THE SCHOOLHOUSE AND THE BUS

Transcription

1 THE SCHOOLHOUSE AND THE BUS Mobility, Pdagogy, and Engagmnt PABLO HELGUERA

2 Imag Crdits Pablo Hlgura Covr. Pablo Hlgura nar Tok, Alaska, May Photo by San Ardn. Th School of Panamrican Unrst titl pag, top lft. Pablo Hlgura with Paraguayan sculptor Hrmann Guggiari at th Plaza dl Cabildo, Asunción, Paraguay, Sptmbr Photo courtsy of th artist. Th School of Panamrican Unrst titl pag, top right. Panamrican bannr hanging at th old palac of Congrss, Asunción, Paraguay, Sptmbr Th School of Panamrican Unrst titl pag, bottom lft. Panamrican crmony in Publa, Mxico, July Th School of Panamrican Unrst titl pag, bottom right. Panamrican schoolhous in Casa dl Lago, Mxico City, July Stting up th school hous at th School of th Arts, Mérida, Yucatán, Mxico, July School of Panamrican Unrst workshop, Calgary, Albrta, May Photo of th bll, Mxico City, Jun Dirctor of Casa dl Lago cultural cntr José Luis Pards (Pacho) at th Panamrican Crmony, Casa dl Lago, Mxico City, July Panamrican Crmony, Mérida, Yucatán, July Schoolhous at Plaza d la Mrcd, Tgucigalpa, Honduras, July Th School of Panamrican Unrst discussion at Hln Pitt Gallry, Vancouvr, British Columbia, May Th School of Panamrican Unrst, Installation viw, AD&A Musum, UC Santa Barbara, fall Photo by Tony Mastrs. 10. Th School of Panamrican Unrst, Installation viw, AD&A Musum, UC Santa Barbara, fall Photo by Tony Mastrs. 11. Pablo Hlgura, Th School of Panamrican Unrst Bannr, Installation viw, AD&A Musum, UC Santa Barbara, fall Photo by Tony Mastrs. 3. Carrying th schoolhous in Asunción, Paraguay, Sptmbr Endnots 1 Lucy Lippard, Six Yars: th dmatrialization of th art objct from 1966 to 1972, (Brkly and Los Angls: Univrsity of California Prss), 1997 (original printing 1973), p. xxii. 2 Intrviw btwn Suzann Lacy and Pilar Riaño-Alcalá, Sptmbr 18, Th 8th Floor is an xhibition and vnts spac stablishd in 2010 by Shlly and Donald Rubin, ddicatd to promoting cultural and philanthropic initiativs and to xpanding artistic and cultural accssibility in Nw York City. Th 8th Floor is locatd at 17 Wst 17th Strt and is fr and opn to th public. School groups ar ncouragd. Gallry hours ar Tusday through Saturday, 11:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Th8thFloor.org

3 THE SCHOOL OF PANAMERICAN UNREST

4 OBJECT LESSONS Sara Risman 1 2 artwork its unknowability can somtims signal its potntial for radicality, still raising th ag-old qustion, but is it art? Evn if w fl crtain that it is art (bcaus w say so), it is always worth qustioning th impuls driving us to display works of art, sinc ths social nrgis can nvr b fully r-prsntd as thy wr originally ralizd. As challnging as it may b to grasp and rsolv ths ndavors as art, th opportunity to larn from phmral practics, particularly human xchang, has bcom incrasingly urgnt in tims of political and social instability. Th Schoolhous and th Bus: Mobility, Pdagogy, and Engagmnt is an xhibition that prsnts two artistic projcts that ncapsulat a procss of translation btwn th unrulinss of livd xprinc and th formulas of xhibition practic. In organizing such an xhibition, in dialogu with th artists, w as curators wr forcd to qustion how socially ngagd artwork can b translatd physically, spatially, and spiritually into th oftn stagnant, nutral spac of a gallry. How do objcts that ar byproducts of an artistic procss figur into th prsntation of an phmral, rlational