March 16–April 2, 2016
A-venue
Kungsportsavenyn 25
Gothenburg
Sweden
From March 16 to April 2, as part of the 150th anniversary of Valand Academy, A-venue in Gothenburg, Sweden, is hosting a platform entitled Meaning Making Meaning.
Meaning Making Meaning, curated by the artist Gabo Camnitzer (Lecturer, Valand Academy) explores the interface between art and pedagogy, seeking to situate artistic pedagogical practice not only as the domain of art education, but something with relevance to all areas of education. To this end Meaning Making Meaning features a broad spectrum of teachers, educational theorists and artists involved in teaching, and spans a variety of settings from early childhood to higher education, both inside and outside of institutional structures.
The platform consists of three components: an exhibition; a workshop series; and a reading room that is organised by Eva Weinmayr (PhD student, Valand Academy).
An invited group of over 30 prominent figures working with artistic and pedagogical issues, have submitted written and visual responses to one of two queries. The first query is the Felix Guattari question from Chaosmosis: “How do you bring a classroom to life as if it were a work of art?” The second is a reformulation of the same question: “How do you bring a work of art to life as if it were a classroom?” Respondents include Felicity Allen, Elizabeth Ellsworth, Harrell Fletcher, Henry Giroux, Janna Graham, Jeuno Kim, Tyson Lewis, Lisa Nyberg, Irit Rogoff, Carl Anders Säfström, Anton Vidokle, and many others.
The reading room Library of Inclusions and Omissions consists of contributions by members of the public of under-recognized and marginalized texts that do not conform to the canon of Western, white, patriarchal academia; have not been recognized by main-stream publishing; and are currently absent from our established libraries and databases.
The curated workshop series has as its focus meaning-making as a situated and embodied practice, where learning is generated in the moment rather than delivered in prepackaged units of knowledge. Half of the main exhibition space will be empty at the outset of the exhibition period and serve as the venue for the workshop series. Over the course of the program the empty space will steadily fill up with the accumulated materials and byproducts of the workshops taking place there.
Workshop schedule
March 16, 10am–3pm
Jakob Jakobsen
“Small steps toward an educational theater”
Language: English
March 17, 4–5pm
Andrea Phillips—open lecture
“Speaking objects, dumb subjects”
Language: English
March 19, 10am–3pm
Andrea Francke
“The radicality and invisibility of early years education”
Language: English
March 20, 1–4pm
Barnfilmskolan—open lecture
Camera workshop for anyone from the age of 0–100 years
Language: Swedish
March 21, 2–5pm
FAGS
“What does a cultural institution look like? Who gets in, who gets out?”
Language: Swedish
March 23, 10am–3pm
Cara Tolmie
“Tempo Trials: boredom, pleasure, metabolisms and worm-holes”
Language: English
March 30, 9:30am–12:30pm
Annette Krauss
“Revisiting Hidden Curriculum”
Language: English
Sign up for the workshops!
150 years of Art Education at Valand Academy
During the 2015–16 academic year, the staff and students of Valand Academy are marking the anniversary of the Gothenburg Museum Drawing School, established October 1865. The art school has developed over the last century and a half to become the Valand Academy at the University of Gothenburg—providing education, supporting artistic development and leading research in film, literary composition, photography and fine art.
Meaning Making Meaning follows on from the conference “Critical Practices: Education from Art and Artists,” 2015, that initiated the anniversary celebrations.
Save the date! “Feminist Pedagogy Mobilisation” closing event of our anniversary year: Valand Academy, October 12–14.
We are currently recruiting a Postdoctor in Photography with a focus on Human Rights
Contact:
Paulin Nande, [email protected]
Valand Academy
University of Gothenburg
Vasagatan 50
Gothenburg
Sweden
