BAK programming combines the artistic, experiential, theoretical, and political so as to imagine and enact transformative ways, with and through art, of being together otherwise. BAK’s current research trajectory Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2020) is prompted by the dramatic resurfacing and normalization of fascisms, historical and contemporary. BAK organizes exhibitions, lectures, publications, workshops, and composite performative conferences with exhibitionary, discursive, and performative elements.
Exhibition
18 October 2018–27 January 2019
Forensic Justice is an exhibition and a series of public programs with Forensic Architecture, a London-based independent and interdisciplinary research agency comprised of, among others, artists, scientists, lawyers, filmmakers, and architects.
Discursive
18 October 2018–24 January 2019
Propositions #7: Evidentiary Methods—the public program in the context of the exhibition Forensic Justice and part of the BAK series Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2020)—expands upon the notion of forensic justice in a series of lectures, screenings, and workshops on methodologies for articulating claims within the multidimensional space of aesthetics, law, architecture, politics, and ecology.
Education Program
23 October–27 November 2018
“Art and Politics” is an inaugural course of a new public school for art and politics organized by BAK, basis voor actuele kunst in Utrecht. In six weekly sessions, the participants learn about how contemporary art relates to the political in an accessible way.
1-30 November 2018
For the month of November 2018, Museumkaart holders can bring a guest without a Museumkaart free of charge to Forensic Justice.
Discursive
15 November 2018
Third gathering of Propositions #7: Evidentiary Methods—the public program in the context of the exhibition Forensic Justice and part of the BAK series Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2020). Focusing on the evidentiary method of the testimony, Ana Naomi de Sousa presents Saydnaya, 2016, the reconstruction of a Syrian torture prison of which there are no images. Papa Sakho and Jo van der Spek bring into the discussion the Migrant 2 Migrant Foundation’s ongoing response to the Schipholbrand, the 2005 fire in which eleven migrants died while being trapped in an airport detention complex.
Education Program
03 December 2018–21 January 2019
“Art and Politics” is an inaugural course of a new public school for art and politics organized by BAK, basis voor actuele kunst in Utrecht. In six weekly sessions, the participants learn about how contemporary art relates to the political in an accessible way. The course is taught by Maria Hlavajova, BAK’s general and artistic director.
Discursive
10 January 2019
Fifth gathering of Propositions #7: Evidentiary Methods—the public program in the context of the exhibition Forensic Justice and part of the BAK series Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2020). Focusing on the evidentiary method of remote sensing, Samaneh Moafi presents Ecocide in Indonesia, 2016, an investigation into the 2015 fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra that consumed over 21,000 square kilometers of forest and peat lands. A staff member of Prakken d’Oliveira presents Friends of the Earth Netherlands vs. Royal Dutch Shell, 2008–ongoing, a legal case in which four Nigerian citizens are taking Shell to court over oil spills that had polluted their fields and their fish farming ponds.
Discursive
24 January 2019
Sixth gathering of Propositions #7: Evidentiary Methods—the public program in the context of the exhibition Forensic Justice and part of the BAK series Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2020). Focusing on the evidentiary method of archiving, Ariel Caine presents Ground Truth, 2017–ongoing, a project that provides historical and juridical evidence on behalf of communities in the illegalized Palestinian Bedouin villages in the northern threshold of the Negev/Naqab desert. Jessica de Abreu presents The Black Archives’ work documenting the history of black emancipation movements and individuals in the Netherlands. Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh discusses her research and interventions which address the political implications of a collection of digital photography originating from Burj al-Shamali, a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon.
Learning
17-19 February 2009
Lecture and seminar.
Panel Discussion, Performance
24 June 2016, 15.00
Panel discussion with curator Markus Miessen, followed by a performance program.
Exhibition
29 September–23 December 2012
Group exhibition with works by Burak Delier, Etcétera…, Avi Mograbi, Marina Naprushkina, Trevor Paglen, Cesare Pietroiusti, Jonas Staal, Mladen Stilinovic, SUPERFLEX, Milica Tomic, and Lidwien van de Ven.
Education Program
19 October 2014, 17.00-19.00
A public discussion with the participants of the fourth New World Academy (NWA) on the role of art and culture in the creation of new states.
Education Program
9 September 2014, 19.00
Inauguration of New World Embassy: Azawad, which explores the intersection of art, theory, and activism through the proposition of temporarily instituting an operational Azawadian embassy as an extraterritorial space of representation, negotiation, and international exchange.
Performance
4-5 November 2017
On Saturday 4 November and Sunday 5 November, Frascati hosts performances of the play Faust 3, written by Bread and Puppet Theater founder Peter Schumann, and produced and performed by Bread and Puppet Theater and local artists with migrant backgrounds. The event is a Frascati Session at Frascati and part of BAK’s long-term research project Propositions for Non-Fascist Living.
Public Editorial Meeting
25 April 2016, 19.00
Third public editorial meeting for Instituting for the Contemporary, with Gerald Raunig, pantxo ramas, Angela Dimitrakaki, Tom Vandeputte, and Sidsel Meineche Hansen.
Screening
11 February–15 April 2018
A screening program of artists’ films complements Matthijs de Bruijne: Compromiso Político every Saturday and Sunday during the exhibition, from 14.00–17.00 hrs in BAK’s auditorium.
Discursive
18 October 2018–24 January 2019
Propositions #7: Evidentiary Methods—the public program in the context of the exhibition Forensic Justice and part of the BAK series Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2020)—expands upon the notion of forensic justice in a series of lectures, screenings, and workshops on methodologies for articulating claims within the multidimensional space of aesthetics, law, architecture, politics, and ecology.
Book Launch, Conversation
31 May 2017, 18.30
On Wednesday 31 May 2017 is the London launch of Former West: Art and the Contemporary After 1989. Former West: Art and the Contemporary After 1989 has been published in the context of the curatorial and artistic research experiment FORMER WEST (2008–2016), developed by BAK and realized through manifold partnerships with artists, theorists, activists, as well as art and educational institutions transnationally.
Educational platform
21 October 2014–30 May 2015
Educational platform realized with the Kurdish Women’s Movement, ongoing 2014–2015.
Lecture
10 December 2014
BAK’s artistic director Maria Hlavajova gives a talk in Barcelona on 10 December 2014, as a part of the second On Mediation training seminar, organized by the Art, Globalization, Interculturality (AGI) research group of the Department of Art History, University of Barcelona, Barcelona.
Public Editorial Meeting
11 April 2016
First public editorial meeting for Instituting for the Contemporary, with Simon Sheikh, Rachel O’Reilly, and Ewa Majewska.
Discursive
24 January 2019, 19.30-21.30
Sixth gathering of Propositions #7: Evidentiary Methods—the public program in the context of the exhibition Forensic Justice and part of the BAK series Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–2020). Focusing on the evidentiary method of archiving, Ariel Caine presents Ground Truth, 2017–ongoing, a project that provides historical and juridical evidence on behalf of communities in the illegalized Palestinian Bedouin villages in the northern threshold of the Negev/Naqab desert. Jessica de Abreu presents The Black Archives’ work documenting the history of black emancipation movements and individuals in the Netherlands. Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh discusses her research and interventions which address the political implications of a collection of digital photography originating from Burj al-Shamali, a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon.
Education Program
24-28 August 2015
Summer school with Centre for the Humanities, convened and taught by Prof. Rosi Braidotti and Maria Hlavajova.
Discursive
11 November 2018, 13.00-13.45
As part of the ‘Untitled’ program of music festival Le Guess Who?, BAK’s General and Artistic Director, Maria Hlavajova, gives an introduction to the exhibition Forensic Justice.
