Escuela de Arte Útil

20.06.2017 – 11.08.2017 / Tue/Wed/Thu – 4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
701 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA

Escuela de Arte Útil

Escuela de Arte Útil

As part of the exhibition, YBCA and Tania Bruguera will open a fully functioning school inside of the galleries.

Classes will be held Tuesday–Thursday from 4–8PM, and students will learn about the creation of “useful art” from some of the world’s most influential practitioners. The primary pupils of the school will be a new cohort of YBCA Fellows who are working under Bruguera’s direction. Gallery visitors and the public are always welcome to join classes on a drop-in basis. See the most recent class schedule below.

Whether through self-organized groups, individual initiatives, or the rise of user-generated content, people are developing new methods and social formations to deal with issues that were once the domain of the state. These initiatives are not isolated incidents, but also part of an art history that has been neglected, yet shapes our contemporary world. This class will focus on the concept of Arte Útil, which roughly translates into English as “useful art,” while also suggesting that art can be a tool or device. Studying the shifting role of contemporary art, the class will consider factors of the practice of Arte Útil such as institutional self-criticism, active hyperrealism, a-legality, reforming capital, beneficial outcomes, sustainability, intersection with other disciplines, and modes of creative collaboration. We will have weekly guest lectures and case study presentations, as well as access to ongoing Arte Útil projects in the Bay Area.

Invited guest lecturers are Alistair Hudson, Debt Collective, Jeanne van Heeswijk, WochenKlausur, Rick Lowe; other guests whose projects are included in the archive: Debt Collective – Bay Area, Damon Rich and Jae Shin, Suzanne Lacy, Daniel Godinez Nivon, The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, Bonnie Ora Sherk.

The program is coordinated by Alessandra Saviotti and facilitated by Gemma Medina Estupiñan (Asociación de Arte Útil).