offer? Am I comfortable here? Can I settle in? Do I have to leave? If so, where to? Is it better somewhere else? If so, why?
The masters theses, which are presented during the StudioLab Days in the summer semester, mark the end of the program. These are each linked to the specific contexts of the StudioLabs. In a common festival center, a specific location or context in Central Switzerland, they are made accessible to a broad audience. In 2023 and 2024, the StudioLab Days took place at the Südpol cultural centre in Kriens.
The degree within a StudioLab replaces the previous practice of the site-specific final exhibition at changing locations in Central Switzerland. The emphasis of the StudioLabs forms the collectively developed framing of the master theses. Whereby the specific content starting points, the themes and questions have been jointly developed and researched within the StudioLabs.
The format of the final thesis (master thesis) at the StudioLab Days is up to the graduates: Artistic works are possible as well as teaching or mediation projects. In addition, personal master thesis projects can relate to larger public projects or productions that are developed and realized in the StudioLabs. For the realization of the master thesis, specific cooperation with external partners and institutions can also be appropriate.
In 2022, the diploma exhibition of final projects was entitled SUPERNOVA at in Brunnen (SZ); in 2021, liminoid at the Neubad in Lucerne (LU); in 2020 (broadcasted online), Kunst Macht Schule [in English, a “Art Makes School” or Art Power School”]; in 2019, Schichtwechsel [in English, a “change of shift”] at the Papieri Cham (ZG); in 2018, ON Stansstad in Stansstad (NW); in 2017, Tell me in Altdorf (UR); in 2016, WIR SIND DA [We’ve Arrived] in Emmen (LU); in 2015, Punktlandung Ausserschwyz [Spot Landing Ausserschwyz] in the communities of Pfäffikon (SZ) and Lachen (SZ); in 2014, Zwischenhalt Luzern [Stopover Lucerne] in Lucerne (LU); in 2013, Manöver Sarnen [Sarnen Maneuver] in Sarnen (OW); in 2012, Fokus Zug [Zug Focus] in Zug (ZG); and, in 2011, the Master Kunst Tour in Littau-Reussbühl (LU).
