COOP ~ UNRAVELING THE (UNDER-)DEVELOPMENT COMPLEX from Month to Month
Seminar 6: 18 - 20 May 2023
During our last COOP, we dived into our study theme, narrowing our focus a bit more in response to our final presentation. After reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s Dancing in the streets. A history of collective joy, we were able to get more context on the history of carnival in Central Europe within the 12th, 13th century, tracing back its origins to pagan celebratory rituals. With the authorities in power - in most cases inextricably linked to religion - and their decision to forbid “pagan” rituals, some that involved dancing, the people moved out of the religious premises, and brought dancing to the streets.
Moving Central Europe to the Caribbean, we were able to appreciate and approach carnival through different angle points, from its aesthetic, to its cultural, and socio-political relevance within the Caribbean context. Indeed as we got to see in the two documentaries we watched, the carnival, much more than just a celebration, is first and foremost a space of self determination, affirmation and subversion.
In this week’s COOP gathering, we draw from last week’s input, notably our hands-on workshop with guest tutor Babi Badalov, and continue working towards our final summit.
Thursday 18th of May
MORNING
11.00 - 13.00
Check-in
Pick-up from last conversation at PAF
AFTERNOON
14.30 - 20.00
Open conversation on Final Summit
Admin, content, questions?
Please bring along all the material produced during last DAI week so we can
build on this
Friday 19th of May
MORNING
10.30 - 13.00
Final project presentation from de Appel’s Curatorial Programme
Feedback and conversation
AFTERNOON
14.30 - 19.00
Final project presentation from COOP
Feedback and conversation
EVENING
21.00 - 22.30
Collective activity with de Appel Curatorial Programme
Reading, Film screening, Listening session (tbc on the ground)
Saturday 20th of May
MORNING
10.30 - 13.00
Student-led work session towards Final summit
AFTERNOON
14.30 - 20.00
Student-led work session towards Final Summit
Feedback, conversation together with tutors
EVENING
21.00 - 22.30
Week wrap-up and Planning Nida
Seminar 5: 19 - 21 April 2023
Wednesday 19th of April
MORNING
10.00 - 13.00
Reading
Barbara Ehrenreich - Dancing in the streets. A history of collective joy
Chapter 4 & 5
AFTERNOON
14.30 - 15.30
Collective walk
16.00 - 18.30
Film screening and conversation
Carnival, its origins and evolution
Pulse - History and culture of carnival
EVENING
20.00 - 21.00
Open discussion on Final Summit admin Ⅰ
(collaborative work, organization, coordination)
Thursday 20th of April
MORNING
10.00 - 12.00
Online session with Guest tutor Hubert Gromny
AFTERNOON
14.00 - 18.00
One-to-one mid-term evaluations
EVENING
20.00 - 20.30
Presentation by the COOP members regarding chosen format for final presentation. During this presentation we invite you to share with us more specific details about the content, concept of the final presentation and how it relates to the chosen format.
20.30 - 21.00
Exchange and reflection on the presentation
21.00 - 22.00
Open discussion on Final Summit admin Ⅱ
(budget, structure)
Friday 21st of April
MORNING
Workshop with Babi Badalov Session Ⅰ
AFTERNOON
Workshop with Babi Badalov Session Ⅱ
EVENING
20.00 - 22.00 Week wrap-up and first thoughts on next DAI Week in Salina
Seminar 4: 8 - 10 March 2023
Dear Unraveling the (Under-) Development Complex COOP,
We move with gratitude from our gathering during the Invocations programme at SAVVY Contemporary and invite you to listen, read and contemplate with us as move from eco-feminist acts of resistance in India in the 1970's, which feels particularly important to share on this 8th of March, to modes of (re-)formulating identity with Achille Mbembe and spirited projections into the future with our guest tutor Blick Bassy. This transition from our last session centered around fermentation in Nida, proposes a path in which we are informed by reactions to the (Under-) Development complex that work to protect our communion with nature and how resisting the machinations of the complex demands it to be viewed through different lenses that allow for new imaginaries to emerge and proliferate.
Our engagements will be paired with collective readings of Feminism without Borders by Chandra Talpade Mohanty and How I became a Tree by Sumana Roy.
It is imperative that we continue to weave and tread the path forward together towards the final summit, so we will dedicate a full day to the proposal shared by one of our group members as a way of formulating and concretising our final project in order to dedicate the following DAI session almost in full to its realisation,
8th March
Morning:
10:30 Film screening
After Lunch:
Reading of Feminism without Borders by Chandra Talpade Mohanty and How I became a Tree by Sumana Roy followed by a prompt.
