A 'What If' Exercise: On the institution of the art school

Abstract

We are increasingly experiencing an antagonistic polarization within the art schools. This seems to reflect the contemporary socio-political atmosphere, ruled by inequalities and injustices, fuelled by a narrative of scarcity and competition and by a very broadly spread mistrust, when not aggression, towards the very idea of the institution. As a matter of fact, schools are one of the few institutions in the theatre field providing a space for such polarizing relationships: they provide a space for friction, for conflict even.This paper approaches the theatre school as an institution and a thinking entity, in the attempt to explore the forms of agonism that it makes possible, and how they can support positive forms of polarization. It assumes the perspective that “we are the institution” and, by acknowledging the agency that each of us has within artistic institutions, suggests some ways of thinking and practicing theatre school otherwise.