Exerpt from - Editorial: What is to be done? Tokyo

 

Clementine Deliss

 

The whole politics of art lies in finding and taking as firm a grip as we can of the link that is least likely to be struck from our hands, the one that is most important at the given moment, the one that most of all guarantees its possessor the possession of the whole chain. If we had a crew of experienced artists who had learned to work so well together that they could place their works exactly as required without a guide line which, speaking abstractly, is by no means impossible), then perhaps we might take hold of some other link. But it is unfortunate that as yet we have no experienced artists trained for teamwork, that artworks are often laid where they are not needed at all, that they are not laid according to the general line, but are so scattered that the demands of cultural visibility can shatter the structure as if it were made of sand and not of intention. (Deliss, 2007, after Lenin 1901)

 

Exert from - Faculty of Navigation in the Academy of Radical Generosity

Elizabeth Grierson

 

From this point, as tautai – or academic navigator – my Faculty of Navigation is born. Tautai is the Samoan work for navigator – an expert in all things related to the sea. The Pacific navigators steered by the stars of the Southern Cross or Matariki. They kept their eyes on the stars as we keep our eyes on the political weather. I am taking this process of navigations from sea to land and earth to sky. The Faculty of Navigations is an essential condition for the Academy of Radical Generosity: it reminds up to keep our eyes open in the act of steering our way, the way of knowledge, the way of generously going out to the Other and inviting the Other into our midst (other idea, other practice, other person other field of interest and understanding). This is the openness, this is the generosity that we need in crossing the borders of knowledge, people and practices in the globalised world of the 21st century.

 

Exerts from - Faculty of Breathing Space in the Academy of Radical Generosity

Irene Barberis

 

This is the second faculty in the Academy of Radical Generosity. The Faculty of Breathing Space recognizes that we all breathe  the same air; it goes through us and beyond. By acknowledging the way we breathe, we acknowledge the way knowledge travels: from me to you, you to me, Other to Other. This is another way to think of cross –cultural, cross-personal, cross-institutional differences.

 

In the West, art schools are the same today as they were twenty years ago. In some parts of the world there are none, in others there are those that only allow party rhetoric, and others still  that prioritise gender. Most art schools to date – perhaps because of their affiliation with universities – disallow the exploration of belief, religious and sometimes personal.

 

The future art academy could be either underground or floating. The original conception of Metasenta was to invent and introduce, within the university and art school context, a flexible research hub, which could take on multiple forms – virtual, actual, local and international – and have the capacity to exist anywhere.