Artist talk: Marc De Blieck in conversation with Jan Masschelein

Drawing on their own practices and different professional fields, they put forward ideas about the 'space of visual art' and 'the school', and discuss where these overlap. Topics such as the right to speak, choices about keeping the outside world at a distance or letting it in, equality, craftsmanship, and photography may be addressed.

Jan Masschelein is emeritus professor of philosophy of education at KU Leuven, where he was affiliated with the Laboratory for Education and Society. His research primarily concerns the public significance of the school and the university, with a particular focus on reinventing their public forms of work and study in response to social and technological challenges. Together with students, he has been, and continues to be, engaged in designing experimental pedagogical practices and spaces, with particular attention to film, cartography, and walking.
In Dutch, and always in collaboration with Maarten Simons, he has published, among others: Globale Immuniteit. Een kleine cartografie van de Europese ruimte voor onderwijs (2003), Europa anno 2006. E-ducatieve berichten uit niemandsland (2006), Apologie van de school. Een publieke kwestie (2012), and De leerling centraal in het onderwijs? Grenzen van personalisering (2017). He was also the editor of De lichtheid van het opvoeden. Een oefening in lezen, kijken en denken (2008, 2018), based on an analysis of the film Le fils by the Dardenne brothers.