The Cheapest University was an experimental and free art school: its shape and organization was carried out by artists and it was formed by elective affinities, around a spirit of enthusiasm and openness. As a contributory and artistic university, it was as committed as it was immediate: only dependent on the will of its members – all volunteers. The proposals came from their own practices, as an extension of their personal research or as a collective invention of situations tending towards the art piece. The Cheapest University strove to create collective working conditions that allowed it to welcome new members, whatever the state of their researches.
The Cheapest University enabled knowledge to be co-produced and transmitted but, unlike a traditional university, writing was not the only privileged form. Artworks, regardless of the medium, exhibitions and publications were considered as interfaces allowing access to the knowledge produced within The Cheapest University.
In 2015, a research group was set up through monthly meetings, public conferences (Saisir l’école avant qu’elle ne s’évanouisse at Paris 8 University and the Cheap Talks at Villa Belleville), two preparatory workshops (Workshop-tranquille in Pornichet in Loire-Atlantique and L’école emportée in Treignac Projet in Corrèze) and a community-driven website.
The Cheapest University continued its research and developed educational programmes in various spaces (art institutions, radio stations, art schools, residencies, etc.). Its activities revolved around a series of experimental courses open to the public and to external contributions (How to Become a Lesbian, EAAPES, Silent Red Alert, Making Babies Butterflies, …). The Cheapest University also organized public meetings and discussions in the framework of experimental course programmes (Everybody Knows, What’s in my bag, Pleasure of Missing out – La sèche). In 2016, Donna Quixote Press was created, a publishing house which focused on releasing translations and experimental prose, fiction and essays produced within the workshops.
The Cheapest University was a community that focused on collective experimentation and emulation of various work formats and presentations. The public nature and formal aspects of these projects were adjusted as needed, depending on the specific requirements of each initiative undertaken within the community.
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The Cheapest University has maintained a recurring presence at Treignac Projet (Corrèze, France) and has been invited to organize workshops and programs at La Salle de Bain (Lyon, 2018), Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen (Innsbruck, Austria, 2018), erg (Brussels, 2018), Paris Internationale (Paris, 2017) and Carreau du Temple (Paris, 2017).