Trainings for the Not-Yet

With great pride and excitement, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht presents Trainings for the Not-Yet, a project convened by artist Jeanne van Heeswijk. An exhibition that unfolds through a series of trainings in civic engagement, radical collectivity, and active empowerment, the project brings together collaborators from various fields and communities to create and practice alternative imaginings of being together in the face of the pressing emergencies that shape the world today.

Opening: Saturday 14 September, 17 hrs
Opening weekend, with special program The City Staircase: Saturday 14 September, 13–00 hrs and Sunday 15 September, 12–18 hrs (scroll down for more info) | Facebook event

The forthcoming culmination of this trajectory, Trainings for the Not-Yet, is an exhibition that evolves througha series of trainings organized in weekly chapters. The trainings range from “dreamscaping” to radical listening, from creating sanctuary to enacting radical care, from fighting housing struggles to building solidarity economies, and from composing intersectional alliances to becoming collective. They take place amid and with artworks by van Heeswijk as well as by an array of international artists engaged in social change and modeling collectivity. Van Heeswijk sees these works as learning objects. Meant to be used and accommodated by and in the trainings, they are living repositories of knowledges, stories, and experiences; the tools-in-wait for activation in difficult conversations and joyful praxis; and the archives of past and future anticipations of what “we” want to become when practicing visions of transformative justice, equality, dignity and love, care, resilience, collective power and sharing, and the relationality spawning alternative possibilities. Van Heeswijk’s works include objects and environments from some of her pivotal past and ongoing projects, including Philadelphia Assembled, Philadelphia, 2014–2017; Homebaked, Liverpool, 2010–ongoing; and Public Faculty Series, various locations, 2008–ongoing. Other learning objects comprise works such as Patricia Kaersenhout’s Formats of Care in Times of Violence, 2019; Adelita Husni-Bey’s Agency, 2014; Carmen Papalia’s, White Cane Amplified, 2015; Ultra-red’s Protocols for the Sound of Freedom, 2012; Black Quantum Futurism, Time Travel Experiments, 2017; and Adrian Pipers’s Funk Lessons, 1983, among others.

Jeanne Van Heeswijk is an artist whose projects seek to encourage and realize citizen engagement in shaping environments, while transcending the traditional boundaries of art. Van Heeswijk is a BAK 2018/2019 Research Fellow as part of the post-academic BAK Fellowship Program.  

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Opening weekend: 14-15 September 2019, The City Staircase
We kick off the opening weekend of Trainings for the Not-Yet with the special project The City Staircase: a two-day program of conversations with and by Utrechters on their concerns about, and ideas for, the future of their city. Trainings for the Not-Yet can be visited free of charge during the opening weekend.

Program:
Saturday 14 September 2019
13 hrs      free entrance to Trainings for the Not-Yet
17 hrs      opening
18 hrs      start The City Staircase
24 hrs      end

Sunday 15 September 2019
12 hrs      The City Staircase, free entrance to Trainings for the Not-Yet
18 hrs      end

The opening weekend of Trainings for the Not-Yet coincides with the festive opening of the new cultural season in the city, Utrecht Uitfeest.

The City Staircase is a project by BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht and Jeanne van Heeswijk in collaboration with Utrecht in Dialoog and Gabriel Erlach.

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Contributors
Jeanne van Heeswijk in collaboration with Laura Raicovich, Maria Hlavajova, Adelita Husni-Bey, Patricia Kaersenhout, Shumaila Anwar (Initiative for Diversity, Inclusion & Peace (IDIP)), Angel Bat Dawid (Le Guess Who?), Utrecht in Dialoog, Habiba Chrifi-Hammoudi (U Centraal), Joy Mariama Smith, Adrian Piper, Denise Valentine, Nancy Jouwe, Black Quantum Futurism (Camae Ayewa and Rasheedah Phillips), Chloë Bass, Beatrice Catanzaro, Kolar Aparna, Mehbratu Efrem Gebreab, Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh (Arab Image Foundation) and Hamada Al-Joumah, Qanat, Jérôme Giller, To Be Determined (Clara Balaguer and Gabriel Fontana), Fran Ilich, Jun Saturay, Ying Que, Grace Lostia, Alejandro Navarrete, Bakudapan Food Study Group, Urban Front (David Harvey and Miguel Robles-Durán), Afrikaanderwijk Coöperatie, Superuse Studios, Freehouse, De Voorkamer (Pim van der Mijl and Shay Raviv), W.A.G.E, Philadelphia Assembled (Toward Sanctuary Dome), Staci Bu Shea (Casco Art Institute), Laced-Up Project (Sarah Mobley and Maaike van Dooren), Whitney Stark, Carmen Papalia, Zein Nakhoda, Homebaked Community Land Trust, Britt Jürgensen, Marianne Heaslip, URBED, Homebaked Bakery (Angela McKay), Homegrown Collective (Samantha Jones), Selçuk Balamir (de Nieuwe Meent, Code Rood), Joska Ottjes (Vereniging de Kasko, Bond Precaire Woonvormen), Irene Calabuch Mirón, Ethel Baraona Pohl, Refugee collective We Are Here, Elke Uitentuis, Abdulaal Hussein and Paul de Bruyne, New Women Connectors, Stranded FM, Joram Kroon (Prace), Welkom in Utrecht, Gabriel Erlach, Ultra-red, Mustapha Seray Bah (Stichting Mowad), Goldsmith.Company, and Extinction Rebellion Utrecht

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Trainings Schedule
We are thrilled to share the schedule for Trainings for the Not-Yet. These community-to-community trainings, with artists, organizers, activists, dancers, cooks, and more, take place every week, Wednesdays–Sundays (with exceptions) between 14–18 hrs at BAK and are accompanied by a collective dinner (on weekdays, 18–19 hrs) and lunch (on weekends, 13–14 hrs) at the Basic Activist Kitchen. See the full training program here on the BAK website.

Trainings for the Not-Yet is part of the long-term BAK research itinerary Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–ongoing) and has been made possible by generous contributions by: Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; the City Council, Utrecht; VSBfonds, Utrecht; BankGiro Loterij Fonds, Amsterdam; Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Amsterdam; K.F. Hein Fonds, Utrecht; and Fentener van Vlissingen Fonds, Utrecht.

Trainings for the Not-Yet has been made possible by a generous support by VSBfonds. VSBfonds supports, in the form of donations, practical knowledge, and networks, initiatives by and for anyone that wants to actively participate in Dutch society. Emerging out of the more than 200 year-old nonprofit Maatschappij tot Nut van ‘t Algemeen, it aims to involve all citizens in society. The fund wants to contribute to self-reliance and social cohesion in our country by supporting social and cultural projects and providing scholarships. The aims are to let everyone establish their place in our diverse society and for people to grow, learn, and live with one another; hence the motto of the fund: “everybody participates.” VSBfonds is one of the largest private equity funds in the Netherlands. The fund has been in existence since 1990 and offers 26 million euros in donations each year to invest in the quality of Dutch society.

Van Heeswijk wishes to acknowledge Matteo Lucchetti, Francesca Masoero, Damon Reaves, Cease Wyss, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and the BAK 2018/2019 Fellows for their vital contributions to the development of this project.