Mission

ENDA (the National School of Art) is an institution for research and experimentation in art.

The school constitutes the pedagogical section of the Biennale de Paris.

ENDA does not fall into any category of current French or international art education. It is an art school of a new generation that offers a curriculum that gives its participants the opportunity to liberate themselves from the legacy inherited from 20th century art. It also proposes to highlight some of the issues at stake in the art of the 21st century, a history now being written.

ENDA is aimed at: those who are interested in singular processes that are currently emerging sporadically, those who wish to reformulate their artistic practice or professional activity, those who expect a school to be more than just a context for artistic production, and finally, those who, under ideal conditions, seek to put essential questions to work.

ENDA’s curriculum enables participants to develop an unforeseen view of art and free themselves from unique practice. It allows him/her to apply the skills acquired to all aspects of his/her professional and private life and gives him/her the keys to set up an economy adapted to the specificity of his/her work.

Program Objectives

The program allows the participant to :

  • develop a critical and self-critical mind;
  • forge a subjective point of view on art;
  • experiment with non-conforming practice and master new approaches to art practice;
  • have the opportunity to take part in an art history’s being written;
  • construct an approach that is the expression of one’s own singularity;
  • have a high level of education;
  • develop a project or an approach that exists prior to admission;
  • develop an autonomous approach that is independent of the art market;
  • possess the keys to set up an economy adapted to the specificity of one’s work;
  • envision a production of works requiring negligible or no financial means;
  • apply acquired skills to all aspects of one’s professional and private life;
  • acquire the basis of a certain free state of mind which will make it possible to reformulate oneself and one’s occupation.

Work at ENDA is theoretical and practical in a necessary interdependence. Practice is the result of reflection, which in turn is tested and adjusted by practice.

The school issues a diploma whose closest reference point in the nomenclature of artistic education would be the post-diploma. The DNREA (National Diploma of Research and Experimentation in Art) is delivered at the end of the session following an interview with a jury. It is not a diploma of art but a diploma of artistic research and experimentation.

Through its admission criteria, program, organization, methodologies and operating methods, as well as the LDRE (Lines of Research and Experimentation), the nature of the content offered, the aims and issues involved, the evaluation criteria, and the diploma it awards, ENDA is a school that maintains its own academic standards. On the basis of its academic standards it builds a programme that evolves and is reviewed every year.

ENDA is a liquid school that moves continuously from one place to another: from car parks, to museums, contemporary art centres, gardens, metro, galleries, trains, embassies, associations, foundations, schools, wineries, universities… This principle of action is also applied to the very work that the school does with the participants. The program put into circulation offers participants new opportunities and openings to formulate, enhance and position their work in relation to others.

Practitioners may organize work modules themselves, initiate out-of-session projects in France or abroad, or formulate thematic LDREs (Lines of Research and Experimentation). By influencing the very organization of the school, practitioners make ENDA a horizontal school.

Built on values outside of those that govern art schools and the art world in general, ENDA is receptive to everything yet independent of everything. As a school it more than necessary today, both in the research it conducts in art and its capacity of critiquing the art system.

Echoing a political, economic and social context that extends beyond that of art, ENDA claims a space of emancipation that formulates what an art school can be in the 21st century.