The Politics of Affinity.
Experiments in Art, Education and the Social Sphere.
Edited by Silvia Franceschini, published by Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto
The publication focuses on experimental pedagogical programs in which thought and critique, performativity and experimentation have become a way to influence reality according to what the feminist philosopher Donna Haraway had defined as “the politics of affinity”, a pedagogical model based on conscious participation and the choice of shared strategies. The book is built around a series of conversations with directors, founders, artists and curators behind such programs in Western and Eastern Europe, Latin America and Middle East. The essential questions focus on how different models of instituting, exhibition making, and educational programming shape the engagement with each specific context. What does it mean to politicize art and education in different historical, political and economical contexts of post-welfare Western and post-socialist Eastern Europe, non-state condition of Palestine, or within dynamics of Global South along the lines of former empires from the Caribbean/Puerto Rico to Spain? Which attitudes, methods and positions are implied?
The conversation have been conducted with: Sciences Po Experimental Program in Political Arts, Paris (Frédérique Aït-Touati and Donato Ricci), Museum Reina Sofia Study Center, Madrid (Jesus Carillo), The School of Kyiv. Kyiv Biennial 2015, Kyiv (Vasyl Cherepanyn), BAK basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht (Maria Hlavajova), Beta Local’s Ivàn Illich, San Juan (Michy Marxuach and Sofia Gallisà Muriente) and Chto Delat’s School of Engaged Art, Saint Petersburg (Dmitry Vilensky). The educational value of art in the civil domain is further examined in an essay by Pascal Gielen commissioned especially for the publication and in the contributions by Federica Martini and Ian Alden Russell commissioned on the occasion of the workshop “Socially Engaged Art Practices and Education in Contemporary Discourse” held at Cittadellarte in 2014.
The volume also contains an introduction by Paolo Naldini, Cittadellarte Director; Cecilia Guida, UNIDEE Director and Curator for the years 2015-2017 and an essay by Silvia Franceschini, curator and researcher,editor of the publication.
Silvia Franceschini has curated for Cittadellarte the exhibition “Politics of Affinities. Sperimentazioni tra Arte, Educazione e Politica” in the within of Art at the Centre 2016.
