Second-hand Knowledge

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Ana Vujanović (2009-13)

It is commonplace or even commonsense that the bulk of knowledge that reaches the periphery is second-hand knowledge. And the periphery—that is us, Serbia, Southeast Europe, Yugoslavia, the Balkans. There is no irony here, for these regions are peripheral, provincial, and marginal with respect to the centres of the First World, Europe, the European Union, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or the Ottoman Empire. For instance, let us briefly consider some prominent examples from Serbian twentieth-century art.[1] Dadaism reached us through Dragan Aleksić, his studies in Prague and connections with the Dadaists circles there. Eurhythmics and Laban’s method arrived here by way of the gymnastic dance workout and dance practice of Maga Magazinović, who studied with Max Reinhardt and Rudolf Steiner. Early conceptual art arrived mostly with Hungarian magazines, thanks to the Hungarian minority in Vojvodina, Serbia’s northern province. Still later, Tanztheater reached us through the modern ballet of Sonja Vukićević and theatre anthropology of the 1990s through a few local figures who studied with Eugenio Barba at Odin Teatret. And today, we also have our own versions of new British drama and contemporary—especially so-called conceptual—dance as the predominant practices on the contemporary performing arts scene…[2]

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Deschooling Classroom (2009-2012)

Self-education in the arts and culture, by TkH and Kontrapunkt (Ana Vujanović, Marta Popivoda, Iskra Geshoska)

The long-term regional project is organised by TkH (Walking Theory) platform from Belgrade in partnership with Kontrapunkt, from Skopje.
Co-authors and editors of the project: Ana Vujanović, Marta Popivoda, Iskra Geshoska.
General manager: Jelena Knezević

Deschooling Classroom is a project that addresses the contemporary independent cultural scenes in the region, researching and offering an alternative to the hierarchical models of education in the art and culture. Methodologically, the project moves away from the concepts of individual authorship and expertise, and advocates open collective educational structures where self-organised communities facilitate horizontal production, exchange and distribution of knowledge.
Its specific objectives are: to raise the awareness of potentialities of self-education, and to develop methodologies for alternative education in contemporary art and culture; to offer studying new and hybrid fields of contemporary culture and art and to help sharing the critical knowledge among art and cultural practitioners; to stimulate collaboration among those who aim to intervene in the existing cultural system; to challenge the conceptual and infra-structural set-up of cultural institutions; and to create new supporting infrastructures for the independent cultural scenes.

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