Education from Below is a two-year collaborative programme organised between the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam, MACBA, Barcelona and WHW, Zagreb.
Education from Below explores art as a place for dialogue, collective learning and imagination. Education doesn't belong only in institutions, but it can be horizontal and come from below, from communities.
The project recognises that art practices can dislocate the usual hierarchies of what should or should not be learned and traditional divisions between theory and practice, and that knowledge does not have to be based on accumulation, but rather on sharing and mutual learning.
The partners will explore new models of art practice based on collective learning and will generate a network of institutions and professionals for sharing methodologies.
Education from Below links three independent programmes for artists, Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, PEI at MACBA, and WHW Akademija that each provide important opportunities for artistic development outside of formal education systems. The project will be realised over the course of autumn 2019 – autumn 2021 through seminars, study groups, artist residencies, exhibitions, series of lectures, an international conference, a collective reader and a common web platform, involving many artists, thinkers and educators.
Publication and reader 'Artistic Ecologies: New Compasses and Tools' is the result of the entire Education from Below programme, published by WHW and Sternberg Press, co-edited by Pablo Martínez, Emily Pethick, Milica Vlajković and WHW and designed by Dejan Kršić.
'Artistic Ecologies: New Compasses and Tools' recognises that art practices can dislocate traditional divisions between theory and practice, as well as build knowledge through sharing and mutual learning. Going beyond tensions between individuals and institutions, the publication examines avenues for engaged pedagogies, collective learning, and artistic ecologies that can engender new institutionalities.
If learning for life is emancipation—understood not just as a matter of power but of freedom—the essential question that emerges is: What knowledge makes us free and how can institutions help produce it? In search of an answer, this publication’s textual and visual contributions explore sites and practices through which new institutionalities can emerge.
Contributors include: Luna Acosta, CAConrad, Yael Davids, Eva Ďurovec, Marina Garcés, Teuta Gatolin, Yayo Herrero, Sandi Hilal & Alessandro Petti (DAAR), Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz, Margherita Isola, Jammers, Pablo Martínez, Dan Perjovschi, Emily Pethick, Pirate Care, The Sensing Salon, Cecilia Vicuña and WHW. The book is published under Sternberg Press and distributed by MIT Press, Art Data, Les presses du réel, and Idea Books.
The publication is co-funded by the City Office for Culture, International Relations and Civil Society, Zagreb, and the Ministry of Culture and Media as well as the Office for Non-Governmental Organizations of the Government of the Republic of Croatia. Through project grants to WHW Akademija this publication is supported by FfAI/Foundation for Arts Initiatives and Kontakt Collection, Vienna, and ERSTE Foundation, Vienna.