Touch | Carlos Rendón The program school without school was developed in a context where there are literally no schools. This doesn’t just mean no schools of art, but rather no schools at all. In light of the pandemic of 2020, educational establishments were all closed. This forced us to look for new participants and ways to approach them. During the year in question, we did what seemed right: we used technological means to connect with others through talks and roundtable discussions. But we knew it wasn’t enough. We turned this inability into an opportunity to try out new formats and offerings, starting with multigenerational workshops. Routine had kept us restricted to working in schools and universities. The changing times, however, brought us back to the original objective of school without school: to deliver knowledge through non-traditional methods in a variety of settings, away from the cages and rigid ways of thinking, getting closer once again to the people, with no regard to titles, degrees, age or any other barrier in between. We worked in open spaces offering workshops that previously would have been held inside of classrooms –but which were now conducted on beach boardwalks or football fields– going for a more participative, interactive approach, in which there would be no problem for a grandfather to attend with his granddaughter. Ignoring preconceptions about what an art workshop is supposed to be, or the number of attendees, or how many community interventions there were, allows for a purer way of relating with others.
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