Thomas Hirschhorn: What I can learn from you. What you can learn from me. (Critical Workshop).

As part of Remai Modern’s inaugural exhibition, Field Guide, Thomas Hirschhorn presents What I can learn from you. What you can learn from me. (Critical Workshop)., the artist’s first “Presence and Production” project in Canada. In advance of the 4-week workshop, Hirschhorn has visited Saskatoon multiple times to consult with community groups and organizations, conducting fieldwork and reaching out to potential “Teachers” and “Learners”—roles that can be reversed. The artist has completely transformed the museum’s free, ground-floor gallery into a workshop space where he will be present from morning to evening, facilitating exchanges of knowledge, skills and histories between Saskatoon residents and visitors. Each “Teacher” will receive CAD 100 and all workshop participants will be given a bracelet, designed by the artist, granting admission to the museum for the duration of the workshop.

"The idea, the philosophy, the guideline, the affirmation of this workshop is: to share the particular and by sharing it, making it universal. Because everybody can learn something from the Other. And because everybody can teach the Other something specific.

"'What can I learn from you. What can you learn from me.' is the affirmation that there is something to share, which goes beyond all differences, beyond all particularities. I want to understand learning as sharing. Sharing something with the other is an act of generosity because what is shared allows the Other to learn. What is learned is something I did not expect to learn, I did not need to learn, I did not want to learn. I learned it because somebody made the gesture of sharing it to me. She/he taught me something because her/his competence. She/he didn’t teach me because it was important to me, but because it was important for her or for him. Therefore, it can, also, become important to me. Nothing is of no importance, everything can be important, everything can become important. I want to define the act of sharing—a work, a skill, a thought, an experience—as an act of competence. We/I will share what I/we am/are competent for. We/I must ourselves/myself decide what I am competent of. To be competent means to take responsibility. I want to create the conditions in which to share our competences, all kind of competences we own, as human beings. 'What can I learn from you. What can you learn from me.' reflects the ambition and the attempt to create a universal work of art."
—Thomas Hirschhorn

What I can learn from you. What you can learn from me. (Critical Workshop). continues Hirschhorn’s approach of continuous on-site engagement, as developed in recent projects such as Flamme Éternelle (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2014) and Gramsci Monument (produced by Dia Art Foundation and installed at Forest Houses in the Bronx, NY, 2013). These inclusive projects oppose hierarchies of culture and artistic value, encouraging unexpected encounters and critical social discourse. What I can learn from you. What you can learn from me. (Critical Workshop). aligns with Remai Modern’s interest in rethinking the conditions in and methods through which learning takes place.

Remai Modern is a new museum of modern and contemporary art in Saskatoon, Canada. Field Guide—curated by Gregory Burke, Executive Director & CEO, and Sandra Guimarães, Director of Programs & Chief Curator—animates the entire building with a spirit of active engagement, curiosity and disruption. Featuring leading artists from Saskatchewan, Canada, and the world, the exhibition rethinks the idea of “modern” from multiple cultural, geographic, historic and contemporary perspectives. Hirschhorn’s workshop is one of several new commissions which anchor the exhibition and propose new social, personal and political engagements with the museum and its audiences.

What I can learn from you. What you can learn from me. (Critical Workshop).  is generously sponsored by TD. Remai Modern’s programming is supported by The Frank & Ellen Remai Foundation, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Saskatchewan Arts Board and SaskCulture.

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