Conference Proceedings 2010 [pdf] - Art & Design Symposium ...

For 15 years the exhibition of a work commissioned from Spanish artist Miquel Navarro, SOUS LA LUNE II
("Under the Moon II"), has been on tour. It is an approach to urban planning for children, enabling them to build
an imaginary city with over 1000 polished-aluminum elements.
Today, I'd like to share two of my experiences with you. "Enfance de l’Art" took place in 1996.It involved
teenagers from low-income housing projects in Lyon interacting with work by Kurt Schwitters. Kids’ Guernica in
Atelier Picasso was completed in 2009 with 6 to 12-year olds from an outlying neighborhood, Centre de Loisirs
Noguères Paris (19e), who were in residence in the Left Bank studio in Paris where Picasso painted the
famous canvas "Guernica" in 1937 and the children produce in 2009 “Guernica a painting which screams”.
One of the themes common to both experiences seems to be the idea of bricolage developed early in the
1960s by the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss in The Savage Mind. He compares two scenarios, two
possible approaches to creation: that of the engineer and that of the bricoleur, or hand-crafter. While the
engineer projects a finished idea of his work and then goes off in search of the tools and materials to carry it
out, the bricoleur uses the tools and materials at hand, with no idea of the end product. Similarly, in the
workshop, the tools and materials, brushes, paints, words, images, and thoughts of the young people
determine what the group will finally create or paint.
Adolescents with Kurt Schwitters
"Enfance de l’art" is a program designed to increase young people's awareness and appreciation of art based
on the works of Kurt Schwitters. It was carried out in 1996, at the request of the city of Villefontaine, a recentlybuilt
suburb of Lyon, France. Fifty classes participated in the project with contemporary artists.
The professional college Aragon is a junior high school which trains young people in the realities of a career in
cooking and hotel work. Based on Schwitters' work, the students were assigned to organize a cocktail party for
400 guests, with all the work involved in such an event (paperwork, purchasing, cake-making, drinks,
presentation, tables, a harmonious composition of the table colors and shapes, and the service during the
event itself, etc.)
When I first arrived to assist them at the school, I was expecting to see lively, dynamic young people. However,
in the workshop, the students were apathetic, putting their heads on their desks, asking nothing, indifferent.
Their difficult lives could not be left outside the school gates. We had to break out of the routine, and approach
learning a trade in a different, non-academic way, which would be more meaningful to them.
This was a class of eighth-graders on a vocational track in the hotel trade. The students Amandine, Djamila,
Nathalie, Mickael, Christelle, Marie-Laure, and Sabrina, all 14 to 15 years old, were struggling with their
schoolwork. Many were facing severe problems at home, and were socially deprived. Many were suffering
including one who was undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. Another's mother had been killed by his father
when she was 8 and she feared the father's release from prison. Another had arrived at junior high infested
with lice. The family never washed. To solve the problem, the junior high had to build a shower.
For this event two oval tables were created. There was a great deal of talk about the life and work of
Schwitters. The young people chose to write a poem on a poster, the totemic word MERZ, the letter "i," and a
page of poetry ("To Eve Blossom") in almond paste on chocolate sponge cake. They created a special drink
"Le Rêve Bleu" ("Blue Dream"), a cocktail based on Curacao, gin, and pineapple juice, was a great hit with the
public.
"As the project advanced," the children's head teacher wrote to me, "I was able to observe positive
development and a growing interest on the part of the students for the workshop. They still recall it as an
outstanding experience. These students have faced so many negative academic experiences in the past that
their childhood dreams, their desire to plan for the future, has been destroyed. This workshop was an
opportunity to feel hopeful again, to see new potentials and possibilities in themselves, and to see a need to
develop. It reconciled them with themselves, making them more relaxed, optimistic, and light-hearted about the
road that lies ahead of them… But it certainly took a lot of energy to achieve this goal!"
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