Grade 11 and Grade 12 IB Visual Arts students took part in an enrichment visit to MACRO, Rome’s Museum of Contemporary Art, exploring exhibitions by Miriam Cahn and Hito Steyerl.
The visit provided an opportunity to experience contemporary artworks first-hand, investigating how artists employ visual strategies, materials, techniques, processes and modes of presentation to communicate meaning and engage audiences.
Students examined Cahn’s expressive handling of paint, her use of colour and the intensely physical processes evident in her large-scale charcoal works. Her practice offered valuable insights into how gesture, mark-making, layering, scale and material experimentation can communicate powerful ideas and emotions. These observations provide practical strategies for students to investigate, adapt and experiment with in their own drawing and painting inquiries.
Steyerl’s immersive video installation encouraged students to consider how moving image, sound, spatial arrangement and exhibition design can shape an audience’s experience. Her work opened possibilities for students exploring video art, installation and interdisciplinary approaches, demonstrating how the presentation of an artwork can become an integral part of its meaning.
Throughout the visit, students documented observations, analysed artistic decisions and identified specific approaches they could bring directly back into their own studio investigations—from experimenting with expressive mark-making and unconventional material processes to considering scale, sequencing, projection and audience engagement.
These encounters are integral to IB Visual Arts inquiry-based learning, connecting the investigation of other artists’ practices with purposeful experimentation, critical reflection and the development of students’ own artistic intentions.
Rather than simply observing contemporary art, students are encouraged to test, adapt and transform what they discover, allowing encounters with professional artistic practice to generate new directions in their own art-making inquiries and inform the development of their resolved artworks.
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