The Magacin cultural center in Belgrade will host the International Theoretical Symposium: Goat Tracks of Self-Education on September 21st and 22nd, as part of the 41st edition of the Bitef festival of new theatrical trends. We will be participating by presenting projecte3*, which we are very happy about because we find both the general approach and the symposium program really interesting. Among other things, because it raises areas of reflection that are close to us, such as the relationship of education and knowledge with production systems, and proposes the collective practice of self-education as an alternative to modern forms of schooling, as Ana Vujanović (editor of the symposium together with Miško Šuvaković) says in the presentation text “Collective self-education […] also offers opportunities for de-hierarchization and the construction of new models of collaboration, as well as exchange, by requiring new working protocols and procedures from the participants.” The symposium also focuses on what the implication of art could be in these educational practices under the current social and economic conditions.
All the material presented during the symposium will be published jointly by TkH and Bitef in a bilingual edition of the TkH journal entitled Self-education, and we will let you know when it is released. By the way, Ana Vujanović is part of the group that is carrying out s-o-s-project, an investigation into self-organized educational practices that we have already talked about briefly in a previous post, but that really deserves more attention… it will all come in time.
Since it is not yet posted on the Bitef website, we have put the program after the ‘read the rest of the entry’ and also the small presentation text in case someone is too lazy to investigate the links.
SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE:
September 21, Friday
11.15-11.30: introductory word (editors)
11.30-14.00: theoretical papers/exposures – session 1.1
– Milena Dragićević-Šešić: New Learning Strategies; Peer learning as the method in the teaching cultural cooperation in Europe
– Nikola Dedić: Avant-garde, Post-pedagogy and Late Socialism
– Bojana Cvejić
– Nicolas Siepen: The Flight from the Flight; Film, Politics, Collectivity, Authorship, Trace (Mai 68)
16.00-18.45: presentations – session 2.1
– Jan Ritsema: PAF (PerformingArtsForum): Self-learning programme
– Janez Janša: EDA (East Dance Academy)
– Francisco Rubio, Mariló Fernández: projecte3* – LaFundició
– Oliver Frljić: Highways of Knowledge – CDU
– Marta Popivoda, Bojan Djordjev, Ana Vilenica: s-o-s-project – TkH & Kontekst gallery
September 22, Saturday
11.15-14.00: theoretical papers/exposures – session 1.2
– Marina Gržinić: The Impurity of Education, Knowledge and Self-organization
– Marijana Mitrović: “You’ll Need More Tables than You Think”; Post-pedagogical Interventions in Anthropology and Performing Arts
– Katherina Zakravsky: Ethics and Virtuosity
– Miško Šuvaković: Epistemology of Art; Critical design for procedures and platforms of contemporary art education
16.00-18.00: presentations – session 2.2
– Dalija Aćin, Dejan Srhoj: Nomad Dance Academy
– Vladimir Jerić Vlidi: slobodnakultura.org
– Marta Popivoda: <illegal_cinema>
– Jože Barši: Radical Education
18.15-19:30: discussion/debate – session 3
– all participants et al.
INTERNATIONAL THEORETICAL SYMPOSIUM WITHIN THE 41st
BITEF: Goat Tracks of SELF-EDUCATION
One of the most popular topics in the current Artworld is the production of knowledge, namely education as a means of production of knowledge. It is also the case in the performing arts, which are the primary (although not the only one) focus of the conference.
What is typical of the current context is not only an increased number of educational institutions related to the performing arts, but also the fact that education itself is becoming an artwork.
The question is: why is education becoming so important (or popular?) in the arts today?
A provocative hypothesis is that art, by declaring itself as a production of knowledge, is trying to obtain a new legitimacy in the world of market logic, mass media and internet, in which it has lost its previous position. Therefore, if education is important, the question is whether it could be detoured?
The artists today, as they have been doing since the avant-garde, and especially since the conceptual art, are taking over education into their hands, while understanding the critical potential of knowledge in the upcoming “society of knowledge”. In that way we understand self-education – as learning that is not focused on specialization that will be charged/paid for, but has the critical potential of multitude of “other usages”.
Collective self-education, as a common practice especially in performing arts, offers also opportunities for de-hierarchization and building of new models of collaboration, as well as of exchange, by demanding new working protocols and procedures from the participants.
Belgrade, May 2007
Ana Vujanović
