Establishing a Non-Establishment

Why does our society separate studying and learning from day-today life and designate specific institutions to distribute knowledge? I have learned from studying Foucault to ask Who controls the production and distribution of knowledge?

In his conceptual analyses, Michel Foucault6 denounced that ‘sovereign power’ was replaced by ‘disciplinary power’ in (Western) cultural practices. Questioning how discourse shaped and created the systems of meaning that gained status and acceptance as “truth,” Foucault argues that such learned discourses dominate how we define and organize ourselves and our world.

Inspired by Paulo Freire and bell hooks’ critical pedagogical approaches, and art projects by Joseph Beuys, Luis Camnitzer, and Tania Bruguera, among others, Escola Aqui’s meetings are composed of propositions that follow an identify-think- discusscreate trajectory. These propositional practices consider the context where the meetings occur, and the participants’ cultural backgrounds, beyond any institutional environment.

Planting an independent school inside a powerful and established institution, such as SVA, is a way to provoke questions that can subvert hidden ideologies about education, as well as authority on knowledge taken as “truth.” Escola Aqui quickly became not just an artistic expression, but a political gesture— something that made me unfold many understandings that I previously took as “normal” regarding learning and teaching.

ESCOLA AQUI

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Escola Aqui

Activation on February 27, 2020. In the photo: Myron, Dulce, James, Chantal, and Kevin (left to right). Ativação ocorrida em 27 de fevereiro de 2020. Na foto (esq para dir): Myron, Dulce, James, Chantal e Kevin.

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Escola Aqui

Activation on February 27, 2020. In the photo: Dani, James, Chantal, and Kevin (left to right). Ativação ocorrida em 27 de fevereiro de 2020. Na foto (esq para dir): Dani, James, Chantal e Kevin.

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