A ‘What If’ Exercise: On the institution of the art school

Silvia Bottiroli

doi:10.21476/PP.2020.52287

Authors

Silvia Bottiroli DAS Theatre, Amsterdam

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21476/PP.2020.52287

Keywords:

art school, institution, fictional institution, art education

Abstract

We are increasingly experiencing an antagonistic polarization within the art schools. This seems to reflect the contemporary socio-political atmosphere, ruled by inequalities and injustices, fuelled by a narrative of scarcity and competition and by a very broadly spread mistrust, when not aggression, towards the very idea of the institution. As a matter of fact, schools are one of the few institutions in the theatre field providing a space for such polarizing relationships: they provide a space for friction, for conflict even.

This paper approaches the theatre school as an institution and a thinking entity, in the attempt to explore the forms of agonism that it makes possible, and how they can support positive forms of polarization. It assumes the perspective that “we are the institution” and, by acknowledging the agency that each of us has within artistic institutions, suggests some ways of thinking and practicing theatre school otherwise.

Author Biography

Silvia Bottiroli, DAS Theatre, Amsterdam

Silvia Bottiroli, PhD, is a curator, researcher, organizer and educator in the field of performing arts. Since 2018 she is the artistic director of DAS Theatre in Amsterdam. Between 2012 and 2016 she directed Santarcangelo Festival and in 2018 curated the programme ‘The May Events’ for KunstenFestivalDesArts in Brussels and Vooruit in Ghent. She is interested in the intersections between theoretical research, curatorial practices and education. In these fields she has written numerous articles, focusing in particular on the politics of performativity and spectatorship. She has (co)curated artistic, discursive and educational platforms, collaborating among others with Aleppo, in Brussels Homo Novus Festival in Riga, School of Visual Theatre in Jerusalem and Gent University. Since 2011 she teaches Methodology, Critique and Research in the Arts at Bocconi University in Milan.

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