artist talk & book launch in collaboration with rile*

A conversation with artist Grace Ndiritu and director of argos Niels Van Tomme on the topic of Ndiritu’s new book Being Together: A Manual For Living and her ideas on community, radical experimenting and pedagogies which her art and life is based on. The ‘talk show’ style event, during which you'll be seated in a circle, and interspersed by silent meditation breaks led by Grace Ndiritu.

About the book

Being Together: A Manual For Living falls in the lineage of publications such as The Journal of the Society for Education Through Art, which throughout the 1960s provided British art schools a window into experimental education. By contrast, Grace Ndritu's experience in creating radical pedagogies arose from a connected, yet unorthodox system of 'self education'.

In 2012, she decided to spend time living in cities only when necessary. She thus lived in rural, alternative and often spiritual communities, while expanding her research into nomadic lifestyles, and training in esoteric studies, which she began following graduating art school. This research led her to visit Thai and Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, permaculture communities in New Zealand, forest tree dwellers in Argentina, neo-tribal festivals such as Burning Man in Nevada, a Scottish Hare Krishna ashram, and the Findhorn Spiritual Community in Scotland.

Such lifestyles forever transformed her ideas of education and have proven critical for her art, whether conducting social practices or working with students, peers and the general public; some of whose voices appear in this publication. Ndiritu posits, "What does (art) education mean today?" and specifically, "What does an embodied (art) education mean in a time of pandemics and social unrest?". Being Together: A Manual For Living attempts to answer these complex questions.

More info: www.rile.space

About the artist

Grace Ndiritu is a British-Kenyan filmmaker and visual artist whose work is concerned with the transformation of our contemporary world. Her archive of over forty 'hand-crafted' videos; experimental photography, shamanic performances and social practice projects have been widely exhibited

More info: www.gracendiritu.com

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programme of the evening

7:00 doors

7:30 meditation

7:40 conversation between Niels and Grace

8:10 meditation

8:20 reading excerpts from the book by Niels and Grace

8:40 Q&A

8:55 meditation

9:00 end

The event is free and limited to 40 people. Please make a reservation via katoucha@argosarts.org.