The Cult as an Educational Framework

The Cult as an Educational Framework was a workshop held at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw.

During my residency period at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art earlier in the year, I studied the famous and enigmatic Kowalnia workshop at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and its spin-offs led by Kowalnia-alumni Artur Żmijewski and Paweł Althamer. Although I believe Kowalnia and its spinoffs to be one of the most exciting and fruitful educational systems for contemporary art, I noticed that outsiders tended to see these as cult-like gatherings shrouded in mystery. Thinking of that view, in this workshop I proposed looking into cults and their methods as inspiration for educational systems, and to look into the cult-like elements of existing educational systems.