series

11-25 April 2016

Instituting for the Contemporary

On 11, 18, and 25 April 2016, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, hosts three public editorial meetings in the context of the exhibition Unstated (or, Living Without Approval) held towards a new BAK critical reader provisionally titled Instituting for the Contemporary, edited by BAK’s editor of publications Tom Clark, artistic director Maria Hlavajova, and research curator Lucy Lopez. The reader aims to think through the notion of “instituting” as a proposal adequate for the contemporary: both as the methodology of, and a challenge to, the institution itself. Instituting for the Contemporary is centred around eight key themes, which will also guide the contributions to these meetings: Education; Entanglements; Not Not Art, Not Not Politics; Care to Power; Compositionalism; the Contemporary; Instituting; Commitment.

During these public editorial meetings, drafts and ideas will be posed through presentations, conversations, and interventions that work towards the terms guiding the reader. Each session invites and incorporates collective feedback and an open discussion towards the development of the reader.

Contributors to the three events include: Bernadette Buckley , Angela Dimitrakaki, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Ewa Majewska, pantxo ramas, Gerald Raunig, Rachel O’Reilly, Simon Sheikh, and Tom Vandeputte.

Program

public editorial meeting
11.04.2016 19.00 hrs
Instituting for the Contemporary – part 1

public editorial meeting
18.04.2016 19.00 hrs
Instituting for the Contemporary – part 2

reading group
25.04.2016 19.00 hrs
Instituting for the Contemporary – part 3

Suggestions from the archive

Learning

10 May, 12.00–12 May, 18.00 2023

Complaint Making: Setting Up Conflict-Positive Spaces for Community Building Praxis

Vishnu would like to share feminist governance tools (FGT) focused on three of many tiers in community building praxis. FGT is based on the values of equity with an emphasis on creating psychologically safe environments, drawing on the use of consent. Decision-making processes, setting up conflict-positive spaces, and complaint-making as diversity work will form the body of this three-day training. Rooted in Vishnu’s autho-ethnographic practice, this work will explore the power dynamics that impact decision-making processes.

Performative

10 May, 12.00–12 May, 18.00 2023

The Diamond Mind II

In this dance training, the people will use a one-minute film of their own movement as material for a booklet—a sixteen page signature—that distributes their presence, their gesture, as an act of EQ. 

Learning

3 May, 12.00–4 May, 18.00 2023

Too Late To Say Sorry? 

A bad apology can ruin a friendship, destroy a community, or end a career. In this workshop, we will investigate the impact of apologies on our relationships and our worlds. Why and how do we make apologies? What can giving and receiving apologies teach us about values and integrity? Should you apologize for something you don’t really feel sorry for? We will explore conflict and how we like to be in conflict with others. We will dive into our own boundaries. We will seek to understand how honoring limits becomes an act of building (or freeing) better worlds capable of holding so many, many more of us.

Learning

28 April, 12.00–29 April, 18.00 2023

Huisje, Boompje, Beestje (D.A.F.O.N.T.)

In this rare masterclass, retired teacher and artist Glenda Martinus teaches participants a thing or two about painting with Microsoft Word. Martinus shares tips, tricks, and secrets on how to use this software to its unexpected potential as a drawing tool. Participants learn how to draw three basic objects—a house, a tree, and an animal—in a seemingly innocent exercise that perhaps contains more layered social commentary. Drawing the worlds we desire does not require expensive tools or education, simply a curiosity to understand how the monster’s tools can topple the house of the master.