THE PUBLIC SCHOOL is a school with no curriculum. At the moment, it operates as follows: first, classes are proposed by the public (I want to learn this or I want to teach this); then, people have the opportunity to sign up for the classes (I also want to learn that); finally, when enough people have expressed interest, the school finds a teacher and offers the class to those who signed up.
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL is not accredited, it does not give out degrees, and it has no affiliation with the public school system. It is a framework that supports autodidactic activities, operating under the assumption that everything is in everything.
The Public School (Brussels) is set up by Komplot at Nadine, from November 2009 until April 2010 and later in other venues in the city. Telic Arts Exchange (Los Angeles) initiated The Public School, an art school “with no curriculum.” It now also exists in Philadelphia and Chicago with new schools opening this Autumn, in New York at Common Room, in Paris at Bétonsalon and in Brussels at Komplot.
Komplot is a collective of curators founded in Brussels in 2002 that produce projects in visual art and beyond on a nomadic way. The goals of The Public School meet ours in the sense of opening up to new practices of art and learning in culture.
http://www.kmplt.be
Nadine is an arts laboratory aimed at developing research focusing on transdisciplinary experiments in the fields of new media and live arts.
http://www.nadine.be/
80 rue Gallaitstraat
1030 Brussels
Origin : Telic Arts Exchange (Los Angeles) initiated The Public School, an art school “with no curriculum.” It now also exists in Philadelphia and Chicago with new schools opening this Autumn, in New York at Common Room, in Paris at Bétonsalon and in Brussels at Komplot.
Method : It operates as follows: first, classes are proposed by the public (I want to learn this or I want to teach this); then, people have the opportunity to sign up for the classes (I also want to learn that); finally, when enough people have expressed interest, the school finds a teacher and offers the class to those who signed up. So, there is in fact a curriculum, but it is self-organized out of the audience.
Practice : The Public School is a provocation, which asserts that “the school” should be considered as a model for the future of the alternative art space. Many artists today are doing in depth research, experimenting with new technologies, and are orchestrating social events. Art galleries modeled on the store, naturally tend to support finished, object-based art practices. An exhibition space modeled on the school, however, could be more open to ongoing, process-based, participatory practices.