Nowadays art academies are no longer simply institutes for art education, but places where art is received, produced, collected and distributed. The idea of the open academie has consequences for art, the practice of exhibition making, and art education itself.
With all the talk about academies exceeding boundaries it’s perhaps a good idea, when all is said and done, to look at things simply. At least, it would be good if that were possible. Here we have the school, an art school if you like, and there, a bit further on, is the outside world. Simple enough, you might think.
The market is making inroads on education. The annual student presentations are hunting grounds for gallerists and curators who are tripping over each other in their insatiable craving for talent. The question is whether the transformation from place of freedom to marketplace is good for the quality of the art academy. Artists Willem de Rooij and Simon Starling have a wealth of experience , first as students and now as teahers and are totally familiar with various renowned academies. At the request of METROPOLIS M they conducted a email about the pros and cons of open and closed education.
Luxembourg Casino Luxembourg. Forum d'art 19/06/04 - 15/07/04
Casino, the forum for contemporary art in Luxembourg, has succeeded for years already in conducting, under the leadership of Enrico Lunghi, a deviant exhibitions policy that is at odds with the choices made by most museums and art centres. A good example of this is the two-part project Re-location Academy and Shake Society which was part of an international exchange programme between seven European art centres.
