Creativity Exercises
October 18, 2014–February 1, 2015
GfZK – Museum of Contemporary Art
Karl-Tauchnitz-Straße 9-11
D-04107 Leipzig
Germany
Hours: Tuesday–Friday 14–19h,
Saturday–Sunday 12–18h,
Free entrance on Wednesday
T + 49 341 40 81 0
assistenz [at] gfzk.de
How people learn, what they know and how it influences their personality, their behavior and their position in society is examined from various different perspectives. With a focus on Eastern Europe, Creativity Exercises presents historical and contemporary artistic projects that experiment with alternative forms of learning. The exhibition, workshops, and lectures look into the inquiring quality of creativity, which is at the same time subversive and constructive: artistic approaches that challenge a wider view of learning, and related social, economic, and institutional conditionalities, are introduced and activated.
In analogy with questions and concepts associated with educational and social sciences, these artistic projects investigate equitable forms of learning and knowledge exchange. The interplay of individual expression and collective action is considered, along with the reversibility of the relationship between teacher and pupil. Another focus is on exclusion mechanisms in the education system versus the empowerment potential of knowledge.
The title of the project is borrowed from a drawing course held by the artists Miklós Erdély and Dóra Maurer between the years of 1975 and 1977 in Budapest. For a short time, independently of state art schools, the education of amateurs presented the opportunity to put collective and process-oriented work to the test and to eliminate thought barriers.
Participants and projects: 1969 Anna Herskó and Judit Vas: Learning Methods after Kurt Lewin; 1971 KwieKulik: Games on Morel’s Hill, Open Form-School, Open Form-Hansen’s Studio; 1975-77 Dóra Maurer and Miklós Erdély: Creativity Exercises; 1984–85 Andris Grīnbergs’s art pedagogical courses at Mazirbe special school; 1985 Laima Žurgina: Ugly Ducklings; 1988 Dóra Maurer: Creativity-Visuality; 1992/93 Grzegorz Kowalski, Kowalnia, Collective Space – Individual Space VIII; 2005 Pavel Ałthamer: Einsteinklasse; 2005 Luis Camnitzer: The Assignment Book; 2007 Artur Żmijewski: Them; 2011 ex-artists’ collective (Tamás Kaszás and Anikó Loránt): Amphibian. Bulletin Board –Yurt; 2012 Bouchra Khalili: Speeches. Chapter 1: Mother Tongue; 2013 Rainer Ganahl: Teaching a Five Year Old a Chinese Song from the Great Cultural Revolution; 2014 October–November Kennen.Lernen; 2014 October 23–24 / 2015 January 8–9 workshop Elsa Artmann and Samuel Duvoisin; 2014 November 21-22 commented film screening of Peter Watkins: La Commune (Paris 1871) with Patrick Watkins, Jean-Pierre Lenestour and Pierre Vergnaud; 2014 November 27–29 reading seminar with Rainer Ganahl on Elias Canetti’s Crowds and Power (1960), 2014 December 2–3 Creativity Exercises reactivated by a former participant Zoltán Lábas; 2014 December 5 staged reading by Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa: History of the art school; 2015 January 19–22 Artur Żmijewski and Tomaš Rafa: Alien. Workshop; 2015, January 27–28 The Missing Classmate Company: The Lost, participatory theatre
Creativity Exercises is realized as a collaborative project of tranzit.hu, Budapest (hu.tranzit.org) and GfZK – Museum of Contemporary Art, Leipzig (www.gfzk.de)
Partners: Asylum-seekers’ hostel Torgauer Straße, Leipzig; Academy of Fine Arts Vienna; University of Leipzig.
Curated by Dóra Hegyi (tranzit.hu) and Franciska Zólyom
Research by Zsuzsa László (tranzit.hu)
The project is funded by the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony, the ERSTE Foundation, and the Federal Chancellery of Austria.
