Robert Filliou's Pedagogy of Failure and the Café Genius
Ina Blom's essay, part of ArtSchool 2020 alongside Central Saint Martins and the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, delves into Robert Filliou's ideas about education while referencing Jacques Rancière's thoughts on the delays in learning. She compares Rancière's 1987 piece "The Ignorant Schoolmaster" with Filliou's 1970 work "Teaching and Learning as Performing Arts," highlighting how Filliou champions equality through immediate experiences instead of future aspirations. The "génie du café" represents a free spirit thriving on spontaneous interactions, rejecting the idea of future artistic greatness. Blom ties Filliou's theories to the 1968 student protests and the rise of rock music's spontaneity, emphasizing his "Principle of Equivalence" and interactions with artists like Allan Kaprow and Joseph Beuys. Ultimately, she argues that Filliou's perspective offers a more egalitarian approach to education, focusing on the shared experience of failure.
Key facts
- Essay by Ina Blom published 20 July 2020 as part of ArtSchool 2020.
- ArtSchool 2020 was in partnership with Central Saint Martins and Museu de Arte de São Paulo.
- Blom contrasts Rancière's 1987 'The Ignorant Schoolmaster' with Filliou's 1970 'Teaching and Learning as Performing Arts'.
- Filliou's 'génie du café' concept celebrates minor failure and the 'esprit d'escalier'.
- Filliou's 'Principle of Equivalence' (1968) uses red socks in wooden boxes to represent well made, badly made, and not made.
- Filliou corresponded with Allan Kaprow, John Cage, and Joseph Beuys.
- Filliou included The Fugs on his list of exemplary artists.
- Filliou worked as an economist for the United Nations in Korea.
Entities
Artists
- Ina Blom
- Jacques Rancière
- Robert Filliou
- Kristin Ross
- Joseph Jacotot
- Maurizio Lazzarato
- Claire Fontaine
- Paul Lafargue
- Marcel Duchamp
- Allan Kaprow
- John Cage
- Joseph Beuys
- Thierry de Duve
Institutions
- Afterall
- Central Saint Martins
- Museu de Arte de São Paulo
- United Nations
- Something Else Press
- Stanford University Press
- Semiotext(e)
- Bloomsbury
- MIT Press
Locations
- France
- Korea
- New York
- Cologne
- Los Angeles
- Stanford
- London
Sources
- Afterall —