The School of Missing Studies started in 2003 as a collective made-up of artists and architects, who recognized the missing as a matter of urgency in public space and how cultural education was so close yet so far removed from cultural production. They investigated what cultures laid the foundations for the loss that we are experiencing from modernization, and how we can learn from this loss. The School of Missing Studies is calling for a space to turn existing knowledge against itself to affect our capacity to see things otherwise, to trust that seeing, and to set our own pedagogical terms.

The School of Missing Studies is initiated by Bik Van der Pol, Srdjan Janovics Weiss and Sabine Von Fischer. In 2013-2015 it was temporarily recreated for programming at the Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam as a one-off, two year master Program. It also became the subject of the Sandberg Institutes first publication in this new cultural series, with essays by by Liz Allan, Bik van der Pol, Charles Esche, E.C. feiss, Laymert Garcia dos Santos, Sarah Pierce, Eloise Sweetman, Paulo Tavares, and Nato Thompson.
School of Missing Studies
School of Missing Studies, facebook
School of Missing Studies, Sandberg Institute
School of Missing Studies

In collaboration with TAAK and Public Art Amsterdam, Bik Van der Pol are developing Don't Fence Me In. This research project responds to the removal of a work by Peter Struycken from De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) in Amsterdam, which has to make way to create a more transparent appearance of the building. The fencing to which the artwork is attached would become redundant, because of the relocation of the banknotes and gold-stock from DNB to Zeist. Bik Van der Pol's research focusses on (the illusion of) visible and invisible fences that give or deny access.

KW Institute for Contemporary Art and Sharjah Art Foundation, in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Marokko and ThinkArt, initiate a collaborative venture 2020–2022/23 revolving around the approach of The School of Casablanca—a school that developed innovative education and exhibition strategies in 1960s Morocco.
During a residency in Casablanca between 2020–2022/23, artists will conduct research, produce new work, and create a public program focused on the subject(s) addressed in their research.
With Céline Condorelli, Fatima-Zahra Lakrissa, Marion von Osten, Manuel Raeder, Bik Van der Pol, Abdeslam Ziou Ziou.

Now What?, Fieldwork International Summerschool, 4-5 September online, 10am-2pm GMT
With curators Binna Choi, Galit Eilat, Tessa Giblin, and artists Ashanti Harris and Olivia Plender, and a screening of the film What is Democracy? by film-maker Astra Taylor. Programmed by Bik Van der Pol.

Basic Income, webinars Akademie van Kunsten (in Dutch)
Texte Zur Kunst
Naomi kKlein in Intercept
SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM MEETS THE CORONAVIRUS SHOCK DOCTRINE
disobedient objects: everyday items that have been turned to a new purpose
Seth Siegelaub: The Artist’s Reserved Rights Transfer And Sale Agreement (1971)

Take Part is a project by Bik Van der Pol, seeks to create a shared public vision of the city by anchoring discussions about its past, present and future, to the tangible: a 1000 square foot detailed wooden scale model of the city built in the late 1930s by the WPA under the New Deal program.
(due to coronacrisis the final stage of this project is postponed)
San Francisco model on David Rumsey's website
SFMOMA
Stories from the model city and 99percentinvisible
on Living New Deal
SF WAP model at Libraries

#GuessWhereSF Then and Now. Scale model sliding then and now images, part of the Take Part #GuessWhereSF Instagram series #takepartsf

Exhibition project Far Too Many Stories to Fit into so Small a Box by Bik Van der Pol, based on the collection and archives of the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art. Bik Van der Pol critically examine – from the vantage point of outsiders – its history as well as take on board its founding myth and remind of the creator of its concept in the early nineties, Wojciech Krukowski, art historian and founder of the avant-garde theatre Akademia Ruchu (Academy of Movement). Concept, research and script by Bik Van der Pol, curator Joanna Zielinska, Visual Identification by Fontarte, Exhibition Design by Matosek Niezgoda, Choreography Ania Nowak, Performers Agnieszka Ay?en Kaim, Mamadou Góo Bâ, Billy Morgan, Ania Nowak, Jagoda Szymkiewicz, Soundscape Wojtek Blecharz.
Performances (subtitled) by Agnieszka Ayen Kaim, Mamadou Góo Bâ, Billy Morgan, Ania Nowak, Jagoda Szymkiewicz.

