FROM CANDLE TO FIRE.

SUBVERSIONS OF PLAYING

Abstract

This essay attempts to analyze some aspects of the experience of playing as a subversion of the traditional concepts of “productive activity”, “community”, “time” and “language”. It takes vague and allusive inspiration from the writing of Maria Gabriela Llansol, from her one-off educational project, but also from some fundamental critical moments, where the prominence of playing instigates a rethink of the wholeness of the educational experience. The first part looks at how the educational project associated with Llansol takes on an experiential scope, capable of questioning some concepts that are considered insurmountable in the educational lexicon, such as ‘school’, ‘group’ and even ‘childhood’. The second part questions the idea of ‘time’ and the openness to its subversion in the experience of ‘play’, in its plurality and scope. From candle to fire is an attempt to take in the extent to which the contained exercise of play expands and potentially spreads to dimensions of social and educational transformation that are considered socially and humanly essential.