Parasite School

Parasite School was initiated in 2010 by multidisciplinary artist Felipe Castelblanco, and takes place at the intersection between education and participatory art

Parasite School “infiltrates the university in a parasitical way and uses its resources, people and infrastructure to embrace & serve immigrants and artists-nomads excluded by official universities in the USA and Europe. This project explores education as artistic material and the university as a contested political arena.”

“By operating from inside the university in a parasitical way, the ParaSite School appropriates the university’s resources (faculty, classrooms, labs, equipment, researchers, etc) in order to create alternative opportunities for minorities, undocumented migrants and artists facing immigration issues to attend college and access higher education.

Meanwhile, The School itself serves as a platform for artists/educators to investigate forms of experimental pedagogy, participation and social interventions in the public sphere as a form of artistic practice and social action.”

"For an entire week, the group offered to paint people’s houses within the city of Portland, Oregon using local media and street advertisement. However, instead of painting the walls of the houses, artist and laborers created fine art paintings — on canvas — of the façades of the buildings, while engaging customers/audiences in a situation that re-imagined the act of exchange, service and labor. A temporary art studio (with easels, canvases and palettes) emerged on the streets as the group created the paintings.
WPH employed undocumented Latino Laborers and provided faire wages in the form of artists stipends, using funds from academic research grants and artistic fellowships granted by U.S. universities."
The intervention seeks to enable contentious encounters between locals and immigrants, workers and artists, while stimulating public debate about immigrant labor, class and misrepresentation.
https://parasiteschool.org/post/41762919183/2012-and-2014-we-paint-houses-public-art

IAM Weekend 18 The Subversion of Paradoxes Parasite School:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx40wxT4hTI

 https://parasiteschool.org/