Invitation 3+4 October
If Not Here, Then Where? Making Our Home in Shared Struggle
On the occasion of Gabriëlle Schleijpen’s completion of her tenure as artistic director and head of program (2002-2026) of the Dutch Art Institute (DAI), and celebrating her legacy, the second edition of APRiCot Garden 2026 will revisit the enduring questions posed by one of DAI’s founding projects. Here as the Centre of the World sought to locate the pulse of global power and resistance; its afterlife has shaped the school’s trajectory.
That trajectory has brought us precisely here, to this point, to this gathering, at this moment. It is from this vantage—shaped by years of collective practice and shared questioning—that we now come together to insist that belonging is forged through shared production, struggle, and infrastructure.
We come together to refuse the neoliberal logic that thrives on shifting systemic problems onto individual shoulders. To reject frameworks that treat the psychological endurance of the oppressed as beautiful, redemptive, or a spiritual currency; to refuse narratives that alchemize trauma into strength or offer hollow uplift.
We come together to reject blind, dogmatic class-reductionism. To refuse the argument that treats race and gender as mere “distractions” or simple byproducts of capitalism. To instead insist they are material forces—forces that dictate whose labor is stolen or devalued before they even walk through the door of a workplace.
Where we belong is not determined by blood/soil or territorial borders; it is seized at the point of production, where material life is made, moved, or maintained. We reject the lure of the anachronistic as a site of resistance, and refuse to ground community on identity. Instead, we forge a “composition”—a strategic alignment of inhabitants bound by co-dependence in a material ecosystem, united by practical interrelation and mutual necessity.
If Not Here, Then Where? extends the legacy of Here as the Centre of the World, cultivating forms of collectivity and intimacy that break with parochial notions of community.
Our two-day public symposium will carry forward the 1906 General Jewish Labour Bund's insight that arguing and leafleting are not merely tools for spreading pre-existing knowledge but the actual sites where revolutionary knowledge is forged. We hold that these buried futures are precisely what must be reactivated—not as nostalgia, but as a critical inheritance, the very ground on which a politics worthy of our genocidal times must be built.
Together with Gabriëlle Schleijpen we maintain our shared commitment to building a home in the friction of shared struggle, and to the work that continues to define our path.
APRiCot Garden is envisioned as a bi-annual event bringing together research trajectories by alumni and practitioners from the wider DAI community.
If Not Here, Then Where? Making Our Home in Shared Struggle
Conveners: Ana Teixeira Pinto & Gabriëlle Schleijpen.
October 3 from 15:00–23:00
October 4 from 16:30–after midnight
Contributors to the symposium:
Afrang Nordlöf Malekian, Angela Harutyunyan, Avan Omar (with Ali Authman), Aziza Harmel & Bassam El Baroni, Dandelion Eghosa (with Lucija Gregov), Derek MF di Fabio (with Elisa Giuliano), Edwin Nasr, Iliada Charalambous & Jeanne van Heeswijk, Leire Vergara, Marwa Arsanios, Noah Brehmer & Monika Janulevičiūtė, Pary El-Qalqili, Quinsy Gario, Sami Khatib, Teresa Koloma Beck.
Thoughtful panels, lecture-performances, an exhibition opening, an agitational workshop, the launch of the publication A Cut Through the Screen: Struggles' Reverberations in Cinema and towards the very end of the second day an experiment with the dance floor as curatorial space and place of study.
DAI Friends & Alumni Grant collective and Kiosk Rotterdam are present throughout.
Bethany Crawford is invited to write a Meditation.
PROGRAM & TIMELINE SYMPOSIUM
3 OKTOBER ~ Day 1
14:30 | Door open auditorium
15:00 | Welcome Ana Teixeira Pinto & Gabriëlle Schleijpen
15:20 | Opening
Jeanne van Heeswijk & Iliada Charalambous
15:40 | Offering Dandelion Eghosa (with Lucija Gregov), An offering to the end of all things: communal meditative ritual in poetry and cello
16:15 | Lecture performance
Edwin Nasr, To Persons Unknown
17:00–19:00 | Panel Traitors, Pessimists, Dropouts l
Ana Teixeira Pinto, Asocial Contract
Teresa Koloma Beck, Traitors to the contract
Sami Khatib, A Positive Concept of Abstraction
19:00–20:30 | Drinks** + Food* + tour of the exhibition + DAI Alumni & Friends Tiny Sofa & Tyranny of Silence + Kiosk Rotterdam
20:30 | Panel Traitors, Pessimists, Dropouts ll
conversation between Ana, Teresa and Sami moderated by Angela Harutyunyan
21:00 | short break
21:15 - 21:45 | Lecture Performance Afrang Nordlöf Malekian, The Lion’s Tail
21:45 Performance Derek MF Di Fabio & Elisa Giuliano (with Oliver Turvey, Laura Dubourjal), A sip 2 gaze 3 leaps
End of today’s program
4 OKTOBER ~ Day 2
16:00 | Door open exhibition & auditorium
16:30 | Welcome back & recap Day 1
Ana Teixeira Pinto & Gabriëlle Schleijpen
17:00 | Talk Angela Harutyunyan, Contemporary Romantic Anachronisms versus Revolutionary Contemporaneity
17:30–19:00 | Agitational talk and workshop Dabartis contributors Monika Janulevičūtė and Noah Brehmer, How to Make Concepts Drunk?
