OUR STORY
Crying as a subject of research within an academic art historical and theoretical context has only been marginally examined. Giving space for this topic to be explored interdisciplinarily was the aim of The Crying Institute: an art theoretical and historical seminar held at the Bauhaus University Weimar in 2022–23, by Prof. Dr. Birte Kleine-Benne, with assistance from the artists Be Koerner, Tatiana Theo Ilichenko, Nadja Kracunovic, and Rand Ibrahim.
Focused on the research in crying – including perspectives from medicine, biology, anthropology, psychology, psychoanalysis, social studies, cultural studies, politics, history, gender history, religion, semiotics, sociology, and communication theory – the institute compiled key theoretical and historical texts, significant terminologies, suitable methods, and existing artworks and practices that have investigated crying as a topic. The aim was to become operational as an institute of crying experts.
Coming from an urge to move to a physical space, the institute evolved into a new stage of research. The result is the Crying Classroom, a research space for students and art practitioners of all disciplines to instrumentalize new artistic strategies, pedagogies, and research methodologies within a culture of emotions.
The Crying Classroom was founded by Birte Kleine-Benne, Nadja Kracunovic, and Rand Ibrahim to explore crying through a variety of mediums and approaches in the contexts of different institutions.
Targeting practitioners of art and various disciplines, as well as students, the Crying Classroom functions as a mobile, interdisciplinary classroom. The project has thus far established collaborative classrooms in 2023/24 as with Der Laden and Bauhaus University Weimar in Germany, conducted PCAP (Post-conceptual Art Practices) workshops at the University of Fine Arts Vienna, and an online workshop with The Iceland University of the Arts, Reykjavík.
MISSION STATEMENT
The act of crying, typically reserved for private settings, has extended into institutions. We push it and implant it in an independent gallery, led by the student organization Der Laden. The Crying Classroom has evolved: it is an ambition to deepen the understanding of crying in a social context; as a tool, an artistic strategy, and, most importantly, as a civil and artistic project which aims to reshape the classroom through collective learning.
We bring the topic of crying to the public to reconstruct it, speak of it, and experiment with it through different art forms. We intend to cultivate a culture of emotion and discussion.
It is a space of self-organized and collective reading, learning, crying, discussing, debating, and comforting; a place with no teacher, but rather a stage to share knowledge. The participants moderate the classes and involve the public in the making of the project. It is a place for the marginalized topic, responding to understandings of the personal, social, bureaucratic, and political burdens that are integral and inevitable parts of our everyday lives.
In addition to the in-person and hybrid events, our website serves as the primary platform for sharing the outcomes of our collective efforts, encompassing a wide array of activities undertaken by the Crying Institute and the Crying Classroom. These activities include publishing The Crying Handbook — a compilation of significant terms coined by the members of the Crying Institute — as well as ongoing projects.