Propositions #6 - The Temporary Institute for the Contemporary
Luigi Coppola’s ongoing research into “evolutionary populations” (varieties of seeds that crossbreed naturally, adapting to and being influenced by local soil and climate characteristics) began with the artist’s projects in Castiglione d’Otranto in southern Italy, and draws upon the knowledge of evolutionary plant-breeding by agronomist Salvatore Ceccarelli. Through participatory seed-breeding incentives in Syria and Italy, evolutionary populations of hard and soft wheat have been cultivated, and some of these were planted by Coppola last autumn on BAK’s rooftop. The successful growth of the wheat attests to the adaptability of such evolutionary populations to the local climatic conditions. During his performance, Coppola assembles the grain-bearing ears of the wheat grown at BAK into a geometric floor installation with red clay, creating a pattern that refers to the complexity of nature. This pattern is drawn as a map, which becomes part of Sepake Angiama’s installation We Summon All Beings Here, Present, Past, & Future for the remainder of the exhibition First Person Plural.
Propositions #6: The Temporary Institute for the Contemporary (30 June 2018) marks the culmination of a vibrant and inspiring 2017/2018 pilot year of the BAK Fellowship Program. Through conversations, readings, and performances, the BAK Fellows share insights into their respective artistic research itineraries. This sixth gathering in the series Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2020) takes the shape of an imagined “institute for the contemporary.” As a recurring temporary public “institute” by, for, with, and beyond the learning community at BAK, it will emerge with the conclusion of each Fellowship sequence.
bakonline.org>
Propositions #6 - The Temporary Institute for the Contemporary
Luigi Coppola’s ongoing research into “evolutionary populations” (varieties of seeds that crossbreed naturally, adapting to and being influenced by local soil and climate characteristics) began with the artist’s projects in Castiglione d’Otranto in southern Italy, and draws upon the knowledge of evolutionary plant-breeding by agronomist Salvatore Ceccarelli. Through participatory seed-breeding incentives in Syria and Italy, evolutionary populations of hard and soft wheat have been cultivated, and some of these were planted by Coppola last autumn on BAK’s rooftop. The successful growth of the wheat attests to the adaptability of such evolutionary populations to the local climatic conditions. During his performance, Coppola assembles the grain-bearing ears of the wheat grown at BAK into a geometric floor installation with red clay, creating a pattern that refers to the complexity of nature. This pattern is drawn as a map, which becomes part of Sepake Angiama’s installation We Summon All Beings Here, Present, Past, & Future for the remainder of the exhibition First Person Plural.
Propositions #6: The Temporary Institute for the Contemporary (30 June 2018) marks the culmination of a vibrant and inspiring 2017/2018 pilot year of the BAK Fellowship Program. Through conversations, readings, and performances, the BAK Fellows share insights into their respective artistic research itineraries. This sixth gathering in the series Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2020) takes the shape of an imagined “institute for the contemporary.” As a recurring temporary public “institute” by, for, with, and beyond the learning community at BAK, it will emerge with the conclusion of each Fellowship sequence.
bakonline.org>
Propositions #6 - The Temporary Institute for the Contemporary
Propositions #6 - Matthijs de Bruijne and Cecilia Vallejos -
Palabras en Cambio: Subjective Words Within the Cuban Revolution
Matthijs de Bruijne and Cecilia Vallejos present excerpts of the digital publication Palabras en Cambio together with other material telling the story of the Cuban revolution to the present day. Palabras en Cambio consists of short stories from “self-employed” Cubans, compiled with articles from Cuba’s constitution. This booklet was conceived as a PDF in order to be distributed from person to person. During the lecture, excerpts of historical Cuban films and documentaries will be shown alongside the publication. The PDF-booklet, the films, and some texts are compiled on a memory stick, replicating the digital packages that circulate in the so-called “non-Internet” society of contemporary Cuba. To give the audience access to an in-depth reading of all content usually circulated via memory stick, a link to download the entire package, and a printed version of Palabras en Cambio (with a partial translation in English) are available after the lecture in Sepake Angiama’s installation We Summon All Beings Here, Present, Past, & Future.
