The journal Urbânia 5 was developed as one of the 31st Bienal’s artistic projects and features counter-hegemonic educational practices. The print edition is roughly 300 pages long and its content is organized in eight sections: Counterschools; Hidden curriculum or Through the cracks of the gates; We’re all different; Another University; Counterspaces of learning; Where is free play?; To educate is to not fit; and Institutional and extra-institutional mediation. Underlying this journal is the notion of democratic education. Democratic schools are, in general terms, those in which the students take part in the decision-making process concerning how the institution is run and where the students choose what and how to research, with the guidance and support of their teachers.
It turns out that, in relationship to democratic schools, nothing can be said ‘in general terms’. Each school that aims to be democratic is unique. These schools share certain characteristics and many of them were inspired by previously existing ones. But for the editors of Urbânia 5, there's no final form for democracy. Democracy, in order to be democracy, has to be constantly improved. The democratic educational movement includes both formal and “disobedient” educational experiences, structured as collective inventions with their own in-built mechanisms, concepts and values, toward cooperative knowledge-building.
Launching the journal during the closing week of the 31st Bienal aims to show that while it owes its existence to the Bienal, it extends far beyond the exhibition. The imagined readership is neither a generic mass nor the “art world”, but the individuals and collectives who collaborated on it and that will take part in its distribution. That does not mean that Bienal visitors will not have access to it, as it will be available during this closing week and throughout the itinerancy program for 2015. However, fundamentally, it means the journal will circulate among the indigenous schools located at Alto do Rio Negro (Amazon); that it will be on library shelves in the Field Schools of the Landless Movement (MST); that it can be used by educators working with black girls in need of fairy-tales featuring princesses that look like them, so that they can form their identities and strengthen their self-esteem; and that it will be read by the members of organized young students collectives, among other groups. The idea is that the collaborators can use the journal to exchange their experiences and learn from each other’s educational practices.
On the morning of December 6, at the Bienal’s Park Area, the editors will host a public conversation about democratic education and present the whole journal on a slide projector so that they can talk the audience through its content. Below is the front cover and table of contents.
Urbânia 5
Editor-in-chief: Graziela Kunsch
Guest co-editor on this edition: Lilian L'Abbate Kelian
Graphic design: Vitor Cesar, with Frederico Floeter and the assistance of Deborah Salles
ISSN: 1982-856X
São Paulo: Editora Pressa, 2014.
Work commissioned by the 31st Bienal, "How to (...) about things that don’t exist".
Table of contents: Urbânia 5
Editorial. Graziela Kunsch
COUNTERSCHOOLS
A Democratic Education Timeline Lilian L'Abbate Kelian
Pluralistic Learning – Learning in a Democratic World. The Journey to Personal Uniqueness. Yaacov Hecht
CIEJA Campo Limpo: a school transforming structures and directions. Helena Singer
Glimpses of an Educational Experience that Recognizes Diversity. André Gravatá
The Importance of Questioning at Escola Politeia. The Escola Politeia team
Interview with André Fernando Baniwa about the Baniwa and Coripaco Pamáali Indigenous School on Alto do Rio Negro. Ana Lucia Pontes
Field Schools. National Education Sector of the Landless Movement (MST)
HIDDEN CURRICULUM or
THROUGH THE CRACKS OF THE GATES
