The Hidden School

The HIDDEN SCHOOL aims to establish an (un- and re-) learning model for people affected by the historical consequences of colonial industrialisation and the death policies of the Ottoman Empire up to the present day. The project evolves as a slow travelling group gathering at certain points in the Eastern Aegean, in the border regions between Greece (EU) and Turkey. A transnational group will build the curriculum of our project, focused on re- and de-construct histories of both the borderlands and the self. We will work on the becoming forms and formats for (un- and re-)learning sustainable cultural art practices in the region of the eastern Aegean and towards Mesopotamia. The founding participant artists, activists, cultural practitioners are Alper Şen, Angela Melitopoulos, Kerstin Schroedinger, Oktay Ince, Pelin Tan, Sofia Bempeza. The HIDDEN SCHOOL is a network, that transcends the artificially created cultural, ethnical, gendered, class, and national borders and makes room for a universal but situated understanding of historicity that works with other mechanisms than those of exclusion and supremacy. The curriculum for the HIDDEN SCHOOL will focus on sustainability (ecology), situatedness, polyphony and collectivity/solidarity. We use the term ‘hidden’ because we believe that knowledge and art cannot just be exposed to any public without understanding who is listening and watching and who is excluded to articulate a response. We became aware that if we want to gain potential and thrive through art/knowledge we must allow smaller groups to remain hidden until they decide to go public. The outcomes of the HIDDEN SCHOOL will serve to build a network within communities, but may not necessarily appear visible or utilizable.