Welcome to the opening of the exhibition New World Academy, which takes place on Friday 10 April 2015 from 16:00 onwards at the Nicolaïkerk, located next to Centraal Museum in Utrecht, and the following conference at 17:30 in the museum’s Tuinzaal.
Image: Jonas Staal, Anatomy of a Revolution—Rojava, 2015, Classroom for education of the People’s Defense Units (YPG), Rojava, Western Kurdistan(Syria)
Dear friends and colleagues,
On behalf of Jonas Staal and the entire team of BAK and the New World Academy, I would like to invite you to the opening of the exhibition New World Academy, which takes place on Friday 10 April 2015 from 16:00 onwards at the Nicolaïkerk, located next to Centraal Museum in Utrecht, and the following conference at 17:30 in the museum’s Tuinzaal.
New World Academy brings together artworks, documents, and propositions from five sessions of the New World Aacademy, realized thusfar between 2013 and 2015. Interwoven into the exhibition are works selected from the collection of Centraal Museum.
New World Academy is established in 2013 by Jonas Staal in collaboration with BAK. It hosts representatives of stateless political organizations to explore, together with artists and students, the role of art at the heart of political struggle. Through exhibitions at BAK, intensive three-day seminars, and public conferences, each session of New World Academy brings together a diverse group of artists, art and philosophy students, writers, theorists, journalists, and human rights activists. Together, they discuss the meaning of statelessness and the role that art can assume in representing repressed histories, languages, and symbols, providing thus a possible alternative to the state. To date, five sessions of New World Academy have been organized in collaboration with the National Democratic Movement of the Philippines, the refugee collective We Are Here, the international Pirate Parties, the National Liberation Movement of Azawad, and the Kurdish Women’s Movement.
The exhibition presents works by the Artist Association of Azawad, Moussa Ag Assarid, Concerned Artists of the Philippines, Constant, Dilar Dirik, Marlene Dumas, Michail Grobman, Hans Haacke, Manette Ingenegeren, Lisa Ito, Crisanto de Leon, Alexander Nieuwenhuis, Yoonis Osman Nuur; Dirk Poot, Mazou Ibrahim Touré, Jan Toorop, Charley Toorop, UGATLahi Artist Collective, We Are Here, and Erich Wichmann. The exhibition display is realized in collaboration with Remco van Bladel and Paul Kuipers (Event Architectuur).
During the conference, lecturers and participants from New World Academy present new cultural and political initiatives that have emerged from the different sessions. The conference includes contributions by Manuel Beltrán (Alternative Learning Tank); Sjim Hendrix (New World Academy); Maria Hlavajova (BAK, Utrecht); Bushra Hussein (We Are Here); Berivan Yiğit (Kurdish Women's Movement); Maryama Omar Abdi (We Are Here); Jun Saturay (Linangan Art and Culture Network); Jonas Staal (New World Summit and New World Academy); and Elke Uitentuis and Savannah Koolen (Here to Support). It is closed by a performance of the theater play Labyrinth by the We Are Here Cooperative of refugees and artists, developed in collaboration with Nicolas Stemann and Frascati Theater, Amsterdam.
To register for the opening, please send an e-mail indicating New World Academy in the subject line to: rsvp@centraalmuseum.nl
We hope to welcome you on Friday!
Kind regards,
Imara Limon
Venue and opening hours
Centraal Museum
Nicolaaskerkhof 10, Utrecht
Tuesday – Sunday
11:00 – 17:00
For more information please see: http://bakonline.org/en/Program/NWA_CentraalMuseum
Imara Limon
Jonas Staal // New World Summit
Tolhuisweg 2
1031 CL Amsterdam
The Netherlands