COOP ~ Curating Positions: Bodies and Antibodies in Cinema from Month to Month
Seminar 5: 16 - 19 April 2021
Reading list:
Derek Jarman - Modern Nature (August - December 1989 (emphasis on December)) Michael Marder - The Chernobyl Herbarium (Fragments 1-7)
Karan Barad - Meeting the Universe halfway (Introduction and Part 1)
Sylvia Wynter - On being Human as a practice (Chapter 2)
Film list :
Freak Orlando by Ulrike Öttinger
Stories of a Dumpster Kid by Ula Stöckl and Edgar Reitz Segunda Vez by Dora Garcia
The Garden by Derek Jarman
Story Telling for Earthly Survival by Fabrizio Terranova
Note: Excerpts of all films will be watched together during our session
FRIDAY 16th of April
MORNING
10:00-10:30: Landing piece ONLINE
10:30-10:45: Introduction Listening Group OFFLINE
Approximately 5 readings of 5 films will be listened through sonic pieces produced for the occasion.
10:45-11:30: Part 1 of shared screening of film excerpts selected for the Listening sessions. The full films will be available (Arena) to watch before or after the DAI week. OFFLINE
11:30-13:00: Listening Group sessions OFFLINE
The recordings will be sent in advance (before the DAI WEEK) for the preparation of the Listening Group.
Walks with sonic film readings produced by the students. For the ones living close, share the walks if possible and your understandings and thoughts from each session. Approximately 20 minutes for listening + 20 minutes for conversation/contemplation.
-Maude and Mirjam read Freak Orlando by Ulrike Öttinger
-Vera and Nadja read Stories of a Dumpster Kid by Ula Stöckl and Edgar Reitz
AFTERNOON
14.00-15:00: Continuation of Listening Group sessions OFFLINE
-Vera and Nadja read Segunda Vez by Dora Garcia
15:00-16:00: Collective discussion on the listening sessions ONLINE
16:00-16:30: Discussion on texts and material and Preparation for Productions ONLINE
16:30-19:00: Productions OFFLINE/ONLINE
The group will be divided into 3 smaller groups to work together in the production of collective pieces (of any format: filmic, performative, sculptural, drawing, painting, sonic, textile...) based on the covered notions and material.
SATURDAY 17th of April
MORNING
10:00-10:30: Part 2 of shared screening of film excerpts selected for the Listening sessions. The full films will be available (Arena) to watch before or after the DAI week. OFFLINE
10:30-12:00: Continuation of Listening Group sessions OFFLINE
-Anna and Leon read The Garden by Derek Jarman + Introduction into „queer post cinema“
-Jan-Pieter and Isabelle read Story Telling for Earthly Survival by Fabrizio Terranova
12:00-13:00: Collective discussion on the listening sessions ONLINE AFTERNOON
14:00-16:00: Continuation of productions OFFLINE/ONLINE
16.00-19:00: Production presentations and discussion ONLINE
SUNDAY 18th of April
Session with Grant Watson (HTDTWT tutor)
MORNING
10:00-13:00: Session on the work of the Scratch Orchestra and the composer Cornelius Cardew.
AFTERNOON
14.00-18:00: Session on queer utopias through a reading of “Cruising Utopia” by Jose Esteban Muñoz. In the book Muñoz frequently refers to the writer Samuel R. Delany, and in Delany’s boo, “Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders” the author describes an experimental utopian community for black gay men set in the near future.
MONDAY 19th of April
MORNING
10:00-12:00: Recap of Bini Adamczak’s “Communism for Kids” ONLINE
12:00 - 13:00: Trial exercise OFFLINE/ONLINE
AFTERNOON
14:00-16:00: Trial exercise OFFLINE/ONLINE
16:00–18:00: Presentation and discussion ONLINE
Materials:
Samuel R. Delaney - ‘Journey Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders’ (2013)
Cardew and Chapter 1 'A History of the Scratch Orchestra (1969 - 72)' by Rod Eley in Stockhausen serves Imperialism Cornelius Cardew
Cruising Utopia' by Jose Esteban Munoz, see the Introduction 'Feeling Utopia'
Bini Adamczak's 'Communism for Kids'
Seminar 4: 21 - 23 March 2021
SUNDAY 21st
MORNING (individually):
Sunrise: Soundpiece by Maude and Isabelle bringing back the idea of collective "landing", even if we're not in the same place.