projct? To what dgr dos th archiv of an artwork bcom th work itslf? Faturd in th xhibition ar maps of Mdllín and of a journy across th Amricas, collags, on-th-road documntary footag punctuatd by collctiv dclarations mad by community mmbrs of twnty-nin citis, vido intrviws with rsidnts of Mdllín, souvnirs, phmra, and rcords including nws articls, lttrs, and blog posts. Ths matrials, som concivd as artworks, othrs slctd to rcrat an out-of-rach contxt, point to two projcts that diffr in scal, duration, and atmosphr. Largr structurs hav bn rstagd th yllow fabric tnt of a schoolhous and an illuminatd shlf displaying prsonal affcts to rflct th lastic charactristics of tim and plac, as a partial manifstation of th livd xprincs that continu to compris two socially ngagd projcts. Suzann Lacy and Pilar Riaño-Alcalá s Skin of Mmory and Pablo Hlgura s Th School of Panamrican Unrst, originally ralizd in 1999 and 2006 rspctivly, intrsct concptually within th xhibition Th Schoolhous and th Bus: Mobility, Pdagogy, and Engagmnt, having bn informd by and producd within th broadr gographic fram of th Amricas, and spcifically Mdllín, Colombia. From th bginning, both Hlgura, Lacy, and Lacy s collaborator Riaño-Alcalá, qustiond th fficacy of rlying havily on th display of objcts to adquatly captur and rprsnt thir rspctiv works. Qustions surrounding th limitations of convntional xhibition making ar acutly raisd in th contxt of socially ngagd artistic practic, whr th dsir to show th work, and th xprintial and rlational natur of th artwork, ar oftn in conflict with th mans of translating th xprinc into a display. Indbtd to th lgacy of concptual art, artists and curators ar continuously complld to attmpt this procss, whthr it is for visibility, lgacy, art world lgitimacy, or a mor ngagd notion of pdagogy. As Lucy Lippard has notd, Concptualists indicatd that th most xciting art might still b burid in social nrgis not yt rcognizd as art. 1 Intgral to any tru avant-gard artistic gstur, ths nrgis can contribut to an objct bing unrcognizabl as art. Th unknown Lading up to Skin of Mmory (1999), artist Suzann Lacy was approachd by Colombian anthropologist Pilar Riaño-Alcalá to collaborat with a tam that includd architct Vicky Ramriz, dsignr Raul Cabra, and local artisans, contributing to a procss concivd to find altrnativs to violnc and strngthn civil socity, in Mdllín s Barrio Antioquia, an ara ravagd by incrasing violnc rlatd to th drug trad. Riaño-Alcalá invitd Lacy to work within th community basd on th sustaind ngagmnt and succss of hr dcadlong Th Oakland Projcts ( ). Stagd in ight parts, Th Oakland Projcts includd Th Roof is On Fir ( ), which xplord th tnsions btwn youth and th polic in Oakland, California, and Expctations Summr Projct (1997), that xamind th prsonal and political impacts of tn prgnancy. Lacy s multilayrd approach to ngaging local youth on issus concrning thir wllbing halth, ducation, safty, and public policy intrstd Riaño-Alcalá, who, at th tim, was organizing on th community lvl in Mdllín in rspons to th nds of nighborhood youth, whos xprincs wr fraught with th trauma associatd with localizd violnc. Th parallls btwn youth culturs in Mdllín and Oakland ar basd in what Lacy and Riaño dscrib as unprocssd prsonal losss and consqunt paralysis and violnc. 