Black Mountain Research

Black Mountain Research ein Buchprojekt von Annette Jael Lehmann unter Mitarbeit von Verena Kittel und Anna-Lena Werner / a book project by Annette Jael Lehmann with the assistance of Verena Kittel and Anna-Lena Werner introduction Annette Jael Lehmann and Anna-Lena Werner The practice-based research project Black they unite theoretical and curatorial endeavors tions outside North America. At the threshold of eventually successful and became a worldwide Mountain Research was a collaborative project into – well…what exactly? In other words: How art and pedagogy, liberal and pioneering in their architectural model only a few decades later. by Freie Universität Berlin and Hamburger could students, scholars, curators and artists curriculum, the educational institution revolu- Trial and error or even failure became at times Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin cooperate within one project? As a small team tionized models of academic teaching and lear- liberating forces at the college, opposing a pre- (2013-2015) that was developed along the muse- based at the Institute for Theater Studies at ning and fostered crucial strategies to contribute determined path towards knowledge, actions um exhibition ‘Black Mountain. An Interdiscip- Freie Universität Berlin – namely Verena Kittel, to a development that could now be described or results. The necessity of making mistakes, as linary Experiment 1933 – 1957’ (from 05.06. to Annette Jael Lehmann, and Anna-Lena Werner as practice-based research. Having an extensive Buckminster Fuller has prominently declared, 27.09.2015). Seeking to test alternatives to ins- – we wanted to find answers for these questions effect on educational methods of collaboration was considered as part of the pedagogical practi- titutional public programs, we invited students, and started an in-depth conversation with a part until today, Black Mountain was on many levels ces and a key factor in the interplay of opposites scholars, artists, curators and everyone interes- of the curatorial team of Hamburger Bahnhof paradigmatic for what we hoped to be a fruitful and contradictions. The possibility of failure ted to contribute to the project; to be a substan- – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin about oppor- project between museum and university. indeed shifts the focus from a final result to the tial part of the production and the sharing of tunities to collaborate. The university is in need notion of potentiality or inactuality, as descri- knowledge, by often using performative strate- of practice, of social experiences with people and Therefore, the curators and we were particularly bed by Giorgio Agamben. But at the same time, gies of researching, teaching and learning over of the expertise of preserving and exhibiting. In keen on researching on the supportive network it also emphasizes experiences of disturbance, an extended period of time. This publication in- turn, the museum is in need of research, of alter- of students and teachers, the interdisciplinary frustration and disorientation for all people in- troduces a selection of the outcomes of this joint natives to public programs, and in need to create strategies between media and genre, and the volved. Nevertheless, the constant regeneration practice-based research and outlines current and a fundamental analysis of art historical events, experimental nature of the educational institu- and renegotiation of self-organizing patterns at future possibilities of research collaborations aesthetic questions, and philosophical contribution Black Mountain. Beginning with dialogues work generated a common sense of co-creation between universities and museums, and their tions. On both sides, there was not only a desire both on- and offline between students, curators and co-evolution, allowing the interplay of vari- joint task of dealing with cultural heritage. for supplementation but also a frustration about and scholars, we thus developed Black Mountain ous people and disciplines. While this concept neo-avant-garde of the 20th century was its radi- mental practices were substantial to their cur- the growing economization and instrumentali- Research – henceforward the title of our joint might sound ideal, it was likewise deeply rooted cal orientation towards collective and pragmatic riculum. The credo „learning by doing”, which zation of educational institutions. What we were project. Our research ran parallel in frequent in pragmatism. The so-called work program at tasks, considering artistic practice and research was coined by influential reform pedagogue looking for might sound idealistic, but we later exchange and influence, but nonetheless self- Black Mountain thus mirrored nothing but a as a tool to solve problems and to improve life. John Dewey, was actively practiced at Black figured that this attribute was exactly key to our sufficiently next to the two-year preparations for pragmatic scheme of primarily physical tasks to Black Mountain was founded on the outskirts of Mountain College to develop theory through aim: developing a collaborative practice-based the exhibition ‘Black Mountain. An Interdiscipli- be fulfilled by everybody, necessary to sustain a small mountain town in North Carolina in 1933 physical performance, through experiments, research. nary Experiment 1933 – 1957’, which took place the life on campus. and it eventually closed down 24 years later in through aesthetics, through chance and failure. at Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegen- 1957. The College was established with the aim Like Dewey, the college supported the belief Jointly looking for a theme that could be re- wart – Berlin in the summer of 2015. These forms of collaboration were embedded in of providing an education in the arts and sci- in ‚Art as Experience‘ (1934) as opposed to a searched and realized between both institutions, a basic disposition of risk-taking at the college ences, loosening conventional models between finalized ‚work of art‘. It unfolded community we found a subject that would potentially reflect Our cooperation and mutual research interest and often unfolded themselves as experimentati- student and faculty, faculty and administration, processes to set of unprecedented capacities in our seemingly idealist endeavor meta-reflexively, initially revolved around one central subject on. Experiments at Black Mountain were actions which usually served to specialize roles and co-creation and collaboration. Teaching methods practically and even historically: In relation to and question: the potentials and possibilities marking what Deleuze coined ‚the cleavage of bolster hierarchical distinctions. It developed an were counting on active students, on a mental as the drafting of first ideas for an upcoming exhi- of Black Mountain for art, research and educa- causality‘, expanding the pure cognitive notion unprecedented prominent genealogy of artists, well as a practical and physical level, constantly bition project at the museum, curators Eugen tion today. Thus, we choose an archeological of knowledge, which is based on understanding scientists and intellectuals, mainly consisting of trying to provoke their minds to further actions. Blume, Matilda Felix and Gabriele Knapstein approach digging out the major aspects of its the logical chain of cause and effect or action and a European elite of exiles from Nazi Germany Although there were no required courses, no set told us about their re-discovery of two works interdisciplinary and experimental practices reaction. Experiments did not determine know- like Josef and Anni Albers, Max Dehn and Xanti schedule of examinations and no formal grades, in the museum’s collection – a painting by Cy and pedagogicial ideas, mapping out connecting ledge; they rather offered fluid structures of Schawinsky, as well as the American postwar the education at BMC was extremely demanding. Twombly and one by Robert Rauschenberg – lines for the concept and practice of our own col- experiences. Consequently, artists and scientists In 2013, everything began with a few general neo-avant-garde including Robert Rauschen- In the summer of 1948, the inventor Buckmins- that each had originally been created at the same laboration in Black Mountain Research. Taking began to re-conceptionalize their understanding questions: How can universities and museums berg, Charles Olson and John Cage. ter Fuller constructed his first geodesic dome: a place during the same time: Black Mountain Col- a historical perspective counter to a traditional of an experiment. Many developed a notion of benefit from each other? How can they comple- human shelter construction. In its early const- lege. The college was an influential but nonethel- art-historical methodology as a departure point, experiment that provoked an engagement with ment one another? Where are their thresholds, Inspired by the Bauhaus, where many of the ruction period it failed to rise and was therefore ess little known, former art school that has been we were focussing on the aspect that Black the uncertain, highlighting what is contingence, where are common grounds? And finally: Can teachers had previously taught, values such as called ‚the supine dome‘ by Elaine de Kooning, subject to surprisingly little research or exhibi- Mountain‘s most important contribution to the indeterminacy and chance, with an emphasis on communal life, hands-on projects and experi- who was one of Fuller’s students. The design was 2 3 the ephemeral and the incomplete in contrast to Further formats, such as workshops and symposia.

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