Visual Literacy. Fifth edition 2026/2027 Application deadline: 25.09.2026
Between October 2021 and June 2022 the Institute of Art History of the University of Warsaw together with the Charles University in Prague and the University of Milan implemented – as part of the 4EU + Alliance – the one-year educational module “Visual Literacy: Understanding Images across Europe – Past and Present”. The second and third editions of the module were conducted in 2022/2023 and in 2024/2026. Now the new, fifth edition is about to start.
The classes conducted within the framework of the module were taught by lecturers from three partner universities:
- Davide Colombo, PhD (University of Milan)
- Monika Czekanowska-Gutman, PhD (Univeristy of Warsaw)
- Jan Dienstbier, PhD (Charles University)
- Kamila Dworniczak, PhD (University of Warsaw)
- Vendula Fremlová, PhD (Charles University)
- Pavla Gajdošíková, PhD (Charles University)
- Magdalena Herman, PhD (University of Warsaw)
- Giulia Kimberly Colombo, PhD Candidate (University of Milan)
- Karolina Mroziewicz, PhD (University of Warsaw, project coordinator)
- prof. Marie Rakušanová, PhD (Charles University)
- Zuzanna Sarnecka, PhD (University of Warsaw)
- Joanna Smalcerz, PhD (University of Warsaw)
- Zuzana Štefková, PhD (Charles University)
- prof. Giorgio Zanchetti, PhD (University of Milan)
- Giulia Zompa, PhD (University of Milan)
The module consists of an online conversatory class, an online tutorial and in-person field workshop.
In 2026/2027 students can choose between four tutoring programs:
- Visual literacy: Between Educational, Artistic and Curatorial Approaches. This is a tutorial conducted by Pavla Gajdošíková, Vendula Fremlová and Zuzana Štefková, which will be focused on contemporary art, art education and curating as a form of dialogue and as a way of broadening critical thinking. The students will be researching the contemporary art field and analysing its tendencies, topics or “turns”. On this basis the students will try to develop their own curatorial project together with educational activities (art mediation). The students will be encouraged to their own artistic attempts to understand the attitude of an artist as well.
- Between Likeness and Creation: Portrait, Self-Portrait, and the Transformations of Image and Identity from Early Modern to the Contemporary Arty. This tutorial, led by Monika Czekanowska-Gutman, is devoted to the relationships and tensions between portraiture and self‑portraiture, examined in a chronological framework, from late medieval art to the present day, with particular attention to modern European art and selected non‑European examples. The students will explore how artists, through formal strategies and iconographic choices, shaped their own likeness or the image of the portrayed sitter, while simultaneously constructing, adopting, concealing, or destabilizing identity. We will also consider how portraits and self‑portraits have served as responses to the conflicts and traumas of their time.
- The Material Culture and Visual Language of Early Modern Games This tutorial, led by Magdalena Herman, explores how printed games from the late 15th to early 18th centuries were made, perceived, and used as interactive, social, and material artifacts. The course focuses primarily on selected examples of card, board, and book games, examining the relationships between these objects, their makers, and the practices surrounding them. While printed games and related gaming artifacts will provide the primary focus, selected case studies may also draw on other artifacts. The students will consider the materials, techniques, and forms through which gaming objects were produced, as well as the ways in which they reflected early modern social and cultural practices. The course will also examine how games and gameplay were represented in early modern visual culture. Finally, the visual language of games themselves and the ways in which images, texts, and material forms contributed to their meaning and experience will be considered.
- Materiality of Colour and Practices in Painters’ Workshops of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modernity. This tutorial, conducted by Karolina Mroziewicz, will explore the physical properties of colours, the economic and cultural value of pigments, their trade routes, and their application in 15th- and 16th-century painters’ workshops. Students will engage in hands-on experiments with paint production and reflect on the conditions that rendered the pre-modern colour palette legible, meaningful, and valuable to contemporary viewers. They will also experience first-hand the challenges and limitations of reconstructing late medieval and early modern paint recipes.
The presentation with practical information about the upcoming edition of the project can be downloaded here.
The classes begin in 15 October 2026.