Propositions #6: The Temporary Institute for the Contemporary (30 June 2018) marks the culmination of a vibrant and inspiring 2017/2018 pilot year of the BAK Fellowship Program. Through conversations, readings, and performances, the BAK Fellows share insights into their respective artistic research itineraries. This sixth gathering in the series Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2020) takes the shape of an imagined “institute for the contemporary.” As a recurring temporary public “institute” by, for, with, and beyond the learning community at BAK, it will emerge with the conclusion of each Fellowship sequence.
bakonline.org>
Propositions #6 - The Temporary Institute for the Contemporary
Quinsy Gario with Jörgen Gario, Gloria Holwerda-Williams, and Shaka Jean-David - …; Speaking of Borders
By way of a performative conversation, together with Jörgen Gario, Gloria Holwerda-Williams, and Shaka Jean-David, Quinsy Gario points to a decolonial kinship between the Leuven student uprising of January 1968, the 1967 rebellion in Detroit, and Patrice Lumumba’s 1960 independence speech. The conversation departs from a picture taken by Ron Kroon on 18 January 1968 of the Leuven Muurkrant [Wall Newspaper], in which students wrote: “Leuven moet een tweede Detroit worden!” [Leuven must become a second Detroit!] In addition to the identifiable lineage of student protests around Europe, the reference to the resistance of African-Americans to police brutality in Detroit places the Leuven uprising in a historical conversation that was explicitly anti-racist and against colonial violence. The Leuven uprising’s resonant international references are explored by considering language, colonial violence, religion, and the political role of archives.
With thanks to Humanity in Action for the additional production support.
Propositions #6: The Temporary Institute for the Contemporary marks the culmination of a vibrant and inspiring 2017/2018 pilot year of the BAK Fellowship Program. Through conversations, readings, and performances, the BAK Fellows share insights into their respective artistic research itineraries. This sixth gathering in the series Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2020) takes the shape of an imagined “institute for the contemporary.” As a recurring temporary public “institute” by, for, with, and beyond the learning community at BAK, it will emerge with the conclusion of each Fellowship sequence.
bakonline.org>
Propositions #6 - The Temporary Institute for the Contemporary
The script is compiled from fragments of various texts that Wendelien van Oldenborgh has encountered during her research into the voices and ideals of architect Lotte Stam-Beese and writer, editor, and fighter for equality Hermina Huiswoud. Though they never met, both women experienced the Soviet Union in the early 1930s and ended up influencing public life in the Netherlands in the 1950s. Stam-Beese was a major influence on Dutch post-WW II housing in her role as Chief Architect for Urban Planning for the Rotterdam Department for Urban Development and Reconstruction. Huiswoud, having edited the magazine The Negro Worker (1928–1937) and traveled the world for the Communist International (Comintern), became an active political voice for the Caribbean-Dutch community, notably through her close connection with artists from the Harlem Renaissance (poet, social activist, and playwright Langston Hughes amongst them). Both Stam-Beese’s thoughts on housing and Huiswoud’s struggles for racial and class equality were approached through the ideals and early practices of communism. For both women, love and friendship had a significant role in their life trajectory. A screening of research images occurs alongside a live reading of the script by the artist and three other readers. A continuous screening of the research images is viewable in Sepake Angiama’s installation We Summon All Beings Here, Present, Past, & Future for the remainder of the exhibition First Person Plural.
Propositions #6: The Temporary Institute for the Contemporary (30 June 2018) marks the culmination of a vibrant and inspiring 2017/2018 pilot year of the BAK Fellowship Program. Through conversations, readings, and performances, the BAK Fellows share insights into their respective artistic research itineraries. This sixth gathering in the series Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2020) takes the shape of an imagined “institute for the contemporary.” As a recurring temporary public “institute” by, for, with, and beyond the learning community at BAK, it will emerge with the conclusion of each Fellowship sequence.
bakonline.org>
Propositions #6 - The Temporary Institute for the Contemporary
Isshaq Al-Barbary and Diego Segatto (Campus in Camps) with Pelin Tan - Toward a Voluntary Exile: Unconditional Hospitality and Islands
Isshaq Al-Barbary and Diego Segatto of Campus in Camps engage Pelin Tan in a discussion about the possibilities for self-organized learning environments, wherein knowledge becomes a tool for liberation. Seeking to nourish new pedagogical forms born from “autonomous infrastructures,” they discuss the following questions: Is it possible to re-orient homogenous networks in the direction of non-standardized cultural plurality? How is knowledge shaped by the social fabric? How can multi-perspectival lived experiences of exile and non-belonging help (re-)build the sociocultural “meshwork” (Campus in Camps) that constitutes the global?
Propositions #6: The Temporary Institute for the Contemporary marks the culmination of a vibrant and inspiring 2017/2018 pilot year of the BAK Fellowship Program. Through conversations, readings, and performances, the BAK Fellows share insights into their respective artistic research itineraries. This sixth gathering in the series Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2020) takes the shape of an imagined “institute for the contemporary.” As a recurring temporary public “institute” by, for, with, and beyond the learning community at BAK, it will emerge with the conclusion of each Fellowship sequence.
bakonline.org>