Laura Luempert

The Unexpected Beautiful Phrase was a one-day programme at Nottingham Contemporary of drop-in events and performative moments seeking to articulate the tactics of a fugitive learning. The fugitive, propose Stefano Harney and Fred Moten in ‘The University and the Undercommons’, occupies a space of perpetual contradiction, simultaneously within and beyond the institution: ‘on the stroll of the stolen life’, yet reliant on the institution as a place from which to steal. Through a series of performative gestures, we considered how the fugitive learner navigates institutional space. Featuring performance, readings, sound and video works, this event asked: how can we be fugitive within the constraints of traditional educational models? How can illegibility generate new and disruptive vocabularies? What role does the body play in (un)learning?

Artists and contributors: Denise Ferreira da Silva and Arjuna Neuman, Christopher Kirubi, Dorine van Meel, Jules Sturm, Holly Pester, Raju Rage, Rosa Johan Uddoh, and Department for International Dance Development (DIDD).

CAMPUS Fugitive: The Unexpected Beautiful Phrase was curated by Pablo Luis Álvarez, Giulia Antonioli, Teal Baskerville, Chloe Carroll, Emily Hale, and Laura Luempert as part of the MA Curating Contemporary Art Programme Graduate Projects 2019, Royal College of Art, London. This project was part of a series of events exploring education and critical pedagogies in the lead-up to CAMPUS, a new independent studies programme launching at Nottingham Contemporary in October 2019.