Gestalt Educational Programme concludes with Lecture and 27 Prizes

"Gestalt Educational Programme Concludes"
International The News, Pakistan, 28.11.2011, City News, p. 14

Mercedes Checa, Troya Roy, Mariano Akerman, Joan Lewin, Jenny Naseem

Our correspondent
Islamabad

The final lecture of the Gestalt Educational Programme (GEP), which was initiated about a month ago, was delivered by Argentinean architect and art historian, artist Mariano Akerman at the auditorium of the German Embassy and attended by a number of students, teachers and art aficionados.
The event also included a prize awarding ceremony to those who won the collage competition and the teachers who helped in making the programme, chalked out by the speaker, a success. The number of participants who took part in the GEP was 2,500 and it was sponsored by the embassies of Switzerland and Germany.
Titled "Functionalism and International Style in Modern Times" the lecture traced the history of the Bauhaus, a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts and was famous for the approach to modern design that it publicised and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933.

Gropius & Meyer, Bauhaus, Dessau, 1925

At that time the German term Bauhaus, literally "house of construction" stood for "School of Building." The school existed in three German cities (Weimar, Dessau and Berlin), under three different architect-directors: Walter Gropius from 1919 to 1928, Hannes Meyer from 1928 to 1930, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1928 to 1933 [...]. The basic concept of the Bauhaus school was simplicity [...]. [The educational institution] was founded at a time when the German Zeitgeist (spirit of the times) had turned from emotional Expressionism to matter-of-fact New Objectivity. An entire group of working architects, including Erich Mendelsohn, [...] turned away from fanciful experimentation and moved toward rational, functional, sometimes standardized building and items of daily use designed on clean and simple lines.

Studied in detail: Paul Klee's Insula dulcamara, 1938

The institutions which took part in the Programme include Islamabad College for Girls; Postgraduate College for Women, Rawalpindi; COMSATS University; Alliance Française d'Islamabad; Lahore Grammar School; International School Islamabad and National University of Modern Languages. Twelve Students received prizes for best collage [entries] in the competition: Rabeea Ahmed; Haider Abbas; Najeha Rashid; Sundas Sana; Aisha Saeed; Saba Malik; Ikram Haider; Sawera Gull; Anum Hamid; Saira Solangi; Janita Fatima and Saadia Ashrad. The teachers who were acknowledged were Hannyia Abid; Farah Nez Sheikh; Mercedes Checa; Saba Mansur; Mamoona Kahn; Abeera Zahid; Joan Lewin-Pohl; Saba Faisal; Troya Roy; Akifa Imtiaz and Huma Koya. [A special Token of Friendship was granted to Jenny Naseem, an unconditional supporter of the Gestalt Program]. Three institutions also received prizes: Islamabad College for Girls; Postgraduate College for Women, Rawalpindi and COMSATS University.
lecture over, prizes were distributed and Mariano Akerman thanked the Swiss and German envoys and embassies for their help and cooperation before refreshments were served.
Gestalt is a German word for "form" or "shape." It is used in English to refer to a concept of "wholeness."
The series of fifteen lectures explored the themes of Gestalt theory and Bauhaus design in the 1920's and aimed at sharing experience and reconsidering the interplay between tradition and modernisation.

"Gestalt Educational Programme Concludes," International The News, Pakistan, 28.11.2011, City News, p. 14
Ref. Mariano Akerman, Lecture on Modern Art and Collage Contest Prizes
German Embassy, Islamabad, 22.11.11

References
1. Gestalt Program Announcement and Brochure Online, 30.9.11
2. Islamabad, Swiss Embassy, Mariano Akerman: Bridging Cultures (excerpts from a note by Sara Mahmood), press release, 20.10.11
3. Islamabad, German Embassy in Islamabad, Integrated Whole, Experimentation and Identity, Gestalt: Theory and Design in the New Objectivity Age, 25.10.2011, ill.
4. Islamabad, Deutsche Auslandsvertretungen in Pakistan, Integriertes Ganzes, Experimentieren und Identität, Gestalt: Thorie und Gestaltung im Zeitalter der neuen Sachlichkeit, 28.10.2011, ill.
5. Ishrat Hyatt, Gestalt Programme Launching Event, International The News, 22 October 2011, City News, p. 19 (online).
6. "The Ambassador of Switzerland ... held Reception Lecture of the Gestalt Educational Program held by Architect Mariano Akerman," Diplomatic Focus, Pakistan, Vol. II, Issue 8-9, October-November 2011, p. 70, photographs by Shabbir Hussain
7. SwissPak Association
8. Almas Haider Naqvi, "Other is the Same Side of the Picture," Dataline Islamabad, 22 October 2011, p. 4, ill.
9. Maqbool Malik, "Tradition meets Modernisation," The Nation, Pakistan, 24 October 2011
10. Gauhar Zahid Malik, Embassies of Switzerland and Germany present 'Gestalt': Theory and Design in the Age of New Objectivity, Fifteen Educational Lectures by Mariano Akerman, Architect and Art Historian, Pakistan Observer, Pakistan, 3.11.11, p. 9, ill.
Ilona Yusuf, Enhancing Perception: The Gestalt Lectures and Collage Competition, Blue Chip Magazine, Issue 87, Volume 8, Islamabad, January-February 2012, pp. 16-19, ill.
Sara Mahmood, Mariano Akerman: Bridging Cultures, Blue Chip Magazine, Issue 87, Volume 8, Islamabad, January-February 2012, pp. 20-24, ill.