In 1983, the Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, gave Pontus Hulten the task of creating a graduate school for research in contemporary art. Its antecendents were to be the Weimer Bauhaus School and Black Mountain College in the U.S., and it was meant to function as an alternative to Paris’s École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. The Institut des hautes études en arts plastiques (IHEAP) offers participants a course of study where they can free themselves from the inherited art history of the 20th century, by investigating crucial issues of art in the 21st Century, an ongoing history in which the participants will eventually take part.

IHEAP is the Education section of the Biennale de Paris. The programme presupposes an intellectual orientation to which it is desirable, but not indispensable, to adhere. The Institute is open to all those who have an interest in singular and extreme practices which currently and sporadically appear in the art world and elsewhere. Iheap is for those who want to change their artistic practice or professional activity, for those who after several years of art school want to break free of alienated learning, who expect more from a school than a framework for artistic production, for those who reject art as it is commonly practiced, and finally for those who wish to work on essential issues in intimate and experimental conditions.

Only twenty students a year are chosen to study at IHEAP. The course of study is completed in two years (or sessions). The first year is composed of two ten-week cycles, three half-days each week, dedicated to a single theme. The second year is dedicated to the creation of an investigative text of thirty pages, without illustrations. Its purpose is to demonstrate the development of the participant’s research. The development of this document will be carefully followed by Iheap’s staff. Study at Iheap is equivalent to a post-graduate degree. The application fee is 65 euros. Tuition is 2000 euros for the first year, 500 euros for the second, payable in one or two installments. Financial assistance is available. More informations.

To apply to IHEAP, please send a folder with the completed and signed application form, application fees and a recording of 10 minutes maximum (MP3, CD or DVD) explaining why you want to study at Iheap. Initial candidates are preselected, after which the selection panel will interview the remaining candidates. The interviewee will be informed of the date and time. Interviews can in some cases take place via Skype. Incomplete application folders will not be considered. Iheap does not discriminate by age.

More information
Download the application form

Deadline for the submission of applications: Sunday, November 11, 2012
Pre-admission results: Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Interview with the admissions board: Thursday, November 29 & Friday, November 30, 2012
Results of the admissions: Saturday, December 1, 2012
Opening of the 8th Session (2012-2014): Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Closing of the 8th Session (2012-2014): Friday, June 27, 2014

Coordination
Ayreen Adnan
Institut des hautes études en arts plastiques (Iheap)
Biennale de Paris
Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild
11 rue Berryer
75008 Paris
T : +33 (0)1 4534 3004