The Politics of Play

Please join us for a roundtable discussion on how artists, architects and cultural organisations are experimenting with alternative child pedagogies. Emanuel Almborg will present his artistic research on various educational methods, including the anti-authoritarian approach of Summerhill School (Suffolk, 1921-present), the Marxist perspective on deaf-blind education at the Zagorsk school (Moscow, 1968-1979) and the exhibition A Child has 100 Languages on the Reggio Emilia Approach (Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 1981). Graziela Kunsch will present the "Public Daycare" she made for documenta 15 (Kassel, 2022) and discuss the principles of Emmi Pikler’s pedagogical approach that shaped the project. Penny Wilson will discuss the role of playworkers in the United Kingdom and the projects of Assemble Play, drawing from six years’ experience creating playgrounds, playworks and playspaces. How can art organisations and artists - and adults in general - learn from children? How can we engage with childhood in the arts beyond the myth of innocence, utopia, subversion, or solitude? And how can creativity help us recognize the political agency of children? The roundtable is moderated by Grégory Castéra and Silvia Franceschini.