FLΔG Re-turning the Educational Turn, 27-29 April 2010

http://www.chelseawiki.org/index.php/FLAG 

Through a three-day intervention into the Triangle Space Gallery, FLΔG played 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 was 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 were invited to explore this topic within a setting of artworks that also engaged with these dialogues. Key issues discussed were methods and sites of knowledge-transfer, the artist as educator, collaboration and participation and the idealisation of art education.

The 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 dematerialised, 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.