2 In 2003, artist Pablo Hlgura bgan planning a four-month journy titld Th School of Panamrican Unrst (2006), which would rsult in a road trip across th Amricas. Bginning in Anchorag, Alaska, h concludd in Tirra dl Fugo, Argntina, having mad twnty-nin stops across two continnts. At ach stop in placs lik Mxico City, Bogotá, Vancouvr, Calgary, Mérida, and San Salvador Hlgura st up a mobil schoolhous, whr h collaboratd with local organizations and individuals in participatory workshops, that wr a hybrid of prformanc art and xprintial ducation. Faturing radings, prformancs, and lcturs, thy wr shapd by th popl involvd at ach location. Motivatd by what h has dscribd as a lack of communication btwn diffrnt countris within th Amricas, Hlgura s projct offrd an opportunity to draw connctions btwn th vast divrsity of cultural communitis that mak up th continnt. In ordr to rval th

5 Th installation of Lacy and Riaño-Alcalá s Skin of Mmory is anchord by th display of a collction of prsonal objcts, that collctivly function as a community mmorial. Originally prsntd in a bus in Mdllín, th muso arquologico dl Barrio Antioquia was a mobil commmorativ xhibition that travlld to diffrnt parts of th Barrio, crossing contstd boundaris rathr than having rsidnts risk th trip, in ordr to safly shar th projct with diffrnt communitis. It displayd 500 itms slctd and offrd by participants, including currncy, figurins, idntification cards, stuffd animals, toys, jwlry, houshold itms, and th cloths of thos killd in shootouts. Within Th Schoolhous and th Bus, th objcts faturd in th mobil musum hav bn rducd to a partial installation of phmra rtrivd from individuals in Mdllín who contributd objcts in 1999, flankd by vido documntation of th projct. Adding to th viwr s xprinc, Lacy Riaño-Alcalá prsnt maps, nws articls, and a timlin in ordr to nrich our undrstanding of this conflictd priod in Barrio Antioquia. 3 At th cntr of Hlgura s installation of Th School of Panamrican Unrst is a yllow schoolhous. Insid, an hour-long documntary of Hlgura s odyssy bgins with him rflcting on thn-rcnt vnts lading up to his projct: Sptmbr 11, th Iraq War. In th vido, h posits, I wantd to undrstand how th Amrican idals of pac, brothrhood, and unity had volvd to a projct of global hgmony, and I flt, that w ndd to look back at history at th tim whn th conscinc of th nw world had bn foundd. Whr wr thos 19th cntury idals of prfct Amrican dmocracis imagind by ladrs lik Jffrson and Bolivar? Whr was th Amrica dscribd in th potry of Walt Whitman and Jos Marti? Lik th prsonal affcts that compris Lacy and Riaño-Alcalá s projct, Hlgura s archival matrial is, at tims, absorbd into his artistic output. His sris of collags, Th Panamrican Suit, wr mad in a rstorativ, thraputic ffort, following th conclusion of th 25,000 mil trip, which lft him physically and motionally draind. Thy ar comprisd of maps, scintific and mathmatical diagrams, with captions xcisd from book pags. It sms almost th sam way with countris as with popl. Ths statmnts rad lik a postscript, musings and rflctions on Hlgura s rigorous itinrary. If w rcogniz that objcts ar limitd in thir capacity to r-prsnt or captur W will b hros togthr. It involvs a sns of innr tim, an inward prspctiv Hlgura, Th School of Panamrican Unrst, Mérida, Yucatán, Mxico, potntial rlationships btwn ths varid gographic locations, Hlgura workd with local participants at ach sit on a community-spcific basis to articulat th rol and possibilitis of art and cultur to addrss th social, political, and conomic issus of that momnt in 2006.

