topic: My learning is affected by the condition of my life

This project by Aude Christel Mgba, is a critical reflection on the future of art school.

My learning is affected by the condition of my life by Aude Christel Mgba, is a project that is intended as a constellation centred around a critical reflection on the future of art school. 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.

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.

things.1499.mylearningisaffectedbytheconditionofmyli.webp

blog Aude Mgba – 11 jan. 2021

My learning is affected by the condition of my life

A project by Aude Christel Mgba in the framework of Future of (art) school

In the framework of this project which is a collaboration between Studium Generale and sonsbeek, I was invited by Joke Alkema to respond to one of their current studies. I decided to focus on the study The future of art schools in order to have a broad conversation around school and education.

Essay Tchandeu Narcisse Santores

The undoubted disconnection between the current system of art and the public, makes art a "white’s thing'' and this idea is increasingly attached to the social life of this activity. How? Dr. Tchandeu Narcisse Santores writes about this in his essay: From 'Collective Anonymity' to 'Individual Mark': Rediscovering African Art as a Model for Participatory, Interactive and Environmentalist Education.

essay – 08 feb. 2021

From 'Collective Anonymity' to 'Individual Mark': Rediscovering African Art as a Model for Participatory, Interactive and Environmentalist Education

Essay by Narcisse Santores Tchandeu

This essay by Narcisse Santores Tchandeu is based on transversal approaches in art / cultural history, anthropology and sociology of change and investigates how the question of education / learning / artistic training or through art has very often been posed only through the prism of the performance of institutions inherited from the colonial period, as if ancient African societies were foreign to it.

Annette Schemmel and the term of 'Système de Grands-Frères'

Système de Grands-Frères is a 9’36’’ audio visual material by Annette Schemmel about her book on ways to become a visual artist in Cameroon.

Audio visual material by Annette Schemmel about her book.

blog – 03 mrt. 2021

Experimental quest on the relevance of the 'Système de Grands Frères' for the arts

video – 08 feb. 2021

Annette Schemmel explains the term of 'Système de Grands-Frères'

In response to the project My learning is affected by the condition of my life by Aude Christel Mgba, Annette Schemmel explored the relevance of the Système de Grands Frères for the arts beyond Cameroon. Partners on three levels joined in this experimental quest; her students at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, a class of pupils at Theresien-Gymnasium München and the curator Aude Christel Mgba, currently working from Arnhem.

video – 10 feb. 2021

Conversation Antje Majewski, Annette Schemmel and Aude Christel Mgba

In this pre-recorded online conversation Antje Majewski, Annette Schemmel and Aude Christel Mgba talk about systems of transmission and making of art, spaces of learning and making.

Amadou Hampâté Bâ

An interview made in 1969 in which Malian writer, historian and ethnologist Amadou Hampâté Bâ shows how colonization, literacy, and at a different level, ethnological work, have broken the springs which allowed this culture to perpetuate and develop. And a pre-recorded talk with Aude Mgba, Karima Boudou and Renée Mboya.

video – 03 mrt. 2021

Interview with Amadou Hampâté Bâ (from 1969)

The great Malian writer, historian and ethnologist

This video is a documentary by Ange Casta aired on Channel 1 for the first time on September 7, 1969, on the program "Un Certain Regard". It is an interview by Enrico Fulchignoni with the great Amadou Hampâté Bâ (1900/1901 - 1991), a Malian writer, historian and ethnologist and one of the most authentic interpreters of the genius of African oral tradition.

video – 10 feb. 2021

Conversation Aude Mgba, Karima Boudou and Renée Mboya

About Amadou Hampâté Bâ, language, translation, location and new forms of learning

This video is a conversation between Aude Mgba, Karima Boudou and Renée Mboya around the project Ecole du caméléon. In the project and the film they took the figure of Amadou Hampâté Bâ and his legacy as an important reference. It questions language and translation, location and new forms of learning.

The tree, a video by Tally Mbok

The tree is a movie about a man that remembers his life and the stages of his training as a human being made by Tally Mbok who lives and works in Douala Cameroon. He is an experimental artist and founder of the concept "ancestral future", project of research into the archives of African belief systems.

video – 25 feb. 2021

The tree, a video by Tally Mbok

The Tree (5.30 minutes) is made by Tally Mbok and is part of the symposium ‘My learning is affected by the condition of my life’ by Aude Christel Mgba.