‘Blind Area’ – A Subtext of Education. Documenta 16 Proposal Draft
1. Status of the world
Under the circumstances of the global epidemic, the world is fueling a „new Cold War“ in political and economic fields. Moreover, internet media have created isolated information-cocoon-room for people. With the revealed class rigidity problem, people express themselves more and listen to others less. In other words, the „blind areas“ becomes an obstacle to getting along with people.
2. Status of the art
Art needs to intervene in society, convey ideology and express criticism of the social and political environment. Through retrospecting traumatic events, art can enable people to better face and recognize these events to cope with real life and give the audience a conversation that goes beyond the description of words. Arts participation and education should promote and seek to achieve a distribution of the sensible. We want artists to share their power over artworks, so that bridging the gap between artists and audiences with non-art backgrounds and break through the „blind area“ of art and artists.
3. Cosmos Documenta Kassel
The historical evolution of Documenta can focus on three key words: „Art and history“, „Curatorial experiments“ and „The role of education“. Art education not only takes place during art education and the guide of exhibitions, but also gradually becomes a conclusion of international events. The close relationship between art, audience, exhibition, and social and cultural situation requires a dialogue between art and audience.
4. Our attitude
We argue that learning should be treated as an attitude. Attitude is kind of subjective judgment that relatively one-sided, thus everyone has their „blind area“. Both Chinese Zen theory and Gestalt psychology point to the close relationship between education and vision, and that learning is about developing vision and exploring the boundaries of blind areas.When learning is not seen as a process but as an attitude, people can change from passive to active. By presenting prople’s experiences and by noticing the existence of blind areas, we all are thinking and expressing our attitudes.
5. Basic Idea / leading Concept
„Blind Area“, which is a subtext of Education, was the key idea been chosen. Literally, it means the out-of-sight areas. And it implicitly refers to an area in which one fails to exercise judgment or discriminating. In the whole society, there are “personal blind area”and “common blind area”. Education seems to be a basic and important way to narrow or close the gap. Therefore, “learning as an attitude” was promoted, “Art is about exploring the unseen essence beneath the surface”.
6. “When Attitude become forms”
Keywords: Continuation of documenta fifteen’s “Lumbung” or “people’s art”, Participation of education system, Global vision as diversity
We believe that the next documenta’s form will reflect the common wishes of humanity under the influence of the global cultural crisis. The more we see and learn through documenta, the less “blind-spots” we would have when encoutering potential cultural crisis.