6 5 a projct, to crat an atmosphr, or impart th xprinc of bing thr, ar thr othr ways of undrstanding th transformativ potntials of a socially ngagd artwork? On approach might b to rconstruct a scn and invit th public to xprinc a simulation. Anothr might b to rstag a similar projct in a nw plac, with information about th original artwork. Additionally, w can attmpt to captur som of th rippl ffcts of said projct, to assss what, if any, connctions can b mad in trms of th its subsqunt impact and lgacy. Th problm with dtrmining impact is that social practic as an art form is continually in flux, both matrially and procdurally, and dos not ncssarily follow a scintific mthod of rsarch and valuation assssabl by standardizd critria. As an art form, our undrstanding of th bst practics in r-prsnting any socially ngagd artwork is contingnt on its particular componnts, charactristics, and rlationship to contxt. Whil it is important to mak a distinction btwn th archival componnts and th artwork within th xhibition, art and th archivs it producs (or th archivs that produc th artwork) ar always inxtricably linkd. To rfram th qustion in rlation to contxt, dos all of th contnt of th xhibition bcom artwork albit archiv-basd by virtu of bing shown in an art musum or gallry? Thr is a tnsion gnratd by th ida that an artwork s valu in trms of popl, placs, and vn mony changs whn it lavs th sit of its production and nactmnt, and is brought into th gallry. Ar th work s participants rlgatd to artistic matrial, or dos a gallry stting lvat th status for all involvd? Is its status as art rtaind byond th gallry? Th answrs to ths qustions ar subjctiv, and will dpnd on whom you ask. Ultimatly, it is th aftrffcts, or lgacis, of Hlgura s and Lacy and Riaño-Alcalá s projcts that rflct thir valu in th world as art or othrwis. Both projcts clarly rsonat with thos who xprincd thm dirctly, as wll as othrs who larnd about thm aftr th fact. In 2011, whn th Mdllín Binnial MDE11 invitd Lacy and Riaño-Alcalá to show Skin of Mmory Rvisitd, it bcam an opportunity to xtnd th projct, rflcting on th dcad that had passd sinc its initiation in 1999, and to undrstand whr it had succdd and faild. In th yars that followd th first itration of Skin of Mmory, th Victims of Armd Conflict Car Program bgan laying th groundwork for Mdllín s Muso Casa d la Mmoria, which opnd its doors to th public in Foundd with support and input from many of th sam collaborators involvd in Skin of Mmory, th Musum s mission is closly linkd to th promotion of civil socity and dmocratic ngagmnt, with intractiv ducational installations that facilitat dialogu about Mdllín s history of violnc. 6 Th ffcts of Hlgura s Th School of Panamrican Unrst ar mor difficult to trac, largly bcaus of th projct s vast gographic scop, with twnty-nin official participating communitis (and othr locals whr h stoppd). Taking Hlgura s 2008 prsntation of documntation of Th School of Panamrican Unrst curatd by Itzl Vargas at Casa dl Lago in Mxico City, on of th projct s art world chos could b found in panamricana, an xhibition prsntd by kurimanzutto gallry in Mxico City in 2010 (although any connction btwn Th School of Panamrican Unrst and panamricana was not acknowldgd in promotional matrials), which aimd to connct artists from diffrnt countris in Latin Amrica. Publishd in 2013, Clair Fox s book Making Art Panamrican situats th visual arts programs of th Pan Amrican Union within th contxt of hmisphric cultural rlations during th Cold War. Hlgura was xtnsivly intrviwd by Fox, whos work illuminats th institutional dynamics that hlpd shap asthtic movmnts following World War II. Anothr xampl of an outcom of Hlgura s projct was triggrd by his stop in Mérida in th Yucatán, whr h workd with La Escula Suprior d Arts. In writing about hr xprinc with Th School of Panamrican Unrst, thn-dirctor Mónica Castillo witnssd th ralization amongst studnts of how rarly art criticism was practicd. This promptd on studnt, Dbora Carnval, to organiz critiqus of artwork mad in Mérida. In its Panamrican addrss, th city of Mérida had dclard, thr is a lack of critical analysis of th art scn; that w considr that th nd is not to ncssarily transgrss, but rathr to mak art as w s fit in ordr to rflct our idas. A shard thos of both Hlgura s Th School of Panamrican Unrst and Lacy and Riaño-Alcalá s Skin of Mmory is that ach was concivd to ngag participants in ways that maintain thir agncy, whthr by making dclarations that rflct on local conditions, or slcting objcts for display that rprsnt collctiv loss. From distanc of tim and plac, it bcoms clar that th rlational natur of ach artwork is supportd by objcts maps, documnts, nwspaprs, collags, vidos, and souvnirs whthr it b in th production or prsntation, as prompts for sustaind ngagmnt. As with any tmporal form of art, th viwr must activly rflct upon th communication transmittd by th artwork, simultanously xpanding its maning, rcognizing th impossibility of a tim-basd, xprintial artwork bing singularly undrstood any on individual, in its ntirty. This is th crux of xhibiting social practic: th art objcts provid an asthtic point of ntry, but th installation is only fulfilld as socially ngagd art whn th dialogical prompt is activatd rlationally. Th lsson larnd might b a tachabl momnt in which objcts ar rvald to b ssntial, yt thy nvr tll th whol story.