Followed by a conversation moderated by Ana Teixeira Pinto, with Angela Harutyunyan and Noah Brehmer
19:00 | Short Break
[drinks and snacks]
19:15 | Screening followed by conversation
Pary El-Qalqili & Marta Popidova, ICH BIN HIER ICH BIN DA
followed by a conversation between Pary El-Qalqili and Quinsy Gario
20:00–21:00 | Drinks** + Food* + tour of the exhibition + DAI Alumni & Friends Tiny Sofa & Tyranny of Silence + Kiosk Rotterdam
21:00 | Screening
Marwa Arsanios, Mourning our Sons
21:40 | Performance
Avan Omar, accompanied by Ali Authman sings a Kurdish Song
22:00 | Conversation
Farewell to Bricks and Walls: a conversation between Leire Vergara, Leon Filter, Marwa Arsanios, Chiara Figone and Gabriëlle Schleijpen followed by the launch of A Cut Through the Screen: Struggles' Reverberations in Cinema
22:30 | audio-visual live set
Cross the street to Body Talk (one minute walking distance)*** and join student alum Aziza Harmel & tutor alum Bassam El Baroni for an experiment with the dance floor as a curatorial space and place of study:The Night School (Extended Mix)
If Not Here, Then Where? In the Friction of Shared Struggle
Exhibition involving more than 20 DAI Alumni (2009 - 2024).
Afrang Nordlöf Malekian, Alaa Abu Asad, Alexandra Martens Serrano, Baha Görkem Yalim, Derek MF di Fabio (with Dalia Maini), Duruo Wang, Foundland Collective (Lauren Alexander & Ghalia Elsrakbi), Giulia Crispiani & Golrokh Nafisi, Hasan Özgur Top, Ioli Kavakou, Leon Filter & Ian Clewe, Livio Casanova & Clara Saito, marce norbert hörler & Kari Leigh Rosenfeld, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Rana Hamadeh, Sepideh Behrouzian.
With spatial dramaturgy by Elisa Giuliano, the exhibition features an array of film screenings, textile works, a mural, performance props, and an archival installation in the library of BAK basecamp. The works were assembled by Gabriëlle Schleijpen in a process of ongoing or reinvigorated conversations.
Please find all works and information on all artists in the
ONLINE EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
If Not Here, Then Where? In the Friction of Shared Struggle
Opening October 3
On show at BAK basecamp till October 17, 2026.
The exhibition can be visited during the conference and after that, during BAK basecamp's opening hours.
PRACTICALITIES
If Not Here, Then Where? is hosted by BAK basecamp, Pauwstraat 13A, 3512 TG Utrecht.
First toilet in the entrance is wheelchair accessible and the elevator gives access to the mezzanine for wheelchair. Unfortunately the library is not accessible for wheelchairs.
* FOOD ~ during the dinner breaks on the 3rd and 4th of October, delicious gluten free, vegan meals will be served at BAK for 8 euro per meal ~ but please be aware that you must make a reservation with Jacq van der Spek: J.vanderSpek@ArtEZ.nl ultimately 26 September.
** DRINKS (alcoholic/non-alcoholic) ~ can be purchased at the bar (cash or card) for friendly prices.
*** On October 4 for The Night School (Extended Mix) we will cross the street and go to Body Talk, Oudegracht 64 at one-minute walking distance from BAK basecamp.
CREDITS DAI TEAM:
Peter Sattler assisted by Georgia Stellin, technical production and coordination symposium
Elisa Giuliano assisted by Alexandra Martens Serrano, spatial dramaturgy and production exhibition
Jacq van der Spek, assisted by Lonneke Pastoor, hospitality
Sophia Zbinovsky Braddel in close collaboration with Lea Ramaswamy, assisted by Holly Taylor, drinks + food
Giulia Crispiani, website editing-in-chief & Instagram take-over with Shiva Yourdkani, photography.
Bethany Crawford, guest writing
Lauren Alexander & Hanna Rullmann, communication design
Corine van der Wal, financial assistance
Hemminkways, travel support
We extend our deepest gratitude to Jeanne van Heeswijk, Lisanne van Vucht, Loreto Bazo Márquez, Wan Ing Que, and the entire team of basecampers for their hospitality and invaluable support. It is their vision and dedication that bring artists and activists together in a space of solidarity, cooperation, care, and imagination. It is a true honor for DAI to be welcomed here as a friend.
APRiCot Garden 2026 ~ If Not Here, Then Where? is generously funded by a Policy Fund, made available by the executive board of the
