Exhibition

31 August–09 October 2013

FORMER WEST: Notes from Berlin

Notes from Berlin, exhibition view

With this makeshift, impromptu composition of artworks and discourse, we share with our Utrecht publics a series of spontaneously assembled impressions—notes as it were—from a major manifestation of BAK’s flagship project FORMER WEST: Documents, Constellations, Prospects, realized earlier in 2013 in collaboration with Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. Neither an exhibition nor a conference, it entails no order, but rhythms and accidents; no certainty, but a set of propositions; no script, but an invitation to imagine a “what if” scenario—and, with it, the world otherwise…

FORMER WEST (2008–2016) is a long-term research, education, exhibition, and publication project aimed at a critical reinterpretation of post-1989, post-Cold War histories around an imaginary of “formerness,” countering the persistent hegemonies of the so-called West within a global context. In an attempt to alter the narrative of our own time, and reclaim from there the future as a field of possibility, FORMER WEST enables a continuous flow of manifold conversations among artists, theorists, students, activists, and other varied publics.

Suggestions from the archive

School

10 March, 12.00–11 March, 19.00 2023

Sancochotopia: A Winter Ultrahospitality Mini Garage School

Community Portal presents...

A temporary cultural platform for diasporic affects and practice exchanges around the kitchen as a site of study. A two-day program for those interested in working with food activists and agri-cultural workers, preparing and serving food as a way to gather community and enact communal forms of study. Sign up required. 

Radio Stream

19 February 2023, 14.00

ULTRACIRCULATORY RADIO STREAM: Critical Circulation Mi

Community Portal presents...

Mi or Mie in Bahasa Indonesia means “noodles,” while mi in Chinese can mean “rice.” These over-indulgences of critical carbs are the workout diet for the Ultracirculation study group. Now in Yogyakarta, Critical Circulation Mi invites listeners into a guided soundscape with aurations by KUNCI Study Forum and Collective, School for Improper Education, Elaine W. Ho, and Wan Ing Que. While eating, listening, and reading, fieldwork-in-progress looking into the so-called “undocumented period” of the New Order Regime will be broadcast and unfolded in collaboration with participants in SOIE.

Field Work

15 February 2023, 10.00-18.00

ULTRASTUDIO THIRD SESSION 

A series of practical publishing workshops hosted by an active squat and anarchist social center in Amsterdam and organized by the Bookbinding Studio of Sandberg Instituut/Rietveld Academy and Lila Athanasiadou. 

Field Meal

4 February 2023, 13.00-18.00

ULTRAHOSPITALITY FIELD MEAL 1: SANCOCHO FLORAL

Community Portal presents...

Using the sancocho (a pan-Latin American soup with no fixed recipe) as a tool for research and encounter, Mercado Lourdes (Bogotá, Colombia) will host and organize a series of field meals. These events activate and connect the multiple affects that have resulted from ongoing research with local producers into the biodiversity of the territory.