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8 9 9. Hlgura, Th School of Panamrican Unrst, UC Santa Barbara, Hlgura, Th School of Panamrican Unrst, UC Santa Barbara, Hlgura, Th School of Panamrican Unrst, UC Santa Barbara, Lacy/Riaño-Alcalá, Skin of Mmory, UC Santa Barbara, Lacy/Riaño-Alcalá, Skin of Mmory, UC Santa Barbara, Lacy/Riaño-Alcalá, Skin of Mmory, UC Santa Barbara,

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10 6 to rcrat. I do compltly rlat to your commnts about whn you prsnt it, whn you go through th motions of rcrating somthing you did 20 yars ago: it fls mor lik thatr. Givn this, I concludd that you can only crat approximations of th xprinc. On of my attmpts at addrssing this was to crat an anthology of Th School of Panamrican Unrst, in which I invitd popl who wr a part of it to giv a firsthand account of what thy saw. I was vry disciplind in not wanting to influnc th viws of th contributors. Som wr critical of th projct and that was okay. Som of thm had vry diffrnt viws than how I saw th xprinc, and that was okay too. I imagin this is lik th procss of rconstructing a historical vnt. Whn you compil witnss accounts, vrybody has thir diffrnt prspctivs, and no singl intrprtation bcoms th final vrsion, but w all know that th truth lis somwhr amidst th summation of ths diffrnt prspctivs. Suzann: Ys, I can t show vrything about a multi-yar projct involving so many actors, but our rprsntation of th political issus inhrnt in our projct dosn t yt fl complt. Thr s a rsponsibility to communicat clarly hr, on that might b a bit diffrnt from othr projct translations. For instanc, as w ar prsnting actual objcts rprsnting rsidnts mmoris of loss, if w thn prominntly postd photos of th ownrs talking about thir mmoris of, for instanc, trafficking, it would rinforc U.S. audincs simplistic prspctivs. But if w prsnt a timlin of th political forcs ovr a thirty-yar priod, and point to locations whr our projct mployd its stratgis, th objcts would rad diffrntly. Th scond ara I am concrnd with rprsnting is th rlationality inhrnt ovr almost twnty yars. This st of rlationalitis occurrd within a timfram within which many political vnts and prsonal xprincs occurrd among popl who ar still living and working thr. I don t know how to talk about th intimacy of common caus that w hav with ach othr, th 75 or 80 popl and byond, who cam togthr as a rsult of a varity of fforts by NGOs, social scintists, activists and ducators, som of whom latr ntrd govrnmnt. This projct was a symbolic manifstation of a national ffort to rcuprat mmory as a political forc in th lif of th country. Th xprinc of oprating within that contxt was so powrful for m and I fl th rsponsibility of communicating it without playing into U.S. prjudics. Pablo: I think vrything has dficincis, and th bst I can do is to s thm togthr: photographs, documnts, witnss accounts, and vido. That is closst I can gt to narrating what happnd. I think w just nd to accpt that ths ar phmral things and difficult to fram in a clan or final narrativ. 5 last, I think of ways in which this snsorial/intllctual typ of ngagmnt might manag to slow down th viwr to mak th xprinc mor maningful. Suzann: That gos to that issu of bing adpt at communicating idas to diffrnt audincs. Art dos provid somthing othr than th visual and, particularly in social practic, w ngag with idas of cohrnc, political analysis, and th shap of ngagmnt. What I lik about Th School of Panamrican Unrst is not how bautiful th display will b, though I know it will b, but th cohrncy of th ida. How dos th body of an artist mov from on tip of a continnt to th nxt, organizing, formulating convrsation, gathring popl around it thr s an asthtic in th ida and in th action itslf. Pablo: Whn I talk about nticing th public