Presentation evening of the research project “Réinventer la pédagogie des opprimé·e·x·s pour favoriser la participation culturelle dans les institutions d’art contemporain suisses” (Reinventing the pedagogy of the oppressed to promote cultural participation in Swiss contemporary art institutions), in the presence of the actors of four projects carried out in museums and art centers.

18-20:30 followed by an aperitif

Reinventing the pedagogy of the oppressed to promote cultural participation in Swiss contemporary art institutions (RPO)
June 2021–January 2023

The aim of this project is to promote cultural participation in Swiss contemporary art institutions in order to reduce social selectivity. The research team (microsillons (Marianne Guarinot-Huet, Olivier Desvoignes), Mischa-Sébastien Piraud and Julia Torino) wanted – in view of the challenges of today’s migration society – to reinvent the tools of Freirean pedagogy in dialogue with art educators and people who are usually not very visible/heard in cultural institutions.

Based on several key concepts developed by Paulo Freire (1921-1997) in Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1974) (the founding work of critical pedagogy), new approaches were invented and tested to facilitate the active inclusion of groups previously rendered invisible – and thus excluded – in the discourses of contemporary art institutions in Switzerland.

Four collaborative projects forming the core of the research were carried out at MAMCO (with the collective La Trenza), at the Centre d’art contemporain Genève (with a school class ACCESS II), at MCB-A Lausanne (with the association Ostara) and at Kunsthaus Pasquart (with the collective CABBAK).

RPO was supported by the Nouveau Nous programme (CFM) of HEAD – Genf and the ZHdK.