The School of Walls and Space, the Royal Danish Academy of the Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark.
2008 to the present
The School of Walls and Space investigates contemporary notions of space, its production, privatization and the role of the artist as a critical and political agent within it, and uses both traditional and more experimental pedagogical methods.
The School is a department at the Royal Danish Academy of the Fine Arts in Copenhagen and is led by Nils Norman. The department encourages the development of an interdisciplinary, research-based practice. It balances individual mentoring with collective group activities. It uses traditional pedagogical methods: group and one-to-one critiques, seminars and talks, in conjunction with the exploration of collaborative teaching models which the department researches and develops collectively. These include brainstorming techniques, games, charrettes, actions and happenings. It also explores historical practices, such as psychogeography and the derive, and the teaching methods of Paolo Freire, Augusto Boal, Roy Ascott, Paul Goodman, bell hooks and Colin Ward. Academic groundwork in the history and theory of the emergence and production of public space is developed through a series of readings, lectures and seminars.
Field-trips, tours, walks and excursions are an integral component of the School’s activities, using a ‘School Without Walls’ methodology where the spaces, zones and ecologies of the city become the classroom – parks, squares, plazas, ecological experiments, collective farms, housing projects, cooperatives, public artworks and other interesting or problematic urban planning developments. International cities and towns are considered as potential sites of investigation. Parallel to these activities – issues and topics related to the public sphere and public art are discussed. A specific issue or theme is chosen by the group to be researched, discussed and developed into a final project each year. These include more focused workshops over a period of a few days with invited participants; individual guest visits, reading groups and projects. Also related to each project is the development of a reading list, a library, archive, and film events.
Networks are developed with other schools in the Academy as well as with local, national and international university departments and art schools. Close links with visiting artists, architects, urban planners, landscape architects, curators and scientists are developed.
From 2008 to 2010 the department developed and ran a Permaculture design course led by Poul Erik Pedersen (Landskabarkitekt, mdl).
Past and ongoing themes include Permaculture and the City, Politics and Art,
Culture and Gentrification, post-capitalism and therapy, self-organisation and counter culture, alternative education and Utopia.
Guests and collaborators with the department include, Emma Hedditch, Brian Holmes, Lasse Lau, Julie Ault, Martin Beck, Luca Frei, John Jordan, Mikkel Bolt and Jakob Jakobsen, Howard Slater and Anthony Davies, Silvia Federici, Melanie Gilligan, Lize Mogel, Gitte Villesen, Curatorial Action, and the Learning Site.
