Re–Directing: East x Empathic Pedagogies – Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art

Throughout October 2020, the 8th edition of the international Re–Directing: East x Empathic Pedagogies: Future Intimacies seminar and residencies took place. In the face of global changes affecting the functioning of the artistic world, traveling, and everyday, even intimate contacts, it was necessary to transfer – at least partially – this year’s event online.

Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art – together with the co-organizers: Biennale Warszawa, TEOR/etica, the Empathic Pedagogy Network – presents an online and offline seminar in response to the current situation. The meeting will be attended by artists, organizers, guests from Poland (stationary and online) as well as members of the Empathic Pedagogy Network (online), drawing on empathic pedagogy at the interface of education, art, and social activity. Our Future Intimacies companions selected in an open call will be: Ola Andrzejewska and Kathryn Zazenski (Poland / United States), Lia Garcia (Mexico), Daniel Godinez Nivón and Krisztián Gábor Török (Mexico / Hungary), Ewa Hubar (Poland), Kasper Lemiesz (Poland), Tonatiuh Lopez (Mexico), Daniela Whaley (Mexico), and Andrzej and Piotr from the APE platform (Poland).

The theme of the October lab, Future Intimacies, arises from the need to reflect on the pressing issue of mindful and intimate collaboration in the reality of physical isolation. Tired of the extended time spent in front of electronic devices, together with the invited residents, we will develop and expand practices that use educational tools and artistic strategies to test intimacy at a distance. We invited people who practice informal and horizontal education on a daily basis or look for new ways of learning and unlearning to participate in the seminar and jointly reflect on forms of supporting intimacy in a changed world.

So far, the Re–Directing: East seminars have been organized in the form of meetings at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, during which there was an exchange of thoughts, self-education, and collective critical research on selected themes. This year, as an experiment, the laboratory will be entirely co-created by the participants, both online and in person. It will be a safe space for sharing common experiences and practices to develop our understanding of the openings and dangers of being physically removed. The October meetings will therefore take the form of mutual learning in this small group, collective design of workshops, exchange of methodologies and, above all, shaping mutual care. The seminar will result in workshop scenarios, texts, and various recommendations for other practitioners published in a publicly available archive.

The Future Intimacies seminar will take place as part of the long-term project Empathic Pedagogies, curated by Marianna Dobkowska, prepared in cooperation with the Empathic Pedagogy Network, TEOR/etica, and Biennale Warszawa. The project is devoted to contemporary methods of education and networking and exchange of knowledge of professionals from Poland and around the world and draws on the practices of an international network of artistic educators who follow the principles of empathic pedagogy.