Who listens to whom and how?

From the university magazine Zett

Claudia Hummel with Elisa de Costa Policarpo. Photo Regula Bearth.

Published on

Author Elisa da Costa Pollicarpo und Martina Egli

A conversation about power relations, boundaries and their shifts, as well as the new major in Critical Social Practice in Art Education at the Department of Cultural Analysis.

Two women meet in a room at Toni-Areal to reflect on institutional frameworks such as ZHdK. They share a perspective on socially critical practice that will really be taking off this autumn. Claudia Hummel is an art educator, university lecturer, historian of education and project organizer who works at the interface between art, education and society. She heads the new major in Critical Social Practice in Art Education and has come to ZHdK after teaching at Berlin University of the Arts for many years. She discusses the programme with Elisa da Costa Policarpo who is completing her masterโ€™s degree in African Studies and has contributed to developing the new major as a research assistant.

What does Critical Social Practice in Art Education mean to you?

Perhaps we ought to first consider social practices and ask which ones we are dealing with in the context of art and education. A social practice can be a reading group, designing a community garden, negotiating module or programme contents, an art education event at a museum or in a city. But an admissions examination at an arts university is also a social practice and glass ceilings in social institutions are the result of social practices.

When we critically reflect on social practices amid the tensions and power structures surrounding and shaping them, they become critical social practices.

Exactly, attempting to shift the prevailing conditions to achieve social justice is crucial. This requires close observation and questioning: How do we learn, read, sew, draw, print, build, cook together? With whom, why and where? Who are we? Who provides the impetus? What knowledge, what desires do different actors have when working together? Whose aesthetics become visible when and where? Who listens to whom and how?

Does that mean that we are exploring how we work together artistically, taking social differences into account - or is it more than that?

Social differences are created by society. Realizing this is one matter. Dealing with boundaries that are also inherent in art education or that define an institution is another. Critical social practice thus also refers, for example, to the social practices inhering in degree programmes at an arts university.

I am also interested in who benefits from art education, that is, the work of art educators. In this connection, we might also discuss the tension between emancipatory practice and the institutional appropriation of criticism.

Claudia Hummel
So itโ€™s about institutional critique?

Not only: the anti-discrimination perspective also plays a decisive role in this regard and raises a host of interrelated questions: Who has access to arts university? Who doesnโ€™t? Why? What are the requirements? Who defines them? I am also interested in who benefits from art education, that is, the work of art educators. In this connection, we might also discuss the tension between emancipatory practice and the institutional appropriation of criticism.

As far as socially critical practice at an institutional level is concerned, have you observed any positive examples in Switzerland?

Well, I have lived in Berlin for the last 23 years and only moved to Zurich last July, so Iโ€™ll let you answer that question.

The Rietberg Museum and ETH Zurich have certainly tried to break new ground with the Afrikana Collections, by developing formats that seek to actively involve the communities of origin and give Afrodiasporic artists more space. For me, another example in and around Zurich is the DAHEIM association, a residential community for people with impairments. The association has been active for over twenty years and has discovered a system malfunction and rectified it on its own initiative by launching a completely new living and care model. I still find this institution unique.

I asked you to work on the ยซField Academyยป module as part of the second semester of our ยซCritical Social Practice in Art Educationยป major. This involves organizing ยซinternshipsยป to enable students to get to know social practices elsewhere and to bring in their art education skills. What sorts of places might welcome our students?

Well, museums and theatre or youth centres where art education interventions and various practices are actively used in everyday life would be ideal. However, it is also important to consider unconventional locations. These might include Zurich railway station, Zurich Zoo or the opera house. They also raise the question about who has access and who doesnโ€™t. More importantly, these spaces need to be explored together with students. Starting with their interests, we want the group to work out which social conflicts or tensions it considers worth addressing. Speaking of students: the first cohort of the new major in ยซCritical Social Practice in Art Educationยป is just starting. What are your hopes for them?

The first year will definitely be special because it is the first. The group is very heterogeneous and all students have specific concerns about society and their engagement with it. I hope that they will fill the programme with their questions and make use of the scope it offers.

Claudia Hummel with Elisa de Costa Policarpo. Photo Regula Bearth.