AEROPONIC ACTS 2025: CHOREIA
“I know you want to free Palestine, you want to free Congo, you want to free Sudan, you want to free Iran... a new one every week... Free Europe! Free Europe from right-wing extremism. Free Europe from fascism. Free Europe from racism. Free Europe from imperiality. When you do this job... as soon as you do this job: Gaza will be free, Congo will be free, Sudan will be free, Iran will be free. Forget about us... don't worry about us... Free Europe.” ~ Seun Kuti, Glastonbury, 2025
CHOREIA
Gods and stars, animals and kids, experts and lovers, young and old: dancing in a circle, spinning in the dark. From the eyes, seeds take root—tears, commas, full stops. We tend wounds with crooked words, with songs dense as stones.
At this refuge for bodies and souls, poems curl into fists to endure and defy. Language is a blunted knife—it whirls but cannot cut. Whisper of a love that slips away, that lurks behind empty houses. Choreia: linking arms and twirling—we dance of war and peace—perhaps love was never ours - we conjure it from dust.
We would have loved you
Bowing to the rising sun, we murmur our goodbyes. While the morning mist retreats, the day dances to the rhythm of our time.
Dissonant notes for fallen friends, oblivion has a core, a spiral pulling us silently inward—yet: the beat persists, we resist, and never quite let go. Free Europe.
8, 9, 10 August
Dutch Art Institute & Centrale Fies invite you to the
AEROPONIC ACTS 2025: CHOREIA
24 conversations-in-a-form.
Each act of 20 minutes offers a question as a practice of engagement.
The AEROPONIC ACTS 2025 will be anchored by curator Elisa Giuliano.
Esteemed respondents Barby Asante, Sandi Hilal, and Zairong Xiang are invited to mesh with the questions and offer their improvised, spoken reflections to help us think through what is embodied and proposed by our 24 graduating students.
PROGRAM:
Friday, AUGUST 8
10:30–10:40 | INTRO
10:40–11:20 | Echo Guo
Scripted memory at the border, boundary, and edge
11:20–12:00 | Mia Tamme
some of them might be hard to believe
12:00–12:40 | Öykü Özgencil
14:30–15:10 | Lisa Vlamings
15:10–15:50 | Ariell Zéphyr
15:50–16:30 | Bel McLaughlin
17:00–17:40 | Tereza Darmovzalová
What kind of seeds grow desire?
17:40–18:20 | Ivčo Ružić
Saturday, AUGUST 9
10:30–10:40 | INTRO
10:40–11:20 | Alva Roselius
11:20–12:00 | Sam Mountford
In order not to have to say goodbye
12:00–12:40 | Sara Alberani
14:30–15:10 | Nada Gambier
15:10–15:50 | Maria Miguel Pratas
desire hums into silver ~ a rehearsal for a prayer
15:50–16:30 | Foad Alijani
17:00–17:40 | Davide La Montagna
17:40–18:20 | Christelle Makris
“CHRISTELLE” an old spinster drama + the tragedy of fat SLxT + her inheritance
Sunday, AUGUST 10
10:30–10:40 | INTRO
10:40–11:20 | Annette Rodriguez Fiorillo
11:20–12:00 | Anna Buyvid
SILENCES (a slightly political opera)
12:00–12:40 | Eszter Dobos
14:30–15:10 | Qiaoling Cai
The forms of things all in it crouch
15:10–15:50 | Helena Estrela
Fly concert for a cow memorial
15:50–16:30 | Tuba Kılıç
17:00–17:40 | Clara Rudin Smith
17:40–18:20 | Alkmini Gkousiari
Are there enough holes to fill everyone’s pleasures?
18:20–18.45 | OUTRO
Convener | artistic director DAI: Gabriëlle Schleijpen
Production leader: Peter Sattler with the support of Georgia Stellin, Alexandra Martens Serrano & the technical team of Centrale Fies
Guest writer: Grant Watson
Archivist: Baha Görkem Yalim
Instagram takeover: Fagner Lima (DAI, 2026) & Tara White (DAI, 2026)
Chef de cuisine: Sophia Braddel i.c.w. Rowan Beasley, assisted by Holly Taylor
Hospitality: Kastė Šeškevičiūte assisted by Nathalie Di Sciascio
It is possible for visitors to join us for lunch and/or dinner, but our chefs need to know in advance.
Please make a booking with kastesesk@protonmail.com by the 5th of August, 2025.
Lunch (+ water) costs 10 euro, dinner (+ one glass of wine) costs 10 euro as well.
Payment in cash only ~ at the location.
Without timely reservation it is not possible to join our communal meals.
Remote support (logistics, design & communication): Lauren Alexander & Hanna Rullmann, Giulia Crispiani, Jacq van der Spek, Corine van der Wal, Hemminkways
For the AEROPONIC ACTS 2025 the DAI alights once again in the heart of the incredibly beautiful Valle dei Laghi in Trentino, Italy. Our huge gratitude goes to Barbara Boninsegna, Dino Sommadossi, and their team at Centrale Fies for their hospitality and invaluable support. It is their vision and stamina that brings emerging performance artists, researchers and activists together in a space of care, commitment and encouragement. It is an honour for DAI to be welcomed here as a friend.
Centrale Fies, 38074 Dro TN, Italy
Entrance to the AEROPONIC ACTS 2025 is free.
“Aeroponic”—root systems nourished by air—is the adjective given by the nomadic Dutch Art Institute to each student's final “act” in the framework of one out of four defining curriculum components. Journeying with DAI leads to many things, among them the accomplishment of an accredited MA in Art Praxis under the auspices of the ArtEZ University of the Arts.
Visit earlier editions of the AEROPONIC ACTS.
Read more about the other (non-public) days of DAI's presence at Centrale Fies in BULLETIN#7 .We will be joined by Rana Hamadeh, Joy M. Smith, Raphael Daibert, Chiara Figone as well as Quinsy Gario. Final First Year Kitchens, Life after DAI coaching and the rehearsals for the AEROPONIC ACTS 2025. Program on the 11th of August: Farewell Ceremony 2025 + party.