Lecture

19 November 2005

On Crisis (emergency and new heroism)

Emergency? Of what kind, where, affecting who? In most recent global history, a number of monumental incidents of a political nature, many of which fall under a larger concept of “biopower,” put the world into a state of crisis. The so-called dismantling of the Communist regimes in the (former) Eastern Europe and of welfare democracies in the (former) West, and more recent events such as 9/11, the war in Iraq, the bombings in London and Madrid, as well as devastating natural disasters such as last year’s tsunami and hurricane “Katrina,” have chipped away at the promise of global mobility and economic prosperity, and contributed to a general sentiment of immense instability and permanent danger across the world. This situation has placed all levels of public life in a confrontational mode, forcing everyone to face the crisis and refine ways of governance according to the new circumstances. Crisis, as a catalyst for change, is a paradoxical agent. At the same time it signals a shift in the existing power structures, it also provides an opportunity, or excuse, for their reinforcement. Jeremiah Day, Jan Verwoert, and Klub Zwei discuss the notion of crisis in our present-day world, and look back upon some historical examples. Specifically, alternative models of governance and political response are considered by re-posing the question: How can critical artistic and intellectual practice address these contexts and propose another path?

Suggestions from the archive

Sint Maarten Parade

22 October–10 November 2023

BAK at the Sint Maarten Parade 2023

For Sint Maarten Parade 2023, Tools for Action—a non-profit organization that develops artistic interventions for political actions—collaborates with Utrecht-based members of Filipino, Caribbean, and other communities to collectively dream a parade compartment.

Panel Discussion

30 September 2023, 16.30-18.30

To the Other Side of the Concrete Wall

A book launch and panel discussion reflecting on the Jina Uprising, one year after its beginning.

Saturday, 30 September, 2023, 16:30–18:30 hrs at BAK, basis actuele kunst, Utrecht Organized by Jina Collective, a Netherlands-based feminist, leftist, anti-capitalist, anti-sexist, and pro-LQBTQIA+ action group that emerged from the Jina Uprising. This event launches a book of translated essays, co-published with BAK, which include some of the first English translations of texts by journalists […]

Public Program

09 September–29 October 2023

To Watch the War: The Moving Image Amidst the Invasion of Ukraine (2014–2023)/Public Program

To Watch the War: The Moving Image Amidst the Invasion of Ukraine (2014–2023) involves a hybrid off- and online sequence of conversations and screenings around discursive and artistic interventions that reimagine the social implications of watching the war through ways that disrupt, subvert, resist the media’s incessant spectacularization of war.