We are pleased to announce the project My learning is affected by the condition of my life by Aude Christel Mgba, an independent curator and art historian and co-curator of sonsbeek20->24 exhibition. My learning is affected by the condition of my life is a project that is intended as a constellation, a symposium spread over time, centred around a critical reflection on the
future of art school. The title comes from a lecture by Professor Kopani Ratelo given in 2017 about Decolonising research, teaching & learning: Situating Africa.The title wants to acknowledge the importance of taking the learner into account as an active participant of knowledge production and transmission but also the context as an element that influences the learning.
The programme of the symposium will be developed through an analysis of some current and past forms of school (artist collectives, art studios, l'ecole sous l'arbre, etc) by discussing its actual role of current structures of art schools and how it serves new liberal structures. We will be looking at forms of art schools that can think of the society as a whole, where mutual support could be a common feature, looking at structures that more keenly encourage collective and collaborative thinking rather than individual auteurism and that is organically allowing intersection between disciplines and spaces.
This is an attempt at an epistemic reconstruction that leads towards experimenting with various forms of learning, listening, touching, transmitting and producing knowledge. A reconstruction that experiments with the values of collectivity and multidisciplinarity, and of openness versus enclosure. A reconstruction that uses the body as an entity in itself, as an element of knowledge, and that allows plurality and transversality.
My learning is affected by the condition of my life is not an invention but rather an inquiry into pre-existing places, spaces and events. Artists, curators, researchers, writers etc. who already engage with these topics in their practice were invited to participate in the making of a common tool through different formats such as workshops, conversations, performances, screening and writing. This common tool in the making will be a very small-scale edition of a new syllabus for
educators and for students.
