FLAG
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FLAG: Re-turning the Educational Turn
IntroductionFLAG: Re-Turning the Educational Turn Educational turn: 'Education' is increasingly a key concern for contemporary art practice. Documenta 12 and UnitedNationsPlaza, the practice of artists such as Rainer Gahnal, the publication of Art School, exhibitions such as A.C.A.D.E.M.Y and conferences such as the forthcoming De-schooling Society: all have been defined under the umbrella term, ‘the educational turn’. This term, coined by Irit Rogoff in 2006, covers a very wide range of concerns and events, without having a clearly defined locus. Claiming pedagogic practices as a form of art can be seen as a way of idealising forms of art education, as an attempt to aestheticise education. Alternatively, it can be seen as a form of dematerialized, participatory art practice. Regardless of the way we choose to look at the proliferation of the ‘educational turn’, it demonstrates a new and widespread response to a moment of urgent self-examination both in contemporary art practice and within art education. However, it must be emphasised that so far the educational turn has mostly been a turn away from the art school and towards the art world. FL∆G: Through a four day intervention into the public space of the Triangle Gallery, FL∆G returns to, explores and plays with the ‘educational turn’ by re-turning the exploration of art and pedagogy to the art educational institution itself, in this case Chelsea College of Art and Design. The event is a shared venture amongst participants in dialogue with each other and the institution, the latter understood as both a physical entity and as a discursive arena. Speakers from inside and outside the art educational institution are invited to come and explore this topic within a setting of artworks that also engage with these dialogues. Key issues for pedagogic practice are methods and sites of knowledge-transfer, the artist as educator, collaboration and participation and the idealisation of art education. FL∆G intends to encourage a process-based approach, stimulating dialogue rather than conclusions. Initially set up as a student research group under the name 'Turning Educational', FL∆G marks an engagement with a broader public whilst still maintaining the initial research-orientated/process-based approach. The art world and art educational institutions need to collectively build a more active, dynamic and critical relationship; it is the aim of FL∆G to contribute to this process. What has shifted for the art school now that the educational turn has brought us ‘school as art’? FL∆G crucially aims to explore this intersection between the 'educational turn' and art education with an event that is formed as both intervention and exhibition – where some of the issues at play are also articulated in different kinds of artwork. We see the work as a critical component dialogue together with the discursive layers constituted by presentations and discussions. Partners: FL∆G is working in dialogue with The Showroom Gallery. The Showroom is at the forefront of artist and gallery-based research into how knowledge is constructed and shared. Throughout 2010 the Gallery is running a series pilot projects under the umbrella title Communal Knowledge. By collaborating with The Showroom, we hope to build on and share research, comparing how different sites construct and explore knowledge, and to examine what is at stake within these various constructs. SALT, the Chelsea BA Fine Art indie magazine (*is this how they describe themselves? Are they a magazine or art group?), will make a small publication in Collaboration with FL∆G.
WhereProject to run during Autumn term 09 - Spring term 10
ResourcesSuggested reading list
Websites
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