After Dinner:
Listening
Achille Mbembe on Nkata – On Afropolitanism
9th March
10:30 Morning and Afternoon sessions
Collectively student-led session centred on the proposal from Chloe and the response resource contribution from Cristina.
After dinner:
Production meeting – decisions to be made on-site and further details.
10th March
10:30 TBA
After lunch:
TBA
After dinner:
Reconvening for our own invocation
Seminar 2 & 3: 14 - 19 January 2023
Saturday 14th of January
10:00 - 13:00
Guest tutor: Piret Karro
Workshop: Race is an Economic Category
Karro’s workshop will be held in the form of a conversation with some visual waymarks that will introduce you to some notions to hopefully help us to arrive to where we are: Nida, Lithuania, the Baltics, Eastern Europe. We’ll then think about how to approach the issue of (under)development from this location.
14:00 - 19:00
Foraging: A contemplative forest foraging walk contextualising Ivan van Sertima’s book They came before Columbus and Artishok Biennial. (with Akibode Akinbiyi, Piret Karro and Sagal Farah)
20:00 - 22:00
Listening session: (Details TBA)
Sunday 15th of January
10:00 - 13:00
Contemplating hospitality and hostipitality - Edouard Glissant.
14:00 - 19:00
On conviviality, care and preparing the meal – performativity and hosting.
Student workshop in groups of 3.
20:00 - 22:00
Sharing our meals
Monday 16th of January
10:00 - 13:00
Photowalk with Akinbode Akinbiyi and Sagal Farah: Discussing the work of a.o. David Zilber, Michael Schmidt and Ozoz Sokoh.
14:00 - 19:00
On adaptation, fermentation, preservation, and different meanings of survival (environment to food and food to environment). Collective experiments in fermentation.
20:00 - 22:00
Tasting session: does objectivity pair well with flavour perception? Further details TBA.
Tuesday 17th of January
The details of this day will be announced by 11.01.2023 due to changing arrangements for the one-to-one meetings.
Wednesday 18th of January
10:00 - 13:00
A return to conviviality, care and preparing the meal – performativity and hosting.
14:00 - 19:00
The politics of the cook book: discussing, the Feast Afrique library and the work of Rajyashri Goody. Student workshop in the same groups of 3. Passing on knowledge.
20:00 - 22:00
Listening session: TBA
Thursday 19th of January
10:00 - 13:00
Assembly regarding the summit (Students only)
14:00 - 19:00
Assembly to discuss and plan for the summit (Students with tutors).
The aim of this session is to:
- assign roles
- decide on a format
- discuss budget distribution.
20:00 - 22:00
Guest tutor: Jonas Palekas
Open-fire cooking workshop (Dinner on 19th January, Nida)
During the open-fire cooking workshop in Nida Art Colony on 19th January, local food for a DAI dinner will be prepared. The workshop will take place in the NAC kitchen as well as the fire pit outside.
Seminar 1: 22 - 24 November 2022
We envision this first week, the beginning of Unraveling the (Under-)development complex as an act of “bridging” between last year’s SAVVY COOP research theme Soil Is An Inscribed Body and the one we are about to embark upon. Both themes are inextricably linked to one another. Looking across different geographies, from the basin of the Congo River, through the mines of the Katanga region, to those of Minas Gerais in Brazil, during last year’s COOP, we were able to reflect around notions of extraction, land struggle and land sovereignty. Throughout its history, Arnhem has witnessed the violence of conflicts and occupations during successive battles and wars, across Europe, but it has also been witness to the forceful displacement of people as was the case of the “Zwarte Anna” (Black Anna) - as the few records found name her - a black (enslaved) woman from Suriname, who arrived in Arnhem in 1727, accompanying the family she worked for.
Our opportunities to familiarise ourselves with the entanglements that make up the fabric of our surroundings, will include walks (please make sure you bring along warm clothes), conversations, and eating, but also collective listening to help facilitate and initiate a collective COOP dynamic, as we get to know each other better, map potential trajectories for our personal and collective practices, and also allow the space - Arnhem - flow and inspire as we bookend this year in the spirit of artistic collaboration.
A breakdown of the daily events will be provided upon your arrival as this week’s COOP is a participatory event that demands no off-site preparation. We look forward to meeting you in Arnhem for the first iteration of the DAI COOP Unraveling the (under-) development Complex.