m of care – apr 25 24
pedagogies of care – part 3 – [https://museum.care/events/pedagogies-of-care-part-3/]:
The third encounter of ‘Pedagogies of Care’ series will host artists and activists Mariette Schiltz and Edna Gee, both closely linked with *‘Isola Art Center’ and *Isola Pepe Verde projects in Milan, Italy. ‘Isola Art Center’ was a free experimental and dynamic platform that combined internationally acclaimed contemporary art, emerging young art, and theoretical research with the needs and desires of the inhabitants of the Isola neighborhood. It was driven by energy, enthusiasm, and solidarity. It initially took root by occupying the space known as ‘La Stecca degli Artigiani’ in Isola, a post-industrial working-class neighborhood in Milan. Here, it found itself at the center of a conflict where it firmly aligned with the residents’ struggles against top-down urban planning and gentrification. The battle was lost, and ‘La Stecca’ and the two nearby parks were evacuated and demolished to make way for luxury skyscrapers. This ‘Fight specific’ mode of operation became an important foundation of their work, recounted in the book ‘Fight-specific Isola: Art, Architecture, Activism, and the Future of the City,’ published by Archive Books, 2013.
*from isola art center site: Isola Art Center is an open and dynamic experimental platform, combining international-level contemporary art, emerging young art, and theoretical research, with the needs and desires of the neighbourhood’s inhabitants.
**from isola pepe verde site: Isola recalls the toponymic place of the neighborhood..Pepe is the street of the association’s headquarters which is named after Guglielmo Pepe..Green is the color of youth and health, of hope and well-being, it recalls meadows, plants and woods.. On Green Pepper Island there are no custodians or guardians, because everything there belongs to all members and all visitors and must remain the property of all.. Everyone can access Green Pepper Island, everyone can find themselves and their ideas, as long as they don’t pretend to contradict and limit others.. Common use should not be affected by the selfishness and arrogance of some.. At Isola del Pepe Verde, individual initiative gives enthusiasm and diversity of behaviour, it is not anarchy, but the product of imagination and respect for everyone’s diversity.
city sketchup ness.. et al.. in the city.. as the day
Without the Stecca Isola Art Center became a ‘dispersed center’, causing its activities to sprawl into bars, bookshops, piazzas, and as in the Rosta Project on the shutters of shop windows and businesses, continuing the collaboration with the neighborhood. At the same time, it joined the neighborhood associations and inhabitants to lobby for a new self-organized community space and draw attention to the need for more public green space. The result of this lobbying was ‘Isola Pepe Verde’, a self-organized community garden located on a vacant lot in Pepe street. Today, ‘Isola Pepe Verde’ continues to be a shared garden open to all, self-sufficient in water and energy, with trees, benches, fruits and vegetables grown in boxes, with artistic workshops, as well as spaces and playground for children. This new garden coming to life was seen as a concrete little Utopia in progress. This created a moment for Isola Art Center to take flight, to travel and cast their research wider. That was the start of Isola Utopia project which took off in San Mauro Cilento, stopped by in Vienna and Riga, to return to Milan and eventually passed by Casale Monferrato. In this project Isola Art Center became part of Isola Pepe Verde and collaborated with *‘Rimaflow‘ a self-managed, fully functioning occupied factory in Milan. It was an ongoing research initiative that was collecting fragments and moments for new Utopias. This research continues with the hope to produce both practical examples, text and art works that could help us construct a part of the world that we desire to live in. Both Mariette and Edna will share their experience and talk about the social, political and pedagogical implications of Isola Art Center project. Many of the strategies and ideas they will tackle, were closely linked to the practice of artist Bert Theis – one of the founders of Isola Art Center, a teacher and important mentor to many young activists and artists who passed away in 2016.
*from rimaflow site: RiMaflow is a work project based on mutual aid, solidarity, equality and self-management. It brings together the unemployed, precarious workers, migrants, disabled people, artisans, artists, organic farmers, communities and local associations..In 2012, Maflow, a historic factory in Trezzano sN in the Italian automotive sector, was closed due to financial speculation by its owners. 330 workers were fired. We didn’t give up and, continuing to fight, we recovered the factory, starting the RIMAFLOW project, our re-birth.
