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BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht
BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Pauwstraat, Utrecht, Netherlands

 Opening weekend

14 September, 13.00–15 September, 18.00 2019

BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht  

Opening: Trainings for the Not-Yet/The City Staircase

Utrecht in Dialoog, Gabriel Erlach

  • The City Staircase, opening program Trainings for the Not-Yet organized in collaboration with Gabriel Erlach and Utrecht in Dialoog, 14–15 September 2019, photo: Tom Janssen

  • The City Staircase, opening program Trainings for the Not-Yet organized in collaboration with Gabriel Erlach and Utrecht in Dialoog, 14–15 September 2019, photo: Tom Janssen

  • The City Staircase, opening program Trainings for the Not-Yet organized in collaboration with Gabriel Erlach and Utrecht in Dialoog, 14–15 September 2019, photo: Tom Janssen

  • The City Staircase, opening program Trainings for the Not-Yet organized in collaboration with Gabriel Erlach and Utrecht in Dialoog, 14–15 September 2019, photo: Tom Janssen

  • The City Staircase, opening program Trainings for the Not-Yet organized in collaboration with Gabriel Erlach and Utrecht in Dialoog, 14–15 September 2019, photo: Tom Janssen

  • The City Staircase, opening program Trainings for the Not-Yet organized in collaboration with Gabriel Erlach and Utrecht in Dialoog, 14–15 September 2019, photo: Tom Janssen

Come to BAK, basis voor actuele kunst during the weekend of 14–15 September 2019 for the opening of Trainings for the Not-Yet, an exhibition as a series of trainings for a future of being together otherwise, convened with a multitude of collaborators by Jeanne van Heeswijk and BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht. Trainings for the Not-Yet is an assembly of people, communities, ideas, objects, rehearsals, art, shared food, research, talks, politics, performances, screenings, “teachings” and “learnings,” as well as the manifold transversal relations among them. The project encompasses intensive collaborations with (inter)national artists, theorists and activists, as well as with initiatives and communities in Utrecht and beyond.

The opening weekend takes place during the cultural Uitfeest in Utrecht, and opens with The City Staircase (Het trappenhuis van de stad): a series of conversations with around eighty Utrecht residents, on how they envision the future of the city of Utrecht. The opening of Trainings for the Not-Yet takes place at 17 hrs on the Saturday, all are welcome to join! The exhibition and The City Staircase can be visited free of charge the entire weekend.

The City Staircase is a project by BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht and Jeanne van Heeswijk in collaboration with Utrecht in Dialoog and Gabriel Erlach.

Program:
Saturday 14 September 2019
13 hrs   free entry Trainings for the Not-Yet
17 hrs   official opening
18 hrs   start The City Staircase
24 hrs   end

Sunday 15 September 2019
12:00   The City Staircase, free entry Trainings for the Not-Yet
18:00   end

—
More on The City Staircase (Het trappenhuis van de stad)
The City Staircase is a collective endurance performance that takes place over the opening weekend of the project Trainings for the Not-Yet. It unfolds in two parts, each a six-hour relay of conversations with- and between Utrechters about the future of their city.

The project was prompted by a conversation with Gabriel Erlach—a pivotal figure in the cultural life of the city and specifically of its Kanaleneiland neighborhood—who intimated that the staircase in a communal house is the single most important place to imagine and actualize living-in-common. From haphazard encounters to organized house committee meetings, the staircase is where the everyday is woven into the future.

In this work, a key architectural element of BAK’s home—its staircase—lends itself as a staircase for the whole city. Adjusted with an additional stairwell element (realized in collaboration with Klaas van der Molen of Goldsmith.Company that has been renovating BAK in between its public programs), it offers a space for the people of Utrecht—from all walks of life—to come together to deliberate on the concerns and joys that relate to their city, and at the same time advancing propositions to shape its own not-yet.

Contributors Trainings for the Not-Yet
Jeanne van Heeswijk in collaboration with Laura Raicovich, Maria Hlavajova, Adelita Husni-Bey, Patricia Kaersenhout, Shumaila Anwar (Initiative for Diversity, Inclusion & Peace (IDIP)), Angel Bat Dawid (Le Guess Who?), Utrecht in Dialoog, Habiba Chrifi-Hammoudi (U Centraal), Joy Mariama Smith, Adrian Piper, Denise Valentine, Nancy Jouwe, Black Quantum Futurism (Camae Ayewa and Rasheedah Phillips), Chloë Bass, Beatrice Catanzaro, Kolar Aparna, Mehbratu Efrem Gebreab, Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh (Arab Image Foundation) and Hamada Al-Joumah, Qanat, Jérôme Giller, To Be Determined (Clara Balaguer and Gabriel Fontana), Fran Ilich, Jun Saturay, Ying Que, Grace Lostia, Alejandro Navarrete, Bakudapan Food Study Group, Urban Front (David Harvey and Miguel Robles-Durán), Afrikaanderwijk Coöperatie, Superuse Studios, Freehouse, De Voorkamer (Pim van der Mijl and Shay Raviv), W.A.G.E, Philadelphia Assembled (Toward Sanctuary Dome), Staci Bu Shea (Casco Art Institute), Laced-Up Project (Sarah Mobley and Maaike van Dooren), Whitney Stark, Carmen Papalia, Zein Nakhoda, Homebaked Community Land Trust, Britt Jürgensen, Marianne Heaslip, URBED, Homebaked Bakery (Angela McKay), Homegrown Collective (Samantha Jones), Selçuk Balamir (de Nieuwe Meent, Code Rood), Joska Ottjes (Vereniging de Kasko, Bond Precaire Woonvormen), Irene Calabuch Mirón, Ethel Baraona Pohl, Refugee collective We Are Here, Elke Uitentuis, Abdulaal Hussein and Paul de Bruyne, New Women Connectors, Stranded FM, Joram Kroon (Prace), Welkom in Utrecht, Gabriel Erlach, Ultra-red, Mustapha Seray Bah (Stichting Mowad), Goldsmith.Company, and Extinction Rebellion Utrecht

Design for The City Staircase, featured in exhibition Trainings for the Not-Yet. By Goldsmith.Company.

More information:
Trainings for the Not-Yet
Full program of trainings
Facebook event opening weekend

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