UNIVERSITY
The University is an artist-based initiative that seeks to develop theory and practice from an investigation of artistic procedures. Shahin Afrassiabi leads the university on a concentrated examination of issues derived from the work of participating artist.The process also generates the agenda for following meetings.
ARCHIVE
The University is a project developed in 2007 to develope a fully functioning educational facility at the Treignac Projet. Each year a group of arts-related individuals come to Treignac to spend two weeks in seminars and discussions about their work, and the possibilities that these works open up. Apart from the direct educational impact of this period, new projects are instigated and set up through the connections that are made among the participants. This process is creating an expanding network based in many locations. This body of individuals forms a Corporation of Peers.
This network has been dubed The New International School, and shifts the ground of artistic production from the generally recognized cultural and economic centers of the world, to coordinates where the question of the agency of art is not yet over-determined. The NIS involves all disciplines from artists, theorists, filmmakers, and educators from throughout Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East. The NIS is a traveling school- a moving and variable organizational body of specialists, distinguished by the trait that each member acts at times as teacher and student.
The University summer sessions consist of seminars and presentations by all participants. The group develops new approaches and practices from an investigation of current proceedures. The University encourages development of dialogues between specialisations, to facilitate robust critiques.