Skip to main content

New Professorships and Endowed Chairs at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna 2013

The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is proud to announce five new appointments:

ART AND ARCHITECTURE
Stage Design | Anna Viebrock
Ecology, Sustainability, Conservation | Hannes Stiefel
Roland Rainer Visiting Chair | Stefan Bendiks and Aglaée Degros

FINE ARTS
Film and Television | Thomas Heise

ART THEORY AND CULTURAL STUDIES
Endowed Professorship for Central and South Eastern European Art Histories | Suzana Milevska

Stefan Bendiks (*1971 in Germany) and Aglaée Degros (*1972 in Belgium) are architects and co-founder of the interdisciplinary Office of Artgineering in Rotterdam. Artgineering is a venue for research and design at the interface of urban planning and infrastructure. Especially focusing on the role of infrastructure and traffic in complex urban areas, the institute develops suitable strategies. Moreover, Stefan Bendiks works as a lecturer and researcher at, among others, Delft University of Technology. Aglaée Degros has been teaching and lecturing at various universities and is member of the Scientific Committee of European International. Artgineering won numerous competitions and received several prizes, e.g. the 2004 Karl-Hofer Award.

Thomas Heise (*1955 in GDR) , after doing his military service in the GDR, began to work as assistant director for DEFA - Movie Studio in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany. After his studies at the School of Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg he worked as a free-lance author and director in the fields of theater, audiobooks, and documentaries. His first documentaries, filmed in GDR times, were, however, forbidden by the regime. From 1990 to 1997 Heise belonged to the Berliner Ensemble and worked together intensively with director Fritz Marquardt. Since 2001 he has been a member of the Academy of Fine Arts Berlin-Brandenburg, and from 2007 to 2013 he held a chair in Film and Media Art at the University of Art and Design in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Suzana Milevska (*1961 in Macedonia) is a theorist of art and visual culture, and also a curator. She obtained her PhD at Goldsmiths College in London. In 2004 she became Fulbright Visiting Scholar, and in 2001 P. Getty Curatorial Research Fellow. From 2006 to 2008, Suzana Milevska was Director of the Center for Visual and Cultural Research of Skopje, Macedonia. Since 1992 she has curated more than 70 international exhibitions. Her texts on the construction of national identity and gender difference in Balkan art and visual culture have been widely published, and in 2012 she received the "Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory". The Endowed Professorship for Central and South Eastern European Art Histories is a co-operation between the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and ERSTE Foundation.

Hannes Stiefel (*1967 in Switzerland) is an architect working in Vienna. He studied architecture at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and at the SCI-Arc, Los Angeles. His works have been shown e.g. at the International Architecture Exhibition in Venice (2006/2010) and at an individual exhibition at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna (2012). He has been awarded the Outstanding Artist Award for Experimental Architecture (1995), the advancement prize of the City of Vienna (2007). Hannes Stiefel has also taught Architectural Design and Theory at various universities and art schools in Austria, Switzerland, North America, and the Near East.

Anna Viebrock (*1951 in Germany) first studied German Philology, Art History and Philosophy in Frankfurt, and then Stage Design with Karl Kneidl at the Art Academy Düsseldorf. Her collaboration with Christoph Marthaler brought her to numerous theaters and opera houses, which is why since 1994 she has been working together with the directors' team Jossi Wieler/Sergio Morabito to stage operas at venues such as the Theater Basel, the Salzburg Festivals and the Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, but especially in Stuttgart. Anna Viebrock has received numerous awards such as the 1997 Hessian Art Award, the 2004 Berlin Theater Prize, and the Hein-Heckroth Award in 2013. Since 2002 she has also been working as a director.