Recap of Training Creative Acts and Action
From September 17 to 21, 2025, the international and interdisciplinary project Training Creative Acts and Action of the Institute for Environment & Design (IUG) took place in Schwerin.
The intensive workshop Training Creative Acts and Action brought together artistic practice, theory, and research in an exchange between international artists and scholars. At its core, the project explored the concepts of training, exercise, practice, action, and mediation—understood both as artistic and social forms of agency. Taking Hannah Arendt’s question, “what we do when we think,” as a point of departure, the project examined how thought, body, and action intertwine, and how artistic research itself can become a site of critical inquiry. Through theoretical impulses and practical exercises, artistic research was approached from diverse disciplinary perspectives—as a form of thinking and acting—and its role in social and political discourse was reflected upon.
The city of Schwerin became a space for thought and action, where art, the public sphere, and academia entered into dialogue. Central locations of the program included the Säulengebäude on the market square, the Cathedral featuring Günther Uecker’s Lichtbögen, the State Museum Schwerin, the bridge at Wittenburger Straße, the Lenin Monument, the International Firefighting Museum, Berliner Platz, and the Kunstverein für Mecklenburg und Vorpommern.
The project was organized by the Institute for Environment and Design (IUG)—the part of our dual institute that, as a mobile and experimental structure, connects research, teaching, and artistic practice in open, process-oriented ways. Accordingly, Training Creative Acts and Action emphasized the importance of contemporary research that transcends disciplinary boundaries, conceiving artistic practice as a mode of knowledge production and as a collective, experience-based process. Through its international scope, its research-oriented character, and its embedding within the city’s cultural infrastructure, the project made Schwerin visible as a site of contemporary and experimental cultural work.
Participants (in alphabetical order):
T. J. Demos, Stephanie R. Dvareckas, Knut Ebeling, Aliz Farkas, Isa Fontbona, Marie Götze, Alex Gross, Anna Helfer, Christina Irrgang, Cyrill Lim, Daria Nedelcu, Johanne Mohs, Nina Nielebock, Grégoire Rousseau, Göze Saner, Peter Seeland, Nora Sternfeld, Verena Straub, Irène Unholz, and Georg Winter.
Hosts: Mechthild Bening, Kerstin Döring, Antonia Gradnitzer, Cathleen Leu, and Katharina Neuburger.