UNFROZEN EDUCATION – Or How To Relearn
5 – 20 October 2019
Rethymno, Greece
The art exhibition FROZEN EDUCATION became a working laboratory where artists and public reflected on the past, present and future of the Greek educational system throughout the recent decades, and moreover researched the effect of art as an active tool and platform for pedagogy. Based on the discussions and exchange that FROZEN EDUCATION initiated, the continuation art project UNFROZEN EDUCATION – Or How To Relearn has been conceived to take place in different locations around Rethymno, Crete, in October 2019.
Sociologist Donna Haraway states: „We find ourselves in a time-tunnel of onrushing and irreversible extinction, that’s simply a fact“. In the Anthropocene, the geological epoch where humans have become a geological force and transformation of the landscape surrounding us happens with an accelerated rate, what is still natural and what is anthropogenic? How can we navigate ourselves in between modified nature and overtaking technology? Instead of refusing tradition and folk knowledge or demonizing technology and science, we could let them come together, collide and collaborate in order to show us ways towards new sustainable futures. In times of virtual reality, a huge range of blurred fake news and unbelievable facts like the ongoing denial of climate change, it is even more important to not freeze in powerlessness and to ask: How and why are we trapped in a toxic system and so often not capable to act? In the context of an art exhibition, one could ask: What is valuable about an artist’s approach to one`s surroundings? Maybe, observing and recognizing the trodden paths of our own mind and making new approaches imaginable. Our context and narratives influence the possibilities that we are able to see in our environment. Like this, they eventually impact the tilting moment for either immobility – or action. How can we raise the awareness for our surroundings and regain our sensibility towards their fragile balance? There is a need to relearn multiple forms of curiosity. A need for new educational platforms in order to keep our instincts awake and be present.
With UNFROZEN EDUCATION – Or How To Relearn the engaging artists and thinkers want to explore the interplay of these theoretical fields and the space of experience that can be opened through the sensual quality of art. More than ever it is essential to unlearn the patterns of a society molded by inherented conditioning and to think in a more inclusive way: To sharpen our sensibility and to develop an autonomous approach to the issues of our present – and what is yet to come.
Curated by Dimitra Charamandas and Yota Tsotra
Organised by University of Crete, Xeniseum – Museum of Education
With works by:
Suzanna Asp
Dimitra Charamandas
Panos Chasapis
Maria Glyka
Flo Kaufmann
Gergana Mantscheva
Dawn Nilo
Dimitris Rentoumis
Johanna Schaible
Johan Svensson
Marina Tantanozi
Irene Trujillo
Yota Tsotra
Vassilis Vlastaras
Adonis Volanakis
Xeniseum –
Museum of Education
With the support of University of Crete, Museum of Education –Xeniseum, Program: “Science of Education, Critical Pedagogy and Teacher Education”, Athens School of Fine Arts, Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete, Region of Crete – The Regional Unit of Rethymno, Municipal Public Benefit Enterprise of Rethymno (K.E.DI.R.), Stadt Solothurn, Amt für Kultur und Sport des Kanton Solothurn, Association of Rethymno
Watch the film footage of the exhibition here.
Download the exhibition’s flyer here and the booklet here.