The Art of the Context: The Didactic Curriculum of Architectural and Sculptural Design at the Faculty of Sculpture in Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow

Bartłomiej STRUZIK

Abstract

Architectural and sculptural design is an autonomous discipline of fi ne arts based on interdisciplinary experience. As such, it constitutes an interesting field of creative exploration as well as an area of research and theoretical refl ection. The complex creative process it involves consists in a combination of the foundational individual emotional experience (the source of artistic inspiration) with a design method requiring a deep study and aimed at the recognition of objective spatial relations and contexts, thus demanding a wide professional background. The concept of architectural and sculptural design worked out at the Faculty of Sculpture in Jan Matejko Fine Arts Academy in Cracow is con-sidered as an autonomous discipline of fine arts and remains an indispensable aspect of the didactic curriculum for all students of sculpture.The experience of sculptural space understood as an area of subjective percep-tion saturated with emotion refers to the phenomenon of spatiotemporal form and as such is a constant point of reference for all the projects concerning ar-chitectural and sculptural design. The unique character of the experience in qu-estion is determined by inner tension, insight and individual artistic sensibility, which contributes to the uniqueness of the projects thus created. A recognition of the possibilities of sculptural expression and the metaphorical character of the language of sculpture enable the experience of space in the aspect of the potential of the meaning and emotion conveyed by particular architectural and sculptural solutions.

                                                                                                                                                Translated by Dorota Chabrajska