Series of encounters Pedagogies of Care, curated by Andris Brinkmanis draw inspiration from the legacies of historical figures such as Francisco Ferrer Y Guardia, Asja Lacis, Bertolt Brecht and Walter Benjamin, Ivan Illich, Augusto Boal, Palle Nielsen, bell hooks and David Graeber among others and aims to foster a debate, bridge and bring together various figures and groups engaged with alternative pedagogical strategies on a global scale.
notes/quotes from meeting:
andris: intro.. projects are in milan
mariette schiltz: video maker and former social worker living in milan since 97.. program started in 2001.. so difficult to tell the story.. but will tell about tools and what we learned.. then edna will tell from her pov as a student and then now a teacher impact this project made on her life
for us
1\ undisturbed ecosystem (common\ing) can happen
2\ if we create a way to ground the chaos of 8b legit free people
mariette: don’t start a project just by idea.. need also companions.. also need a situation where people around become more sensitive to ie: contemp art.. we were lucky to have these
yeah to that.. ie: story board [2008 to present] ness
mariette: on possibility to work outside institution.. kept starting and stopping.. 3 mos as a time.. so wanted to start a long term one.. met group of residents who wanted to start a community.. and had a construction site.. looking from art.. we thought.. could be like an experiment to see if art could change top/down decision.. we thought art has all tools to do it..
need: art (by day/light) and sleep (by night/dark) as global re\set.. to fittingness (undisturbed ecosystem)
mariette: started by squatting 2nd floor of this bldg (stecca).. a center of experimental art.. isola art center.. decided not to transform it into a white cube.. but into a dirty (?) cute.. ‘revolution is on hold’ .. we started an institution w/o wanting to be an institution.. ie: nobody wanted to become the director.. like a project that can never arrive at dead end .. at stopping point.. perpetual experimentation.. we did everything to help the artists realize the project and make their own exhibition.. we did everything from cleaning up space.. organizing workshops for children.. et al.. a glocal project.. a project that couldn’t have been done in an institution.. because support from whole district.. then experiment over in 2007 when city govt decided to give this construction to developer.. and was supposed to be destroyed.. so we decided not to stop.. but to re declare the whole district
andris: now area is all sky scrapers.. all the tools you developed so powerful.. and some people involved in redevelop appropriated some of your strategies.. since you were deeply engrained in this community.. so they saw necessity to your language
mariette: yeah .. we call that canibalism.. on creating a house where every room was in another district.. idea of the dispersed house.. ie: market, sea, city.. we went where people were.. ie: library.. where people work.. plaza for food.. when lost (bldg) maybe lost battle but won the community.. before had down site specific art to protect bldg.. in this new situation.. decided to link all our projects to a fight/conflict/action of district.. ie: for benches and walls.. symbolic.. but they took it away when began construction site.. new way to make art linked to conflict in the district.. we decided to go from site specific to fight specific
be you house – interview.. and web in house ness.. every room a nother gathering..
mariette: we continued to dream about what we wanted to do in the bldg.. to make a new kind of center for art/community.. where a simple drawing.. wishes of district put together in one drawing..
city sketchup.. ongoingly changing drawing..
mariette: 3 steps: (missed first), dream, transform..
vision videos and notice dream connect do (detox)
edna gee: i was quite skeptical in the beginning.. i think of participation projects as pretentious.. ie: taking care of poor community.. felt like a ‘do-gooder’ perception of social art.. this experience i lived in isola was really ver concrete.. i start my story late in isola’s history.. in 2012 when i was a student.. many young italian artists it was a very formative period.. so will mix in things that were also going on around us..
help\ing ness and invited vs invented ness
edna: started masters in 2011 and moved to italy (africa).. struggling to find my place and figure out who i was .. bet (?) wasn’t a traditional teacher.. taught by ie.. made you learn thru living.. that was valuable.. pics of building eco boxes et al.. no soil there so had to transform garden over cement.. so hands on experience with people in community.. talking of getting permission to use the space.. didn’t want to repeat an occupation in traditional space.. wanted to put in work to be able to stay.. this was quite radical for me.. came from very privileged suburban space in africa.. on the way you could use public space..t work projects for children.. who at that time had no parks.. everything under construction at the time.. it was really this that involved students.. he called himself a sub curator.. that’s what really switched me over
how we gather in a space.. huge..
