Notes for an Art School

Notes for an Art School, the first publication of Manifesta 6 School Books, was commissioned by the International Foundation Manifesta in Amsterdam and Manifesta 6 in Nicosia. It is an anthology of essays and interviews by international artists, curators, theorists and educators on the topic of art education. Contributors are Mai Abu ElDahab, Babak Afrassiabi, Julie Ault, Martin Beck, Liam Gillick, Boris Groys, Olaf Metzel, Haris Pellapaisiotis, Tobias Rehberger, Walid Sadek, Nasrin Tabatabai, Jan Verwoert, Anton Vidokle and Florian Waldvogel.The book lays the theoretical ground for Manifesta 6, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, for which the curators Mai Abu ElDahab, Anton Vidokle and Florian Waldvogel propose to challenge the conventional format of the large-scale exhibition and, alternatively, set up an art school - the Manifesta 6 School - in Nicosia, from 23 September to 17 December 2006.The contributors to the book rethink the goals and structure of an art school, its ideological contexts, the positioning of its students to the art world, its relationship to social and political conditions, and the level of its discursive involvement, drawing on specific examples and on their own experiences to interrogate the appropriateness and validity of existing school models.In their collaborative essay, Julie Ault and Martin Beck speak about the democratization of academies as a means of generating active social engagement. Boris Groys conjectures that ‘the goal of education is to make the students able to read an apology as a critique’, Liam Gillick addresses ‘the rift between the theoretical components of an art school environment and other practical working aspects of the same place’, and Jan Verwoert tackles the academy as a site of production from the viewpoint of both its defender and critic. Olaf Metzel looks at some possibilities of reaction outside of institutional frameworks, Walid Sadek argues that by positioning itself as an institution in constant flux, the art academy can become a safe haven supporting the proliferation of multiple significations, and Babak Afrassiabi and Nasrin Tabatabai, dissecting the example of Abbas Kiarostami’s film First Case, Second Case, call for knowledge production based on an understanding of the changing nature of discourse. Haris Pellapaisiotis writes about Artalk, a lecture series he organises in Nicosia in absence of alternative institutional frameworks for critical cultural dialogue, while Tobias Rehberger discusses his teaching method as a process of destroying the clichés and preconceived notions that students bring with them into art school, and also provides some personal insight into his own education.Each of the Curators of Manifesta 6 also contributes an essay addressing the issues facing the Manifesta 6 School from different standpoints: Mai Abu ElDahab considers the way in which the School can assert its socio-political role; Anton Vidokle looks at the Manifesta 6 School a project in dialogue with the history of experimental art education, and Florian Waldvogel proposes the School as an alternative model in contrast to the existing European academies.

Notes for an Art School is designed and typeset by Dexter/Sinister, Nicosia, and distributed internationally by IDEA Books: http://www.ideabooks.nl It can be ordered through http://www.manifesta6.org.cy and http://www.manifesta.org A digital version of the book’s essays can be found on the Manifesta 6 website: http://www.manifesta6.org.cy An online forum on the topics of the book will soon launch alongside the essays.