The SWISS INSTITUTE – CONTEMPORARY ART (S I) is pleased to host the launch for Notes for an Art School, the first publication of Manifesta 6. Notes for an Art School is an anthology of essays and interviews by artists, curators, theorists and educators on the topic of art education. Contributors are Mai Abu ElDahab, Babak Afrassiabi, Julie Ault, Martin Beck, Liam Gillick, Boris Groys, Olaf Metzel, Haris Pellapaisiotis, Tobias Rehberger, Walid Sadek, Nasrin Tabatabai, Jan Verwoert, Anton Vidokle and Florian Waldvogel.
The book lays the theoretical groundwork for Manifesta 6, the European Biennial of Contmporary Art, for which the curators Mai Abu ElDahab, Anton Vidokle and Florian Waldvogel propose to challenge the conventional format of the large-scale exhibition and, alternatively, set up an art school - the Manifesta 6 School - in Nicosia, from September 23 - December 17, 2006.
The contributors to the book rethink the goals and structure of an art school, its ideological contexts, the positioning of its students to the art world, its relastionship to social and political conditions, and the level of its discursive involvement, drawing on specific examples and on their own experiences to interrogate the appropriateness and validity of existing school models.
Notes for an Art School will be available for purchase at the S I during the event, and may also be purchased online at www.manifesta6.org.cy and www.manifesta.org. It will soon be available through amazon.com. A digital version of the book's essays can be found on the Manifesta 6 website.
