Conference: Deschooling Society
29 – 30 April 2010

Deschooling Society takes its title from Ivan Illich's seminal
1971 book, one of the most influential radical critiques of the
education system in Western countries. Issues at the heart of
that critique have been increasingly debated within the art
world in recent years, and the subject of education has attracted
renewed attention from artists, curators, and collectives.
Pedagogical models are currently being explored, re-imagined,
and deployed by practitioners from around the world in highly
diverse projects comprising laboratories, discursive platforms,
temporary schools, participatory workshops, and libraries.
Simultaneously, progressive globalization has led to a revaluing
of the collective knowledge and agency of local communities.

This two-day conference brings together international artists,
curators, and writers to discuss and debate the changing
relationship between art and education. Speakers have been
invited to present critical ideas on collective and participatory
practice, pedagogical experiments and how such art can be
understood and discussed. The conference is a collaborative event
marking the start of a Hayward Gallery research project
culminating in the transformation of the gallery space into an
alternative art school during Summer 2012. It also addresses the
urgent issues that have arisen from the Centre for Possible
Studies, part of an ongoing Serpentine Gallery project in the
Edgware Road neighbourhood. The event is also the second part of
the Serpentine's collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New
York, following the conference Transpedagogy: Contemporary Art
and the Vehicles of Education at MoMA in May 2009.

Speakers include: Martha Rosler (keynote), Lars Bang Larsen,
Dave Beech, Tania Bruguera, Marcelo Expósito, Harrell Fletcher,
Jeanne Van Heeswijk, Pablo Helguera, Hannah Hurtzig, Suzanne Lacy,
Vittoria Martini, Carmen Moersch, Nils Norman, Hans Ulrich Obrist,
Paul O'Neill, Marion von Osten, Irit Rogoff, Ralph Rugoff, Mick
Wilson, Gediminas Urbonas.

Full details of the conference's programme available shortly on
the Hayward and Serpentine Gallery websites.

Purcell Room
Queen Elizabeth Hall
Southbank Centre
Belvedere Road
London SE1 8XX

Tickets £20 £10
Available online www.southbankcentre.co.uk or from Southbank
Centre Box office 0844 847 9912