Social Experiment

In October 2011 we organized a police training for artists at the Dutch Art Institute in Enschede. During three days, a select group of art students and artists, were trained by the Dutch Police Academy in cross-questioning techniques. They were taught how to index a violent situation and how to act according to existing protocols. The theory was directly put into practice in role-play situations. Apart from this, participants were stimulated by means of debates, films, and relevant literature to apply the knowledge gained in these trainings to their own practices. The underlying premise of the training was that only when art education helps students to understand the power relations within our society, they are able to articulate a relevant powerful position of their own and use their imagination to subvert existing social constructions to their own agenda.