The Tree School

Mujawara/The Tree School, 2014-ongoing

Mixed-Media Installation; Tree; 12 Chairs; 12 Books

Room 6

For Louis Khan, schools began with a person under a tree who did not know he was a teacher, sharing their realizations with others who did not know they were students. The Tree School is a place where people gather for communal learning and producing knowledge that is grounded in lived experience and connected to communities. The tree, a living being with its own characteristics and history, creates a physical and metaphorical common where ideas and actions can emerge through critical, free, and independent discussion. The Tree School reclaims a different way of learning, one that cuts across conventional disciplines of knowledge and welcomes marginalized forms. The books here are written by communities in Brazil and Palestine who learnt together under the tree in North-East Brazil. Every time The Tree School appears it is transformed by its participants, and can last days, weeks, months, even years.

Wallpaper Maps: Qiu Zhijie

Credits:

Sandi Hilal, Alessandro Petti and Grupo Contrafilé.

Book: Campus in Camps –  Sandi Hilal, Alessandro Petti, Ahmad Al Lahham, Isshaq Al Barbary, David Kostenwein, Daniela Sanjinés and Grupo Contrafilé: Cibele Lucena, Jerusa Messina, Joana Zatz Mussi, Peetssa, Rafael Leona, with Walter Solon.  With the contribution of: Arthur de Oliveira Neto, Deysi Ferreira, Eugênio Lima, Floriana Breyer, Geandre Tomazoni, Giuliana Racco, Joelson F. de Oliveira, Lia Zatz, Pedro Cesarino, Shourideh Molavi, Solange Brito Santos, TC Silva.