The Movimento Passe Livre at Schools. MPL São Paulo, Carolina Cruz (MPL Floripa) and Manolo (Tarifa Zero Salvador), with illustrations by Laura Viana and Tiago Judas
Fare Free Bus Project at the 31st Bienal. Graziela Kunsch
O MAL EDUCADO (Bad Education). The MAL EDUCADO Collective
Hidden Curriculum. Annette Krauss
Spaces of unexpected learning. Annette Krauss, Emily Pethick and Marina Vishmidt
My Story – Told by Them. Natália Lobo – Capitolina magazine
Schools without Homophobia. Maria Helena Franco, Vera Lúcia Simonetti Racy and Maria Cecília Moraes Simonetti
WE’RE ALL DIFFERENT
Poems for families of all Types, Colors and Tones! Anna Dulce, with illustrations by Aline Paes
Photographing and Recounting Types of Knowledge: education at Candomblé terreiros. Stela Guedes Caputo and Nilda Alves
Let’s Blow at Dandelions. Stela Guedes Caputo
A Myth as a Gift: Weaving Ancestral Afro-Brazilian Memories. Kiusam de Oliveira, with illustrations by Josias Marinho
Building a Racism-free Educational Space. Ana Caroline da Silva de Jesus and Whellder Guelewar
Middle Age Class. Kiko Dinucci
Clandestines. Andrea Dip
Biting Down in Silence. Andrea Dip
When Women have no Self-possession: abortion, labor, and body rights. Helena Zelic, Beatriz Trevisan, Gabriella Beira, Priscylla Piucco and Bárbara Fernandes – Capitolina magazine
How to Assist a Humanized Birth, Step-by-Step. Ana Cristina Duarte
Registering culture: the smell of the Whites and the cinema of the Indians. Carlos Fausto
Questions to Open the World. Sofia Cupertino and Ricardo Jamal + extracts from the book Cantos tikmũ’ũn para abrir o mundo (Organized by Rosângela Pereira de Tugny. Belo Horizonte: Editora UFMG, 2013).
ANOTHER UNIVERSITY
On Everything We Don’t Know. Nádia Recioli
The Story of my Life: the path of a Guarani. Eliel Benites Kunumi Rendyju
Replanting Roots: The Indian that Lives in Me. Gilberto Machel
The Commons Trilogy: the last three editions of the UFMG Winter Festival
Sensible Territories: first steps at the Universidade Federal do Sul da Bahia. Eloisa Domenici, Augustin de Tugny and Rosângela Pereira de Tugny
Eye choices. Gabriel Menotti
Wages for Students. Estudantes de Salários para Estudantes + Jakob Jakobsen and María Berríos
READ-IN: Collective Reading Manual. Read-In Group.
COUNTERSPACES OF LEARNING
Project Processes as Autonomy-building. USINA
The City we (de)Construct. Comboio
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO FREE PLAY?
Boredom in Children. Clarice Kunsch
Tree is a person, not a word! A Mother-and-child Game. Cibele Lucena and Joana Zatz Mussi
TO EDUCATE IS TO NOT FIT
Notes on a Certain Educational Leaning in a (Supposedly) Artistic Trajectory. Jorge Menna Barreto
On the Artist’s Noisy Vocation in the City: a textual dispute by four artists on the São Paulo Culture Secretariat’s Vocational Program. Carolina Nóbrega, Luiz Claudio Cândido, Pedro Felício and Tatiana Guimarães
INSTITUTIONAL AND EXTRA-INSTITUTIONAL MEDIATION
"All it takes is for the educators to question themselves". Aldo Victório Filho, Carolina Sumie Ramos, Cayo Honorato, Elaine Fontana, Graziela Kunsch, Helena Singer, Jorge Menna Barreto, José Pacheco and Lilian L'Abbate Kelian
Extra-Institutional Mediation. Cayo Honorato
Counterpublic Episodes. Diogo de Moraes
THE EDUCATIONAL MATERIALISM OF THE SÃO PAULO BIENAL (CAPITAL): Critical theory as educational practice. Carolina Oliveira, Rachel Pacheco and Thauany Freire
Untitled. A group of educators from the 31st Bienal
The Educational Questionnaire of the 31st Bienal. Paulo Delgado
How to Teach Things that Don’t Exist. Ricardo Baitz
Self-education at the 31st São Paulo Bienal. Danielle Sleiman, Dione Pozzebon, Dora Correa, Elaine Fontana, Graziela Kunsch, Júlia Lotufo, Paulo Delgado, Lilian L'Abbate Kelian, Ricardo Ramos and Thiago Gil
Art, Education, Class. Pablo Lafuente
Erring toward Censorship. Loreto Garin Guzman and Federico Zukerfeld (Etcétera...)
Subject: CENSORSHIP AT THE SÃO PAULO ART BIENAL. Mujeres Creando and others
