Good Deal ~ Wednesday, June 25 from 16:00 till 18:00 ~ COOP SUMMIT 2025

SCENE 1

She looked at the couple and asked them where they were coming from.
"here and there" “when you are not happy about where you are living the alternative is to get out of your world and try again somewhere else, but sometimes you can't go anywhere..."
(answering them laughing) “it's just a technical problem... we all eventually go where we wanted to go with this metro. It is still the real world with its imperfections and anticlimaxes. And even if we try to go back, we would never end up in the same place.”

SCENE 2

"Can we work with immaterial things?"
People nod in agreement, some look at their phones.
Someone who has been getting frustrated with the decision making process interjects.
"Let's say we are producing meaning as we are looking for it"
Everyone tries to imagine the future with the hope that others are imagining something similar.
(The task falls upon ghosts)

SCENE 3

“Dissolve in dreams and disobedience”
(determined to make their game about enchantment)  “are you casting a spell?”
(laughing) “Like the story of the witch who helped her clients get visas? Did it work though?”
“She’s apparently very good,” “She can even do it via SMS.”
Someone asks if anyone had ever paid a witch for witchy stuff.
“yeah, sometimes” (quietly, as if that kind of knowledge had to be spoken sideways)
“Tbh I’m not sure I buy it - I’m more into magic that happens every day”
(lying on the carpet , skeptical) “Like what?”
“Like those moments where situations just line up” ”something unexpected starts to feel possible”
“Like the hidden song birds in that film?”
(trying to remember) “Yeah something like that -  something beautiful in tension with something terrible”

SCENE 4

Next to the drawings, a note lay folded beside the scattered sketches of ideas. It read: “And even if we try to go back, we would never end up in the same place.”
“Where are we even trying to take people?”
“Like it depends on who our audience is - or what we end up giving to them from this process”
(playlist of collected songs humming in the background of the conversation)
“Is everyone here now? Can we start making some decisions?”
“Two things - logistics and choreography”
“Surely that’s easier to discuss when we’re there - more able to sense it?”
(slightly tense) “I just want to take a moment to think about what we do with our money.”
“I hear that”
(distracted and still thinking about the previous conversation) “Do they need to know what we’re giving them?”
“Can everyone bring an object tomorrow? Something for someone else to carry.”
(getting a bit excited after looking at her phone) “Some boring clothes too - could come in handy?”
(tired, feeling like the group is getting off topic) “What we need now is stories,” “though I’m not even sure of that.”

EPILOGUE

(Thrilling music)

Join COOP study group Trespass, Loopholes, Action Designat State Gallery of Contemporary Art – SPEL, in Nicosia, on the island of Cyprus for

Good Deal

Student participants: Alkmini Gkousiari, Aimeé Phillips, Anne van Ophem, Ariell Zéphyr, Billie Meiniche, Clara Rudin Smith, Despina Sanida Crezia, Eszter Dobos, Sam Mountford, Sarmistha Bose, Tereza Darmovzalová.

Tutor participants: Aziza Harmel, Harun Morrison.

Good Deal is realized through the ongoing friendship, conversation and collaboration between the Dutch Art Institute and:

evolving into an offering on

Wednesday, June 25 from 16:00 till 18:00

as part of COOP SUMMIT 2025. 

Read more about the trajectory of COOP study group Trespass, Loopholes, Action Design