School of artistic research methodology: practice and theory

The conversation between two female curators, co-founders of the Bishkek School of Contemporary Art (BiSCA), raises questions related to methodological approaches in artistic research. They reflect on the connection of their interests and education (political science and sociology) with the emergence and agenda of the School of Artistic Research Methodology, on the need for an ideological position in projects, on the advantage of artistic research over academic research, as well as on the opportunities that methodological system thinking offers for forming new perspectives on seemingly understandable phenomena, elements of systems, or systems themselves.

The conversation traces the concepts and conclusions on the structure and forms of interaction within the School of Artistic Research Methodology as a fluid platform for the exchange of experiences in the field of artistic practices and research methodologies. It is built on self-organization and solidarity without any hierarchy of knowledge or teachers, where everyone being an equal participant in the process of information exchange. The text emphasizes that methodology is one of the foundations of creativity, with School of Artistic Research Methodology focusing on the exploration of research processes and reflection on contemporary art practices in Bishkek and Kyrgyzstan. This reflection derives local art theory from practices, comparing and systematizing different approaches in order to gradually form knowledge on ourselves, cultural and political processes taking place in Kyrgyzstan, while expanding the horizons of methodological imagination and the possibility of reassembling social relations.