imagine if we listened to the itch-in-8b-souls 1st thing everyday & used that data to connect us (tech as it could be.. ai as augmenting interconnectedness as nonjudgmental expo labeling)
edna: very organic way of working.. could be an artist or do work to support artists.. not working on own project but helping others.. learning/exchange of ideas.. a diff way of working.. often don’t have a budget so have to work thru collab/energy..
to me.. have to all be art ist.. again to getting at the itch-in-8b-souls 1st thing every day..
this is why need sabbatical ish transition.. so that same song of working for others becomes irrelevant s.. and now is cancerous distraction
edna: what blew my mind.. space changed and a community did this.. amazing to see how people come together when something positive is offered.. an ie of care in best way possible..
more toward graeber violence in care law if invited vs invented.. need to just be offering spaces of permission where people have nothing to prove and there are no strings attached
edna: we worked w local ed coop.. they helped with gate and gate’s shadow.. painting it.. isn’t your project alone.. don’t always have control over aesthetics of project.. a collective mural.. how listening to people but also being able to be listened to
need mech/means to facil non hierarchical listening.. ie: via nonjudgmental expo labeling
andris: giving places to see more.. ie: https://isolartcenter.org/en/
nika: how were people selected?.. govt support.. ? how was it integrated into capitalistic system..
need: sabbatical ish transition
mariette: (to nika’s question) when the building went down.. students just came because desire for (alt) possibilities.. so participated on own or in projects.. there was always something to do.. everyday it was interesting to come and see who’s working on something.. we always said we are no low budget but no budget.. so if ask had it .. but we said if we don’t have money we don’t have false friends..t
10-day-care-center\ness.. and again on the sabbatical ish transition
mariette: very stimulating moment for students.. talked w/people but protected by us.. could do things that never were possible in academy.. t
again to the spaces of permission where people have nothing to prove.. but too no strings attached.. no raised eyebrows
tatiana: 1\ in which ways do you think these projects to be pedagogical.. 2\ do you have international contacts/networks
edna: 1\ not directly set out to be a teaching experience.. but it’s educational.. always an exchange of ideas and to participate.. and something directly workshops.. so some more traditional experiences.. but not strategy of pedagogy.. but more a living experience.. we’re looking for concrete utopias.. looking for something that is possible.. from that pov.. it’s looking for ie’s..
mariette: 2\ we learned a lot from other projects.. hamburg park.. paris.. luxemburg.. when we wanted to invite an artist/group.. we would invite for lecture.. then invited them to isola (*founding member had a lot of connections.. riding off back of him – artist Bert Theis – one of the founders of Isola Art Center, a teacher and important mentor to many young activists and artists who passed away in 2016).. that was our secret.. we didn’t invent things.. we learned from others.. isola is an ie.. **happy if someone can find/take something off it.. but it doesn’t want to be a model..t
*this is like barry in year 2 – the be you house
**huge.. i’d say.. even act of looking/observing other ie’s .. the dance is already compromised.. each of us has all we need w/in us.. we need to trust/try that.. otherwise we just keep perpetuating not-us ness (aka: sea world).. this is huge.. and why nika’s chat comment below unsettles me
nika in chat: We are hope to create one in St Vincent and really want to connect with you!
if only you could hear nika..
there’s a legit use of tech (nonjudgmental expo labeling).. to facil a legit global detox leap.. for (blank)’s sake.. and we’re missing it
legit freedom will only happen if it’s all of us.. and in order to be all of us.. has to be sans any form of m\a\p
art (by day/light) and sleep (by night/dark) as global re\set.. to fittingness (undisturbed ecosystem)
andris: on colin ward’s book the exploding streets.. school in street
edna: i think it’s wonderful to be able to work in a space like a factory
andris: on workers re acquiring the space.. reinvent econ..
oi.. if only.. perhaps better?.. but needs to be sans any form of m\a\p to be legit diff (aka: for all of us)
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be you. 