or ngaging thm, I don t ncssarily man that it has to b in an asthtic way. I think it can also b a utilitarian typ of ngagmnt whr you offr thm somthing that is usful, that is intrsting, that can play a familiar function. With th SPU projct I proposd a st of typs of intractions that wr familiar. Participants would com to talks, workshops, and civic crmonis whr w d rad spchs. At tims it took th form of th political crmony, whr w would sing anthms and thn rad spchs. Th workshops wr mor litrary and wr somthing that popl connctd with in a vry basic mannr. Suzann: Pilar and I ar struggling to captur th Mdllín projcts for a U.S. audinc. Th complxity of th intracting forcs and thms of that projct rad vry diffrntly whn displayd in Colombia. In th U.S. w oftn think of Colombia through th lns of narcotrafficking. Our projct ngagd with a political trajctory, anthropological rsarch, community dvlopmnt, and a national procss of mmory rcupration and policy formation. How do w show th complxitis of violncs and U.S. intrvntions, th nuancs of rlationships that w formd and that still oprat ovr tim, and th way in which social scintists ar dply ngagd with constructing a civil socity, all of which has ld to th currnt pac procss? I d b curious, Pablo, what has th procss of prparing this xhibition brought up for you, as an artist? Caus that s part of th rason you and I wr intrstd in this xhibition, to crystalliz ths projcts in forms of display. Pablo: On challng that this projct has always prsntd for m is prcisly how to fit it into an xhibition. I almost gav up th ida that I could authntically transmit, or communicat what this projct was. I think it s an intractabl problm, bcaus I cannot bring popl to th placs and tims of whr this projct happnd. Prhaps I hav a vry idalistic ida of what it mans

11 intrst in contxt-basd social issus for young artists, th ral rwards of th art world ar still via a systm of visual art display linkd to th markt. Today, communication with th art profssion is largly through som form of xhibition. It wasn t tru in th 70s, or mayb I should say it wasn t tru in my xprinc coming out of CalArts and ntring a dvloping prformanc art scn. Sinc I was first in school, whr w agrly adoptd portapaks and photography, th tchnology of prsntation has dvlopd xponntially. Whr w usd to us high 8 film, you can now us 70 mm camras. Prsntation is much mor important, which can b a dilmma for an art practic that coms out of phmral idas. As our xhibition has bn framd by th curators as involving mobility, pdagogy, and ngagmnt, th ida of translation is critical: thr is th art in communitis, and thn thr ar thos to whom it is communicatd whthr dirctly to popl a community, ovr nws mdia, or to art profssionals. In this translation from a Mdllín installation and prformanc projct to th xhibition, so many qustions aris. Pablo, I m curious about th striking visual quality of your work and how you navigat btwn th bautiful prsntation of th work and th public sphr whr th work is constructd. Pablo: Whn taching social practic, I hav noticd that many studnts com to th fild without an art background. Thy com from anthropology or psychology, tc. but thy hav no knowldg of art history nor hav thy mad art objcts. For thm, all th art historical rfrncs from Duchamp to anyon ls wr vry rmot and unclar. Thy struggl with th visual manifstation of th things thy do. This mad m valu th typ of traditional studio ducation I rcivd, larning th basics of painting, printmaking, photography, tc. It is this proximity to making things that can b hlpful in crating snsorial xprincs. In addition, bcaus I hav workd in musums for 25 yars, I do think a lot about how things ar prsntd to a public and how thy might intract with thm, snsorially and intllctually. I am gratful for having bn