AFTERNOON:
15.30-16:00: Discussion on Soundpiece by Maude and Isabelle
16:00-19.00: Recapitulation of material (texts, films, talks) from previous sessions in January and February.
The group will be divided into 3 smaller groups and each of them will present a diagram (in a broad understanding) that summarizes some of the notions harvested from the texts in relation to (1.) the individual practices of the members of each group and (2.) their possible usefulness in collaborative processes, in other words, in helping to define specific conditions for collective/shared practices.
For this, the groups will gather for 1 hour to work on the diagrams followed by a discussion.
EVENING:
20.00-22.00: Production Session
Once again, the group will be divided into 3 groups to work together in the production of collective pieces (of any format: filmic, performative, sculptural, drawing, painting, sonic, textile…) based on the covered notions and material.
MONDAY 22nd
MORNING:
10.00-13.00: Session with Ghalya Saadawi (HTDTWT tutor)
AFTERNOON:
14.00-17.00: Session with Ghalya Saadawi (HTDTWT tutor)
TUESDAY 23rd
AFTERNOON:
13:00-16:00: Production Session continuation
16.00-19.00: Production Presentations
3 Presentations (30 minutes) of the production processes initiated during the afternoon.
Seminar 3: 20 - 21 February 2021
WHO IS CONSIDERED HUMAN?
Under the question "Who is considered human?", this online February session will focus on material (films and texts), we have been reading and watching for the past weeks, that challenges the centrality of the human in relation to other non-human beings and matter. We will continue our reading of Sylvia Wynter, Karen Barad and Andre Lepecki. Besides, we will also have Kodwo Eshun and Louis Henderson as contributing guests.
Saturday 20th
15:00-17.00: First session with guests Kodwo Eshun and Louis Henderson
17.00-17.30: Break
17.30-18.30: Presentation and Discussion
Focusing on two main films “Handsworth Songs” (Black Audio Film Collective) and “The Colony” (Philipp Donnellan) the artists will take us through “dub cinema” to talk about a specific genre of militant filmmaking.
Biographies:
Sunday 21st
The first half of the second day will be dedicated to the presentations of the new texts and materials by Lepecki, Barad and Wynter. Once again, the participants will divide themselves into three groups and each group will work together to summarize one text, highlight the key concepts and discuss it with the rest of the group, while trying to place these key concepts in relation to the contemporary theoretical and political debates. How can they help us to reconsider the notion of human?
In the afternoon, we will continue with our guests Kodwo Eshun and Louis Henderson.
10.00-11.00: Presentations by the first group + discussion
11.00-12.00: Presentation by the second group + discussion
12.00-12.30: Break
12.30-13.00: Presentations by the third group + discussion
13.00-15.00: Lunch break!
15:00-17:00: Second session with guests Kodwo Eshun and Louis Henderson
17.00-17.30: Break
17.30-18.30: Presentation and discussion
Texts:
"Posthumanist Performativity" -Karen Barad
"A Black Studies Manifesto"- Sylvia Wynter
"No Humans Involved"- Sylvia Wynter
Podcast Radio Macba (2017) - Andre Lepecki
Seminar 2: 18-19 January 2021
FORMS OF ORGANISING LIFE
Under the notion of “Forms of Organising Life”, this online January session will be concentrated on some materials (films and texts) we have been reading and watching during Christmas vacations. Besides, we will also have special guests contributing to the session.
Monday 18th
15:00-17.00: Special guests’ contribution by Pauline Boudry/ Renata Lorenz
17.00-18.00: General discussion among us about the coop and to prepare for next day
The artists will discuss their work in relation to the conceptual framework of this coop which takes feminist, queer and more generally militant films as a starting point to think through their methodologies and to work with the cinematic apparatus as a tool for the production of discourse.
The artists will share material in advance so you can prepare and moderate the conversation.
