BANNER DROP
Banner Drop. 2016
CONTRIBUTION FOR THE PLATFORM 'ARTIST EXERCISES', 2016
Occupation of an educational institution by its students, teachers or staff members is, even now, still a potential way to exercise autonomy, community and refusal – an exercise worth equally, if not primarily, attention in any educational curriculum. The Banner Drop can function as a form of flag-raising on this new occupied territory – a clear message, rooted in this political occupation, waving with the fabric in the wind. The Banner Drop can also function as a brief hack into the formal realities of the everyday practice of institutionalized society. The shock of the defiant proclamation unwantedly unfolding upon the architecture of the normal situation enables a moment of contrary imagery - the proclaimed truth of one situation is suddenly superimposed with a different truth. The fabric of commonly promoted uncomplicated reality is ripped by the multi-layered other. The practice of counter-disciplinary conduct requires practical skill-sets to be learned and taught on throughout the community. One of these skills, if still only one small tool in a much larger and growing toolbox, is the action of the Banner Drop. Learning these tools and learning to share-on this knowledge should be obligatory in the general education of any young individual.
Artists’ Exercises (artistsexercises.org) is a platform for sharing and distributing fragments of artists’ educational strategies. Banner Drop is a collaboration with visual artist Soren Thilo Funder.