Initiated in 2016, KUNCI (Key) Study Forum & Collective’s School of Improper Education (SoIE) signifies a point of transition between the first and second generation of KUNCI members.

KUNCI, a research institute, is a product of Reformasi (reform), a movement to depose the then authoritarian Indonesian President Suharto in 1998 and to ensure the democratic transition of power thereafter. Led by impulse and encounters with an expanded multidisciplinary cultural discourse, former student activists Antariksa and Nuraini Juliastuti co-founded KUNCI in 1999 as a way to navigate the oppressive conservative political atmosphere, and to provide a means of deciphering and articulating the phenomenon of a newly liberated popular culture and society through the lens of cultural studies.

The inception of SoIE marks twenty years since the formation of KUNCI and yet, it follows in the same vein and spirit of curiosity that drove the founding of the collective. Here, the base question of the project lies in exploring ways of negotiating theory and practice while being cognizant and critical of the homogenizing effect that such vocabulary and pedagogy might have on the community they work with in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. In short, in a time of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, the collective asks: what are alternative forms of education, what would be considered an “improper” education, and how does one subvert or interrupt the hierarchies of knowledge embedded within our contemporary discourse?

The project started by experimenting with four different pedagogical methods coming from different historical and sociopolitical contexts—the Jacotot method, as conceptualized in Jacque Rancière’s The Ignorant Schoolmaster (1987); the Turba (turun ke bawah, going below) method that was created by Lekra (Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat, Institute for the People’s Culture) in 1950s and 60s Indonesia; the Nyantrik, an ascetic form of teaching evolved from Islamic boarding schools and now associated with traditional forms of performing arts in Indonesia; and lastly, Taman Siswa (Garden of Students) taken from educator and activist Soewardi Soeryaningrat’s (1889–1959) principles for teaching as a form of resistance against the Dutch education curriculum espoused in the then colony.[1]

As an ongoing project, the true and full impact has yet to be recognized, but at a time where tertiary and specialized education is becoming a norm, this project creates a platform where intergenerational exchanges based on uncertainty and curiosity are embraced. It can be seen as a decolonial gesture toward the hierarchy imposed by Western modes of knowledge construction and modernity. This project allows for discussions related to methodology—in the case of the Taman Siswa, Nyantrik, and Turba methods—to be examined closely by the group and their collaborators.

While driven by a common curiosity, the tools that SoIE has deployed can be quite embedded within the context of Indonesia and Yogyakarta; however, this has not stopped the collective from being aware of their colleagues elsewhere who practice with similar aims in mind. Rather, they have been in open dialogue with other organizations such as The Showroom (London) and Casco Art Institute (Utrecht) and have embraced a spirit of fluidity and precarity by being amateur intellectuals who move in and out of institutions of knowledge.

With regards to the relevance of Correction*, KUNCI’s SoIE pushes us to question the societal norms we experience every day, how these constructs are formed, and under whose criteria. SoIE can be seen as an attempt to correct the sometimes overdependence on the colonial categorical imperative as well as a way to introduce plurality in understanding our everyday. It can be seen as a platform to not only discuss corrections of our understanding of “proper education,” but also to question whether such corrections are necessary to construct something anew in the multitudes of pedagogy that surface.

This essay was originally written in nomination of KUNCI Study Forum & Collective’s School of Improper Education for the 2022–2024 Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice in the summer of 2022.

Qinyi Lim is Curator at the National Gallery Singapore. She completed the de Appel Curatorial Programme, Amsterdam in 2012. Qinyi has held curatorial positions at Singapore Art Museum, NUS Museum and Para Site, Hong Kong. Past exhibitions include Jakarta Biennale 2021: ESOK (with Grace Samboh and Sally Texania); Antony Gormley (with Russell Storer, National Gallery Singapore, 2021), A luxury we cannot afford (Para Site, Hong Kong, 2015) Afterwork (Para Site, Hong Kong, 2016 and Ilham Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, 2016), Orchestrations | Samson Young (Para Site, Hong Kong, 2016); Present /Future (Artissima 20, Turin, 2013); Three Artists Walk into a Bar… (de Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam, 2012); and Telah Terbit (Singapore Art Museum, 2006).