new media center_kuda.org

How can you be at home in an alien world?
November 2 - 3, 2011
9 AM - 11 PM

"The metropolis is now the point of massive collision - dare we call it class struggle? - over the accumulation by dispossession visited upon the least well-off and the developmental drive that seeks to colonize space for the affluent . . . democratization of [the right to the city], and the construction of a broad social movement to enforce its will is imperative if the dispossessed are to take back the control which they have for so long been denied, and if they are to institute new modes of urbanization." - David Harvey

Within the frame of 'Social Housing - Housing the Social', Chto Delat and Ultra-red invite you to participate in a two-day seminar, and to perform in a collaborative learning play, prior to and during the symposium.

This seminar breaks with the conventions of discussions and conferences, in order to promote a dialogical and investigative relationship to knowledge production. As we eat, talk and rehearse together, we address and investigate ideas around collectivity and the politicized subject of 'the social'. We explore what political stakes may serve to bind us in solidarity to each other. Furthermore, we turn our surroundings into what Henri Lefebvre called: “a representational space configured and changed to underscore our temporary occupation.”

The seminar culminates in a staging of a Brechtian learning play during the first evening of the symposium. Using Bertolt Brecht's learning play model, Chto Delat and Ultra-red invite participants to collectively develop an educational didactic performance. Centered around the theme of 'the social', but without fixed texts, participants are asked to develop and articulate their own position through the process of acquiring and advocating their attitudes.

How to apply
We ask the participants to attend the full seminar. The seminar includes discussions, rehearsals and the staging of a Brechtian play as a collective act on the evening of Friday, November 4, 2011. Participants get free access to the two-day seminar and the symposium. Breakfast, lunch and diner are included both days of the seminar. Please note that accommodation and travel expenses are not covered. The seminar is limited to 20 participants, so please send your motivation letter & CV to: [email protected]
Registration closes on October 26, 2011!

The platform Chto delat/What is to be done? was founded in the beginning of 2003 in Petersburg with the goal of merging political theory, art, and activism. The platform’s activity consists of developing a network of collective initiatives in Russia and putting them into an international context. The platform is coordinated by a workgroup with the same name. The collective initiatives developed inside the platform engage in a variety of art projects, including video works, installations, actions in public space, radio programs, and different forms of artistic research. During this seminar, the platform is represented by David Riff, Tsaplya (Olga Egorova), and Dmitry Vilensky.

Founded in 1994 by two AIDS activists, Ultra-red has expanded to include artists, researchers and organizers from different social movements, including the struggles of migration, anti-racism, participatory community development, and the politics of HIV/AIDS. By exploring acoustic space as enunciative of social relations, Ultra-red utilizes sound-based research to directly engage political struggle. With ten associates working in North America and Europe, Ultra-red pursue a dynamic exchange between art and political organizing producing radio broadcasts, performances, recordings, essays, and installations. Ultra-red members are currently conducting investigations in Los Angeles, New York, London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Berlin and Oslo. During this seminar, Ultra-red is represented by Elliot Perkins, Robert Sember, and Leonardo Vilchis.

This collaboration between Chto Delat and Ultra-red is commissioned by SKOR | Foundation for Art and Public Domain. The seminar is part of the Symposium 'Actors, Agents and Attendants II: Social Housing - Housing the Social'.

Curators Fulya Erdemci (SKOR) and Andrea Phillips (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Associate curator and coordinator Vesna Madzoski (SKOR)
Architectural advisor Markus Miessen (Studio Miessen)
Curators Film Programme Yael Messer and Gilad Reich
Coordinator Art Collaboration Fleur van Muiswinkel
Research Group Arno van Roosmalen (director, Stroom Den Haag), Bregtje van der Haak (documentary filmmaker), Chris Keulemans (artistic director, Tolhuistuin Amsterdam), Ernst van den Hemel (philosopher and activist, University of Amsterdam), Huib Haye van der Werf (curator, SKOR), Nils van Beek (curator, SKOR), Partizan Publik (design and action collective, Amsterdam), and Theo Tegelaers (curator, SKOR)
Interns Laura Pardo and Michelle Franke