Ingezonden stuk/ Submitted piece
In 2008, at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, a book was born that refused to
follow the usual rules. It wasn’t polite, it wasn’t cautious, and it certainly wasn’t going to fit inside tidy
institutional expectations. Created by Sina Khani and Tunç Topçuoğlu, Fart School was a
complete invention: a fictional art school, with imaginary students producing nonexistent artworks, a
satirical mirror held up to the pretension, jargon, and self-importance of the art world.
The promise from the academy was bold: complete artistic freedom, unrestricted freedom
of speech. And for six months, Khani and Topçuoğlu (aka tunctop) took it seriously. Days
blurred into nights. The manuscript grew through endless writing, fights, reconciliations, and
obsessive creativity.
Blood, sweat, and tears went into every page. They followed ideas to their furthest, most
irreverent extremes without asking permission, trusting that the structure around them could
not—and would not—burn.
But freedom within institutions often comes with invisible limits. On the day the book was
meant to go to print, the mood shifted. The manuscript, once celebrated for its audacity, was
suddenly deemed too bold, too disrespectful, too playful with ideas deemed sacred. The project was
canceled.
No debate. No negotiation. Just a decisive stop by their teachers Linda van Deursen and
Will Holder. The very institution that had promised freedom revealed the boundaries of its tolerance.
Seventeen years later, the work has resurfaced, intact and unapologetic, finally presented
at The Unsafe House in Amsterdam. Sina Khani, addressing a restless audience during the
Schaduwbal literary evening, recounted the story with both anger and clarity: cancellation is not new,
it is timeless. Ideas cannot be erased simply because they challenge authority; they can be delayed,
hidden, even suppressed, but never destroyed.
The book appears now exactly as it was written: raw, irreverent, and uncut. The only
additions are a new introduction, a colophon, and a fresh cover. It stands as a testament to
persistence, to the absurdity and brilliance of chasing freedom inside structures that claim to honor
it, and to the enduring power of satire.
Fart School reminds us that you cannot teach art, you cannot institutionalize creativity, and
that the truest experiments are often those that refuse compromise. Seventeen years in the
making, it finally exists—not softened, not edited, but alive in all its original audacity.
Down with fake art academies.
Down with institutionalized art.
Long live the arts.
Long live Fart School.
Here is Sina Khani’s speech performed at the book launch during Het Schaduwbal at The
Unsafe House Amsterdam:
"Good evening.
Let’s start with the simple journalism principle: who, what, where.
In 2008, my friend Tunç Topçuoğlu and I made a book.
It was called Fart School.
The project was developed within the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.
The idea was simple.
We invented an art school that didn’t exist.
With students who didn’t exist.
And those students made artworks that didn’t exist.
A complete fictional art world.
Through this imaginary school, we could mock everything.
The pretension.
The jargon.
The sacred seriousness of the art world.
It was satire.
Rough.
Direct.
And we were promised one thing.
Complete artistic freedom.
Unrestricted freedom of speech.
So we took those words seriously.
For months we worked on the book.
Blood, sweat, and tears.
Endless nights.
Fights. Arguments.
Making up.
Writing.
Writing.
Writing.
The manuscript grew.
The deadline approached.
And then.
On the day of the deadline.
The day the book was supposed to go to the printer.
The teachers looked at it and said: no.
Too bold.
Too disrespectful.
Too satirical.
The book was canceled.
Not after a debate.
Just stopped.
Behind our backs.
And today, people act like cancel culture is something new.
It’s not.
Institutions celebrate freedom.
Until someone actually uses it.
But an idea cannot be canceled forever.
You can delay it.
You can hide it.
But you cannot destroy it.
And that is why we are here.
Seventeen years later, we decided to uncancel ourselves.
The book exists now.
Exactly as it was.
So let this be clear.
Down with institutionalized arts.
Long live the arts."
Submitted by Medusa Jest.
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