School of the Displaced / Kyiv Biennial

The School of Displaced Persons
at the
School of Kyiv – 2nd Kyiv Biennial 2015

The School of Displaced Persons is an initiative to map, share, develop and realize best practices in refugee-related work in the arts and beyond. Gathering newly displaced persons, art-actors and associated institutions, as well as art professionals who themselves have a history of involuntary displacement, the School’s programme includes workshops, exhibition and performance projects, discursive events as well as longer-term pedagogical and institutional outcomes.

Initiated by Perpetuum Mobile (Helsinki, Berlin) and the Visual Culture Research Centre (VCRC, Kyiv) for the School of Kyiv – 2nd Kyiv Biennial, The School of Displaced Persons uses the occasion of the biennial to begin to establish a sustainable post-biennial structure in the currently highly fragile Ukrainian predicament. It will engage real-world practices to constructively reflect on and develop new strategies not only in Ukraine, but for a global context in which the issues, problems and opportunities of and for displaced persons are a growing and highly public challenge.

In a time in which open warfare once again overshadows the European continent, and an increasing number of serious conflicts and crises plague the world, the issue of displaced persons / refugees is of ever increasing visibility and importance. Contemporary artists, affected both personally and politically by displacement, have responded with works of a symbolical kind, but also in practical ways typical of the engaged art of our time. As a platform for learning through practice, the School of Displaced Persons will serve to educate artists, curators and institutions, just as much as the newly-displaced persons themselves.

Perpetuum Mobile has worked with Nordic Culture Point, SafeMUSE, ICORN, IASPIS and other organizations to secure funding for the School.