Group Affinity

“Group Affinity” was a two-week summer school that took place in Munich in August 2011 and was organised by Kunstverein München and Casco-Office for Art, Design and Theory.

Conceived as an experimental educational project, Group Affinity referred to earlier initiatives of the Kunstverein München on the topic of ‘self-organisation’ in the 1970s and 90s. The concept of ‘affinity’ became a core concept to examine independently governed cultural production in a time of increasing neoliberal influence on European cultural policy and education. 

Five independent collectives—Andreas Müller and Susanne Pietsch, Chicago Boys, Cinenova, Grand Openings as well as Slavs and Tatars—were invited to each propose a faculty for the summer school. Referring to their own self-organised practice, current research and work processes, they implemented the curriculum for the participants selected from an open call for proposals. 

Bw Gray

Youth Centre München-Pasing 1967

Colour Copy

Youth Centre München-Pasing 2011

The collaboration with Andreas Müller was based on the conviction that the critical analysis of spatial relationships and the visualisation of their socio-political conceptions can offer an opportunity for political action. Within the framework of the research project on youth architecture, which resulted in the publication Walls that Teach, we were examining youth centres with regard to their design, the way they are used, appropriated and adapted. 

Following the example of the Aqu@rium youth centre in Munich, which was built in the 1960s and has since been completely reshaped by its users, the members of the faculty were asked to form a temporary research group with the aim of developing an own imaginary youth centre.