Propositions #1: What We Mean is the inaugural performative conference of BAK’s long-term research itinerary Propositions for Non-Fascist Living, prompted by the dramatic resurfacing and normalization of historical and contemporary fascisms in our present. Through impromptu artworks, lectures, readings, discussions, screenings, performances, and explorations of the assembly—of being together—as an art form, it opens up a space for politico-aesthetic experiments practicing art as imagination, thought, and action intervening in the contemporary. The gathering takes place in a makeshift environment amid the renovation of BAK’s new venue and brings together diverse publics with the BAK 2017–2018 Fellows, as well as other artists, scholars, and activists to take on the pressing concerns of our time.
 
Propositions for Non-Fascist Living attempts to articulate and inhabit methods of de-individualized living; methods in which multiplicity and difference enact relations other than those enamored with power and hierarchy. Inspired by philosopher Michel Foucault, BAK develops and gathers propositions for an “art of living counter to all forms of fascism, whether already present or impending,” including “the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us.” Propositions #1: What We Mean begins from an urgency for—and uncertainty about—what living in non-fascist ways could and does mean. From and with artistic practice, it collects, identifies, blends, and surveys myriad interventions brewing in efforts to move alternatively, situating a flexible base for this project and its attempts at creating ways of being together otherwise.

Contributors to Propositions #1: What We Mean include BAK 2017–2018 Fellows: Sepake Angiama; Isshaq Al-Barbary and Diego Segatto (Campus in Camps); Matthijs de Bruijne; Luigi Coppola; Quinsy Gario; Ola Hassanain; Otobong Nkanga; Wendelien van Oldenborgh; and Pelin Tan.
 
Other contributors, who will be present either in person, in work, or in video, include, among others: Nico Angiuli; Kader Attia; Amy Balkin; Yael Bartana; Tania Bruguera; Danilo Correale; Dilar Dirik; Mijke van der Drift; Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian; Stefano Harney and Fred Moten; Sanja Iveković with Angela Dimitrakaki and Antonia Majaca; Hiwa K; Karrabing Film Collective; Evi Lachana (with Otobong Nkanga); Charl Landvreugd (with Wendelien van Oldenborgh); Delaine Le Bas; Isabell Lorey; Sven Lütticken; Migrant Domestic Workers network FNV (with Matthijs de Bruijne); Aernout Mik; Ahmet Öğüt; Antonis Pittas; Elizabeth A. Povinelli; Nina Power; Vijay Prashad; Oleksiy Radynski; Pedro Reyes; Marinella Senatore; Koki Tanaka; Ana Teixeira Pinto; Gloria Wekker; Giovanna Zapperi; and Vivian Ziherl.

Artistic interventions and the screening program of Propositions #1: What We Mean remain on view Sunday 8 October 2017, 11–18 hrs.
 
The project has been made possible through financial supportby the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the City Council, Utrecht.
 
Tickets for Propositions #1: What We Mean are available here. A vegetarian lunch (€5) and dinner (€8) can be purchased during the event. Catering by Utrecht-based Rammenas and Koffie Leute.
 
For the full program of the event, please see BAK's website.

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