The School of Free Printing

From the editorial concept and journalistic reporting, to printing with a Risograph: Inspired by the democratic principles of the reform pedagogue Célestin Freinet, who as early as the 1920s published texts from his school students and rejected hierarchies in schools, the collaboration between the students and the culture manager Virág Major and the artist Gergely László was built on discourse and self-determination—the students themselves decided when they worked, which themes were important to them, and how they could establish a consensus. During the course of a semester the grammar school students debated issues of learning, knowledge production, and the future of education.

The Kopernikus-Oberschule in the Steglitz district of Berlin is attended by ca. 610 students in the 7th to 10th grades and 290 in the upper school. With the teacher Johannes Bauer

Virág Major is a culture manager and curator in Berlin. She has worked for the Center for Contemporary Architecture in Budapest and the curatorial department of the documenta (13) as well as the Vasarely Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. She is interested in art education with a focus on the development of self-empowering, informal, participative, and social learning formats and educational approaches.

Gergely László, together with Péter Rákosi, has directed the artists’ collective Technica Schweiz, located in Berlin and Budapest, since 2005. His projects explore issues of collaboration and community and are generally research based. Gergely László lives and works in Berlin and is a founding member of the Lumen Photography Foundation & Lumen Gallery in Budapest and IMPEX – Contemporary Art.