Soundscape by Wojtek Blecharz based on the script by Bik Van der Pol
more on Far Too many Stories To Fit Into So Small A Box
Recent
political developments: here
and here
Reviews:
Exhibition Far Too Many Stories to Fit Into so Small a Box featured by Weronika Trojansnka in MetropolisM
Review by Adam Mazur. See english translation here
Review by Stach Szablowski, english translation here
AlJazeera

Public Space? Lost and Found, a collection of essays, projects, and interviews on the shape and status of public space-making in art and architecture today. MIT Press.
WERE IT AS IF, many-voiced case study that enlists the power of archival fragments of this institution, as points of provocation to engage with methodologies of the contemporary. Contributions by Defne Ayas, Bik Van der Pol, Manuel Borja-Villel, Marianna Hovhannisyan, Brian Kuan Wood, Doreen Mende, Peter Osborne, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Samuel Saelemakers, Terry Smith, Ana Teixeira Pinto. Designed by Bardhi Haliti.
School of Missing Studies, Contributions by Liz Allan, Bik Van der Pol, Charles Esche, E. C. Feiss, Laymert Garcia dos Santos, Sarah Pierce, Eloise Sweetman, Paulo Tavares, Nato Thompson. Design by Anja Groten. Sandberg Series n°1. Sternberg Press
In the vacuum of the Gwangju Uprising: endless struggles. A conversation between Binna Choi and Liesbeth Bik in newspaper Nossa Voz (Our Voice), Casa do Povo (Sao Paulo). download pdf here

With Take Part, Bik Van der Pol Take Part seek to create a shared public vision of the city by anchoring discussions about its past, present, and future, as well as its challenges and opportunities, to a tangible object—a thousand-square-foot scale model of San Francisco built in the late 1930s—at the city’s public libraries. Take Part involves a multitude of voices in discussions and inviting participants from diverse backgrounds, skills, and ages to infuse the scale model with their perspectives. Public libraries, the primary site for the project, were once and continue to be a core infrastructure of public culture in the United States. Take Part explores the potential of the public role of these hubs for citizenship and communal gatherings, and pillars of public life.
Take Part - Is There Room in San Francisco for San Francisco? is a project by Bik Van der Pol, commissioned by Public Knowledge at SFMOMA in partnership with San Francisco Public Library.
see also: this website

Tectonic economic, technological, and cultural shifts are currently transforming the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Take Part - Is There Room in San Francisco for San Fancisco? , the new project by Bik Van der Pol started in 2018. After cleaning, inventorizing and photographing every part, the model will have its first public moment with a public program in collaboration with and in 29 Pubic Library Branches, from January 25-March 25, 2019. Sections of the model will be publicly exhibited throughout the branches of the San Francisco Public Library. Each neighborhood will be on display in its corresponding library, including the twenty-seven neighborhood branches, the main branch, and the temporary branch at SFMOMA.
Meanwhile, David Rumsey published tyhe scale model online: he created a composite image of the digital images WPA SF Model and also built the database of all the pieces: large map, Luna Database, all 158 parts to the Model and the large map, and blogpost David Rumsey.
Events and programs have been developed according to each neighborhood’s interests and focus on key themes, broadly related to publicness and civic participation. see calendar for complete list of events. Everyone is invited to participate in Reading the Model to gather around the model, the Department of Memory to discuss the city’s and neighborhood's hidden pasts, Modeling the City to discuss urgent topics, Bicycle Tours to connect the whole city and the site-specific Library Programs.
The next public manifestation of the project is expected end 2019 or early 2020. Sign the petition to help make this happen.
More information:
Public Knowledge
#takepartsf
#publicknowledgesf
Talk at ShapingSF Model SF: Collectively Shaping the City
Talk at SFMOMA Public Knowledge Library: Take Part: Collective Aesthetics at SFMoma
2018 Artist in Residence in Headlands Center for the Arts
Launched in April 2017, Public Knowledge is a two-year project that aims to promote public dialogue on the cultural impact of urban change. The multifaceted Public Knowledge initiative explores the meaning of these changes for civic discourse, the circulation of knowledge, and the role of libraries and museums.Through artist projects, research collaborations, public programs, and publishing, it builds new connections between ideas, individuals, and communities.
Public Knowledge is based in San Francisco and takes place at multiple locations in the city, bringing together makers, thinkers, and writers from a wide range of disciplines to contemplate together the stakes involved in maintaining public access to the tools of knowledge production, dissemination, and circulation. Commissioned projects include work by: Burak Arikan, Minerva Cuevas, Josh Kun, Stephanie Syjuco, and Bik Van der Pol.