F+F Schule —
Re-defining "School"

28.09.2024–19.01.2025
Kunsthalle Zürich

with Sasha Coston and Aida Subadi

Within the framework of The School of (Sub)Curating, led by Kunsthalle Zürich director Daniel Baumann, I devised in collaboration with Sasha Coston and Aida Subadi an installation offering an overview of the first years of the F+F School, a radical pedagogical experiment at the former Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich (KGSZ), as well as its relevance in the present day.

In 1965, the Form+Farbe program was introduced at the KGSZ by instructors who wanted to incorporate critical thinking and social questioning into a curriculum that dismantled traditional student-teacher hierarchies and encouraged experimentation. The popularity of the program was met with unease by the school’s leadership, who attempted to dismiss it in 1970, resulting in widespread student and faculty protest. Those first five were instrumental in the birth of today’s F+F School of Art and Design.

Our focus is on this first embryonic phase, tracing the project’s inception within a generally adverse institution up until the 1970 schism. The accompanying video essay gathers reflections from students of different backgrounds on the value of alternative educational formats and how activism can shape a more critically aware learning environment.