Biography:
Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz have been working together in Berlin since 2007. They produce installations that choreograph the tension between visibility and opacity. Their films capture performances in front of the camera, often starting with a song, a picture, a film or a score from the near past. They upset normative historical narratives and conventions of spectatorship, as figures and actions across time are staged, layered and re-imagined. Their performers are choreographers, artists and musicians, with whom they are having a long-term conversation about the conditions of performance, the violent history of visibility, the pathologization of bodies, but also about companionship, glamour and resistance.
Their recent work, "Moving Backwards", featuring choreographers/ performers Latifa Laâbissi, Werner Hirsch, Julie Cunningham, Marbles Jumbo Radio and Nach premiered at the Swiss Pavillon of the 58th Venice Biennale. "Telepathic Improvisation" with performance by Marwa Arsanios, MPA, Ginger Brooks Takahashi and Werner Hirsch, premiered in 2017 at Participant, New York. "Silent" with performance by Aérea Negrot, premiered at the Biennale of Moving Image in Geneva in November 2016. In 2015 "I Want" with performance by Sharon Hayes, was shown in their solo show at Kunsthalle Zürich and Nottingham Contemporary. Recent solo exhibitions have included "Ongoing Experiments with Strangeness" at the Julia Stoschek Collection (2019), Berlin, "Telepathic Improvisation" at the Centre Culturel Suisse Paris (2018) and CAMH Houston (2017), "Portrait of an Eye" at Kunsthalle Zürich (2015) "Loving, Repeating" at Kunsthalle Wien (2015) "Patriarchal Poetry" at Badischer Kunstverein (2013), "Aftershow" at CAPC Bordeaux (2013), "Toxic Play in Two Acts" at South London Gallery (2012), and "Contagieux! Rapports contre la normalité" at the Centre d´Art Contemporain Geneva (2011).
Their work has been written about by writers and critics including Andre Lepecki, Mason Leaver-Yap, Gregg Bordowitz, Antke Engel, Nana Adusei-Poku, Mathias Danbolt, Ellen Feiss and Laura Guy.
Tuesday 19th
For the second day, we would like you to divide yourselves in three groups following your interests in the three texts; Lepecki's, Barad's and Wynter's interview. Please make sure the groups are equally divided in number. Each group will need to work together to summarize the text, highlight the key concepts and discuss it with the rest of us. Also please try to place these key concepts in relation to contemporary theoretical and political debates. How could they be used in our contemporary aesthetic, political and organisational struggles?
15:00-16:45: First group introduces one text and moderates the discussion
16.45: 17.00: Break
17.00-18.45: Second group introduces another text and moderates the discussion
18.45-19.00: Break
19.00- 20.45: Third group introduces the last text and moderates the discussion.
Texts:
“The body as an archive” - André Lepecki
“Queer Performativity of Nature” -Karen Barad
“The Re-Enchantment of Humanism: An lnterview with Svlvia Wvnter”- Conducted by David Scott
Other materials:
“Soft Montage” - Harun Farocki
The Battle of Chile: The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie by Patricio Guzmán (Film)
Seminar 1: 14-16 November 2020
Saturday’s seminar will be led by Marwa Arsanios and Leon Filter who will be present in Oldebroek and Leire Vergara who will be online. The three lead tutors will first introduce their practices focusing on their positions in relation to the main coop question “Bodies and Antibodies in cinema.
We will carry on the day with the participating students’ presentations who will be asked to introduce one work that relates directly or indirectly to our main coop question and close of the day with a a student-led walk.
On Sunday we will transform our class room into a Camera Obscura and use it for an exercise that will focus on students’ propositions for body parts in relation to the cinema-machine, in order to think how we can build a new „incoherent“ body out of many parts. In the evening we will have another student-led walk.
On Monday, with our returning guest Grant Watson, we will screen a film and discuss a text of his choice.
Saturday 14th
10:00-13:00: General Introduction COOP / Bulegoa Introduction
Introduction Tutors + research trajectories + student presentations
14:00-18:00: Students’ presentations
19:30-22:00: Students’ presentations & Student-led walk
Sunday 15th
10:00-13:00: Camera Obscura
14:00-18:00: Camera Obscura
19:30-22:00: Student-led walk
Monday 16th With Grant Watson
10:00-13:00: Screening+discussion
14:00-17:00: Screening+discussion