xposd to traditional ways of making and xhibiting art bcaus thy offr us a tool kit for shaping xprinc in othr ways. And I s ducation as part of that tool kit of cours, particularly in how on considrs th typ of audinc that on may ngag with and th ways in which an xprinc could b maningful to thm. Last but not a vry dlicat qustion that right now has bcom vry important. Today w ar witnsss of th binnialist syndrom th tndncy of parachuting artists into random citis and countris to mak an artwork about that plac, oftn with littl ngagmnt with th local rality. W know that a lot of sit-spcific work can man wll but is misguidd. And yt, I think it is also important to rcogniz two things: on, that as artists w can nvr shd th condition of outsidrs, and scond, that this condition can b a strngth whn w ar honst I always think of Paulo Frir and praching a pdagogy, in how h approachd th rlationship with othrs, acknowldging vry dirctly with whichvr group h was working with, that w ar not th sam popl. W hav diffrnt prsonal historis, diffrnt cultural backgrounds, Suzann: I think you r right, but I can nuanc this a bit with my involvmnt as a whit woman in racial conflicts and, in othr countris, as a U.S. citizn in placs whr our govrnmnt has bn dstructiv. On has to b agil to work cross-culturally in circumstancs whr strong politics ar at play, whthr it s a man working with womn, or a fr prson working with prison inmats. Diffrnc oprats diffrntly within various momnts and contxts. Working with Pilar, I m always vry conscious of how dply th U.S. is implicatd in th politics and violncs in Colombia. It s th dgr to which you can listn, larn, co-crat an analysis, and mak an mpathic connction through th work that positions you as a studnt of othrs. In ach projct I bgin as a larnr. What I larnd in Oakland, in th arly 90s, working with th racialization of youth as political signifirs in a rising no-libralism, brought m to Mdllín, Colombia. For th w that typifis all my work its collctiv producrs th mutual xploration in an xpandd classroom that rsults in a projct. Pablo: Absolutly. That was rally th way I thought of th school, but I nvr imagind Th School of Panamrican Unrst advocating indoctrination of a particular viw of anything. It was rally lik a horizontal platform for collctiv larning. Suzann: That procss w ar dscribing is oftn missing in collgs. Th only way you gt to b a good social practic artist is if you r willing to put yourslf in risky and powrlss positions. Univrsitis hav a hard tim producing risky xprincs, but thy ar good at taching rprsntation skills suitabl for musums and gallris. Whil thr is a gnuin about it maning, whn w don t prtnd to b insidrs. 4 ducation, and prhaps social status. 3

12 invitd to join th tam bcaus of th work I d don in th 90s with Oakland tnagrs. It was an incrdibl opportunity b part of a largr procss, on I didn t initiat. My collagus in Mdllín wr xploring how th city ducats. Now, many yars latr, Antioquia Provinc is Th Stat That Educats. Pablo: Whn I mad Th School of Panamrican Unrst, I did not hav a pr-stablishd stratgy. In fact, whn I concivd it originally it was not mant to b a road trip: I thought it would b a sris of ncountrs in diffrnt citis around th Amricas. A lot of th projct unfoldd in ral tim. And a lot of th circumstancs would hav bn impossibl to prdict until thy actually happnd. I had to us vrything that I knw, at that point, about prformanc and ducation. At tims I was an ducator, an activist, thrapist, journalist, and I was th scrn onto which popl projctd thir frustrations, intrsts or idas. I had to contnd with prforming all ths diffrnt rols and larning how to prform thm succssfully. I also larnd th importanc of improvisation, of thinking on your ft as nw circumstancs aros and volvd. My rol as