koch&james

„Diplom Show Andreea-Sorina Koch – presented by Koch & James“

To the outside world, it looked like a big mess. In our own minds, everything made perfect sense. Our results were highly site-specific and yet out of place.

In order to take the diploma exam at the Karlsruhe Academy of Art, one must complete several steps. First, there is an oral exam, for which you have to answer questions on various topics that you have chosen yourself beforehand. The questions are asked by a jury of professors and depend on their preferences and whims. For one of my topics, I wanted to talk about Jan Böhmermann’s satire show (NEO Magazin Royal at the time). I claimed to see a connection in the show’s approach to reporting and Koch & James‘ approach to their artwork. One of the professors was very upset that I was associating the fine arts with a television show. Unfortunately, I am not very good at speaking freely and usually get very nervous. Admittedly, I have to say that I was not very good at representing my research and assumptions.
In the second part of the diploma exam, you have to prepare an exhibition with recent works and a review of the work. The work review is usually presented in publication form and current works are nicely presented in the respective studios. The diploma jury, consisting of a selection of professors from the academy, then walks through the studios on the designated examination day and looks at what the diploma candidates have prepared and possibly asks questions about the presentations. For the presence in the respective studios, approximately 10 to 15 minutes are devoted to each presentation. The work review should serve to give the jury a rough overview of the last six years of the diplomats. I estimate that about 2 to 3 minutes will be spent on this. After that the jury leaves the room, consults among themselves for another 5 minutes and then gives the final grade.

 The jury was gracious to us despite the great effort on their part and the confusion we caused. 

We can say we passed! 

You can see a lot of papers on this wall. Most of them were created especially for the diploma show. Much of it is a hybrid of research and sketch. Part of the installation was also a white filing cabinet with a coffee maker on it. Here you could drink coffee if you wanted to.