What is AtWork?

AtWork is an itinerant educational format, conceived by Moleskine Foundation and Simon Njami, that uses the creative process to stimulate critical thinking and debate among the participants. It contributes to build a new generation of thinkers.

The key element of AtWork is a workshop conducted by an artist or a curator on the chosen topic. The topic stimulates the collective discussion and a personal self-reflection on issues such as identity, culture, community, etc.

As a final output of the workshop each student produces a personalized notebook, which fixes the process of self- reflection triggered by the workshop. Each notebook takes on its own character and is the reflection of a thought at work.

The produced notebooks are exhibited in an art show, co- curated by the students themselves.

The participants may then choose to donate their works to Moleskine Foundation collection of ‘artist notebooks’, unique pieces of work created by different artists on Moleskine notebooks, among which Bili Bidjocka, Antonio Marras, Maurice Pefura, Sigur Rós, Marina Spadafora, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Giorgio Vigna and many others. The collection is used to help support Moleskine Foundation‘s activities.

All the workshop participants become part of the AtWork Community, a group of international artists, students, curators, cultural organizations, intellectuals, who believe that art can be a tool for social transformation.

AtWork is a very flexible, adaptable and cost efficient format. The duration of the workshop/initiative can vary (from 3 to 5 days) and it can easily enter in a class program or other pre-existing education program. AtWork functions as a tie-in between educational program and the museum cultural/artistic proposition.

So far Moleskine Foundation has implemented 8 chapters of AtWork format in partnership with local cultural organizations, inspiring more than 200 students.

• Chapter 01 Dakar, Senegal
• Chapter 02 Abidjan, Ivory Coast
• Chapter 03 Kampala, Uganda
• Chapter 04 Cairo, Egypt
• Chapter 05 Modena, Italy
• Chapter o6 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• Chapter 07 Harare, Zimbabwe
• Chapter 08 Lisbon, Portugal

Conceived as an open format AtWork is continuously adapted and implemented by various cultural organizations around the world and so far has covered 300 students. We called this off-spin of the format AtWork Lab.

• AtWork Lab Manama, Bahrain
• AtWork Lab Cochabamba, Bolivia
• AtWork Lab Florence, Italy
• AtWork Lab Venice, Italy
• AtWork Lab Milan, Italy
• AtWork Lab Athens, Greece

AtWork Vision (by Simon Njami)

“What AtWork is proposing is not the teaching of useless abstract theories based on vertical teacher-student relationships, but the idea of knowledge as a living thing. Knowledge is not an external element that comes to enlighten us. It is indeed recognition – that is, the realization of what is already inside us, hidden in our souls, without our knowing or conceptualizing it; in other words, it is the process of becoming aware of all the things we need to make sense of the visible and invisible world. We have nothing to teach anyone: “The light that permits encountering something other than the self, makes it encountered as if this thing came from the ego.

The light, brightness, is intelligibility itself; making everything come from me, it reduces every experience to an element of reminiscence. Reason is alone. And in this sense knowledge never encounters anything truly other in the world” (Emmanuel Levinas).

This inner light that belongs to everyone just asks to come out; and provided that we have the necessary intellectual and human tools, our role is to help this light reveal itself and flourish.

…I see AtWork as a large, non-institutional university allowing the exchange of views, experiences and contexts. Our project does not intend to promote a univocal view of art theories and creativity, which is far from our intentions, but to establish a resonating environment where specific tools become pertinent even outside their original contexts. Therefore, we are not speaking of learning in the academic and traditional sense of the word, but of knowledge, exchanges and discoveries as sensible and human experiences, far from any presumption of objectivity…

AtWork intends to promote this kind of idealism that activates the solitary character of reason, helping individuals think for themselves and within themselves. We have long understood that there is no such thing as objectivity. There are only more or less explicit wills to power. The flame of reason is flickering. It is our responsibility to revive it. This is the ambition of our modest contribution.”

Read the full text here

Moleskine Foundation

The Moleskine Foundation is a non-profit organization that was created in 2006 as lettera27 – an unconventional cultural incubator.

It takes lettera27’s heritage -people, values and projects – and brings it to a wider scale. The Moleskine Foundation embraces the experience of the founders of the Moleskine Brand, who are committed to applying the very values that led to the brand’s success to generate social impact. It operates in complete independence from the Moleskine company.

We believe that Quality Education is key to producing positive change in society and driving our collective future.

We are committed to providing youth with unconventional educational tools and experiences that help foster critical thinking, creative doing and life-long learning, with a focus on communities affected by cultural and social deprivation.

To achieve this, we work at the intersection of three focus areas: innovative education, art and culture for social transformation, advocacy and cross-cultural sensitization.

With a special focus on Africa, the Foundation works closely with local organizations to fund, support and co-create a wide range of distinctive initiatives.

Together with our partners and grantees the Moleskine Foundation strives to catalyse systemic change through an open, participatory and cross-sectorial approach.

www.moleskinefoundation.org