artist playd in a rathr prdictabl mannr until I crossd into Guatmala. Aftr that point, th qustion of whthr this projct was art or not bcam gradually lss important. This was rally about coming to addrss and ngag with local issus. And to b a succssful listnr and activator of convrsations and dbats that mattrd in thos placs at th tim. Whn w ask about what kind of xprtis or practics w incorporat into our work, I s th artist rathr as a composr somon who dos not play vry singl instrumnt but knows what thos instrumnts can do, and how thy can incorporat thm succssfully into a largr rflction. Whil w as artists hav to prform many rols, th objctiv is not to imprsonat or to supplant an actual xprt, but to crat gsturs that hlp bring othr disciplins into th art discours. Suzann: What s intrsting is that you tracd with your body a larning trajctory for social practic. Whn your projct first cam across my radar, I thought this guy is positioning himslf as a prformr as wll as a studnt and producr of othr s larning xprincs. You cratd an xpandd classroom to trans-continntally xplor political, pdagogic and intrprsonal xprincs. You also put yourslf through an ducational procss as an artist. Pablo: This conncts to anothr qustion about th artist as outsidr, spcifically what kind of licns do you hav to ntr into a cultural community that is not your own? I think this is 1 PABLO HELGUERA & SUZANNE LACY ON SOCIAL PRACTICE: A CONVERSATION Th Schoolhous and th Bus: Mobility, Pdagogy, and Engagmnt is th rsult of curatorial convrsations about th rol of art in socity. Th xhibition was co-organizd by th Shlly & Donald Rubin Foundation in Nw York City and th Art Dsign & Architctur Musum in Santa Barbara, two institutions focusd on th blif that art and artists can transform individuals and communitis. Whil ths transformations ar not always immdiatly visibl, w bliv artists hav th potntial to b catalysts for chang, spcially through dialogu that fostrs mutual undrstanding. From our diffrnt vantag points on th ast and wst coasts, this xhibition rflcts our dsir to tas out th mans and mthods of utilizing art to affct chang in unstabl and challnging tims. Focusing on th work of two social practic artists was a natural rsult of our discours, considring th fild s mphasis on community ngagmnt, with a goal of positiv outcoms in rlation to social and political concrns. Th mor w talkd and listnd, th mor w undrstood Th Schoolhous and th Bus as an opportunity for broadr audincs to xprinc th work of important artists in this gnr. Suzann Lacy and Pablo Hlgura rprsnt two gnrations of socially ngagd artists who hav also built thir carrs and work on pdagogical ngagmnt. Excrptd hr, thir transcribd xchang Pablo Hlgura and Suzann Lacy on Social Practic: A Convrsation, srvs as a rcord of th artists ovrlapping concrns and guiding principls. Ovr th phon, on Jun 30, 2017, thy discussd how thy approachd thir projcts, th politics of making artwork as an outsidr for a particular community, what it mans to tach (and larn from) social practic, and th challng of translating livd xprinc into an xhibition. Elys A. Gonzals and Sara Risman, co-curators Suzann: I think thr is an incrdibly varid st of practics that social practic artists draw upon, from community organizing to conflict rsolution. As I tll my studnts, th ability to ngotiat is a dfinr of succss in this work. I was invitd by Pilar Riaño-Alcalá and svral NGOs to support thir ongoing work on building a civil socity in Mdllín. Pilar s book, Dwllrs of Mmory, discussd local applications of mmory work in Barrio Antioquia whr youth daths wr astronomically high. I was 2

13 SKIN OF MEMORY

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15 THE SCHOOLHOUSE AND THE BUS Mobility, Pdagogy, and Engagmnt SUZANNE LACY & PILAR RIAÑO-ALCALÁ