Luca Frei, Andrea Crociani, Nark Bkb, Pamela Rosenkranz, Izet Sheshivari, Alexandre Singh, Angela Marzullo, Stefan Burger

"We have all learned most of what we know outside school." (Ivan D. Illich, Deschooling Society, 1973)

"One is not smart on one's own, but in dialogue". (Jimmie Durham, Como, 2004)

Walter Gropius in the Bauhaus Manifesto (1919) wrote "art cannot be taught"; artistic education is thus based on a paradox. Art cannot be untaught is an exhibition dealing with the idea of pedagogy, transmission of knowledge and that of school; it will be hosted in a building that used to be a state primary school and whose architecture still bears trace of that past. The eight Swiss and international artists invited, all born between 1970 and 1980, will be working on the subject matter and presenting new works especially conceived for this exhibition, considering a social, political and educational outreach.

Luca Frei (1976) and Andrea Crociani (1970) have always been interested in pedagogical models and their revolutionary potential, the former observing thoughts processes and creating platforms for discussion, Frei will produce a new installation for the show, the latter researching the anarchist approaches to education, like "Summerhill" an experimental school in the North of England, Crociani will present transcriptions of music lessons to children, done in collaboration with a music association based in the building. Nark Bkb (1975) draws a socio-political analysis making an intervention in la rada's gym, one of the oldest in Switzerland, with the writing "SAFETY FIRST" and through a sound installation proposing the gymnastics among the school desks as featured on a end of the 19th century Italian manual for the health of the pupil.

Pamela Rosenkranz (1979) departs from scientific and philosophical positions, then presenting them as faulty systems; in the show will feature a black box with a 80 pieces slide show called "Resistance- Wiederstand" and a series of new paper works inspired by Adorno's Aesthetic Theory. Izet Sheshivari (1981) relates playfully to the school by exhibitiong a rucksack made with felt, in an hommage to Beuys; it will be filled with informations. Alexandre Singh (1980) will involve the viewer in a performative environment, where he will be presenting different moments in art history through over 100 drawings and collages, framed and placed on a wall where the artist will be tracing a new genealogy of the artistic production using as examples Piero Manzoni, Yves Klein and the monuments to leaders in the public realm.

The exhibition will also comprise a video screening with works by Angela Marzullo, Stefan Burger and Andrea Crociani.

Many intellectuals and artists throughout the years embraced teaching, realizing that a cultural and sociological downfall was taking place and feeling the urge to do something about it. The educational field is slippery, as lucidly offered in 1968's "Letter to a teacher", composed in Tuscany at the experimental school of Barbiana, started by don Lorenzo Milani. A more recent essay following this analysis is Jacques Rancière's, "The Ignorant Schoolmaster (Le maître ignorant: Cinq leçons sur l'émancipation intellectuelle)", (1987) where, through the figure of Jacotot is presented a resistance towards a totalitarian model, paving the way towards emancipation via the idea of an equality of intelligences. The learning process is thus achieved in a sharing situation, when "the ignorant" becomes a teacher and starts a chain of curiosity gradually leading to knowledge.

In the syntax of the English language two negatives cross each other out. "Art cannot be untaught" implies that art can be taught, but also that in order to truly learn something, it must be unlearnt first, getting rid of all the superstructures interiorized during the years and starting afresh with baby eyes.