Education - Felicity Allen

Part of the acclaimed 'Documents of Contemporary Art' series of anthologies .

This book will be an original and indispensable resource for all who believe in the importance of art in the wider educational realm. Framing the recent "educational turn" in the arts within a broad historical and social context, this anthology raises fundamental questions about how and what should be taught in an era of distributive rather than media-based practices.


Among the many sources and arguments traced here is second-wave feminism, which questioned dominant notions of personal and institutional freedom as enacted through art teaching and practice. Similarly, education-based responses by the art community to the catastrophes of World War II and postcolonial conflict critically inform contemporary art confronting the interrelationships of education, power, market capitalism, and - as Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri describe it - the global condition of war.

These writings by artists, philosophers, educators, poets, and activists center on three recurring and interrelated themes: the notion of "indiscipline" in theories and practices that challenge boundaries of all kinds; the present and future role of the art school; and the turn to pedagogy as medium in a diverse range of recent projects. Other writings address such issues as instrumentalism and control, liberation and equality, the production and the politics of culture, and the roots of research-based practice and experimental participatory works.

Artists surveyed include:
Anni Albers, Josef Albers, Pawel Althamer, Ricardo Basbaum, Joseph Beuys, Tania Bruguera, Lygia Clark, Luca Frei, Liam Gillick, Group Material, Thomas Hirschhorn, Dave Hullfish Bailey, Mike Kelley, Darcy Lange, Maria Pask, Lia Perjovschi, Bridget Riley, Paul Rooney, Martha Rosler, Edgar Schmitz, Judith Scott, Andreas Siekmann, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Carey Young and Artur Zmijewski.

Writers include:
Jorella Andrews, Roy Ascott, Dennis Atkinson, Stuart Bailey, Lars Bang Larsen, Carol Becker, Caroline Benn, Claire Bishop, Pierre Bourdieu, Luis Camnitzer, Pen Dalton , Paul Dash, Dinah Dossor, Jimmie Durham, Thierry de Duve, Elliot W. Eisner, Alex Farquharson, Harrell Fletcher, Andrea Fraser, Paulo Freire, Henry A. Giroux, Janna Graham, George E. Hein, Pablo Helguera, Tom Holert, Allan Kaprow, Vincent Katz, Mary Kelly, Grant H. Kester, Suzanne Lacy, Carmen Mrsch, Antonio Negri, Andrea Phillips, Griselda Pollock, Ernesto Pujol, Jacques Rancire, Adrienne Rich, Irit Rogoff, Suely Rolnik, Ziauddin Sardar, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Allan Sekula, Miriam Schapiro, Lisa Tickner, Caroline Tisdall and Jan Verwoert.