The 12th Laboratory of Painting and Expanded Media of Athens School of Fine Arts aims to offer students an educational experience based on its three central pillars, Personal Development, Community – Collective and Multidisciplinary Practice.

Personal Development intends to develop artistic action based in self-observation and personal reflection. The artistic personality is developed in this way, as an ensemble of choices that exceed the autonomy of the aesthetic product. 

By building a Community – Collective students experiment with artistic projects based on a collective organization of artistic activity. In this way contemporary ways of perception are formed regarding heterogeneity, gender identity, tangible and digital self, sexuality, cultural identity, political the political and intellectual diversity, coexistence and complexity of the social relations within which contemporary art is produced.Through collectivity, mutual support between students and empathy are strengthened. At the same time, students are invited to get to know and learn to handle collaborative tools and to participate in collective workshops. The ways of perception cultivated but also the familiarity with collaborative methods lead to experimentation and creation of group works and projects within the framework of contemporary artistic research and practice.

Through Multidisciplinaryl Practice students familiarize with the nature of the expanded field of art and the means that have been utilized and are utilized within it.

The educational relationship between teacher and students follows an interactive structure and the course focuses on understanding the field of contemporary art as it developed from 1960 onwards. Students learn to design an artistic project taking into account the existing questions in relation to modern forms of subjectivity, combine ideas and proposals in search of ways of artistic action and intervention.

At the same time, LAB12 hosts a number of actions, lectures and workshops by invited speakers specializing in these fields, artists with recognized artistic work and experimental methodology. The teaching staff and the guests present and analyze works, concepts, elaborated ideas, historical trends and currents that have contributed to the formation of an expanded perception of artistic practice. Through these educational practices, students become familiar with the field of contemporary art and come into direct contact with the people who are active within and shape it.

Also during their studies students are invited to research on relevant literature and learn to handle the appropriate tools and applications for the presentations of the projects they prepare. In the project evaluation processes, students create an open dialogue with the teaching staff and with each other, thus learning to support their artistic work.

Summing up, in the 12th Painting and Extended Media Workshop, a community is formed that is essentially active in the field of contemporary art and uses a variety of research tools in the context of artistic practice. Through dialogue and communication, participation in activities, workshops and exhibitions, students develop their own personal path in the field of contemporary art through an open, experimental and researching educational process.