A METAPHYSICALLY ABANDONED WORLD

The last book written by the Hungarian Nobel laureate Imre Kerstêz just before he died, entitled “The Last Post”, contains a sentence that could almost be interpreted as a wake-up call to all of humanity, which more or less (I quote from memory) goes like this: 

“The world is metaphysically abandoned, and this is a perilous situation for human beings”. 

All faith today is experiencing strange convulsions; either by excess or by deflation. Clearly, the young students of the Jaume Balmes School, with whom we will interact in the programme IN RESiDENCE, are detecting this “hazy fear” that envelops us, and that is why we will analyse whether the world has a bad metaphysical health. We have a whole school year to understand what “metaphysics” means, as well as to think of possible substitutes if it is indeed in decline. 

The MNAC is our key partner for IN RESiDENCE, and it is here that we will carry out our first explorations. What kind of research am I talking about? 

Firstly, I would like us all to analyse what role religion has played in the history of mankind, and to do so without any bias or proselytising of particular religions. The first step will be to look at the pieces in the Museum. I want boys and girls to learn to look. Not just the pre-selected works of the MNAC, which are on display, but also those that are hidden in the museum's museums. 

We'll talk a lot in class with the group tutor. We'll show slides and links that students suggested, and we'll try to explain our ideas together. Maybe the world is not as lost as Kertêz thought?

Formalisation: 
There is nothing that comes so easily from within people as what they need to say. And I suspect that they have a LOT to say. First we work on the need to say. Then we'll approach the MNAC and ask them to give us a space. 

I've thought of holding the sessions at the educational centre in the form of lectures with images, interspersed with visits to the MNAC. The dynamic will be that of a Socràtic workshop based on questions and answers, which will obviously have my help and that of the group's tutor so that it can all come to some kind of conclusion.