Picnic by the road – workshop for high school students and others interested

The Department of New Media of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb invites high school students, future students of New Media and others interested to the workshop "Picnic by the Road" led by alumna Jiao Guo. The workshop will be held from October 7 to 9, 2026, from 4 pm to 7 pm, at the Department of New Media, Ilica 83, Zagreb.

What happens when we walk away from familiar objects and try to find something unusual and strange in them?

At the workshop "Picnic by the Road" , the starting point will be the search and collection of objects to which we will then give movement and agency that is not anthropomorphic, but sets new systems and animisms through animation, transformation and collage.

We will use the strangeness and potential of the other as a basis for imagining alternative worlds and forms of existence.

The workshop will be held in English.

Applications and additional questions: novimediji.alu@gmail.com

About the workshop leader

Jiao Guo (Shenyang, 1987) is an intermedia artist based in Zagreb. In her work, she deals with materiality, the ways in which narratives about nature are constructed, the overlap of geology, ecology and contemporary life, and the relationship between bodily experience and technology and entities other than humans.

Her work often follows a process-oriented approach, creating assemblages from materials collected in nature and everyday environments, often reusing objects that have lost their original function. Starting from the experience of working with materials such as paints and pigments, she experiments and creates her own media using wax, resins, alcohol, turpentine and other organic and inorganic substances. In the process of work, she often focuses on a tactile and multisensory approach.

She has exhibited at solo and group exhibitions, including the 6th and 7th Biennale of Painting. Biennial of Painting (HDLU, 2021 and HIS, 2023), Matrice (SC Gallery, 2022) and the Exhibition of the Finalists of the Golden Watermelon 8.0 Award for Young Artists (MSU Istre, Pula).

She graduated in graphic design and photography from the Kunstuniversität in Linz, and completed her undergraduate studies in Painting and graduate studies in Animated Film and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb.