Propositions #9/3: Training Repro Communal Training Camp & Public Program
This third day of the week of Propositions #9 Deserting from the Culture Wars consists of a training with Transformella Malor, and a public program including the lecture Die Versprechen Der Gegenwart (The Promises of the Contemporary) with Bini Adamczak.
FRIDAY 15 NOVEMBER 2019
TRAINING #3: 13.30-17.30
REPRO COMMUNAL TRAINING CAMP with Transformella Malor (Johannes Paul Raether)
Johannes Paul Raether’s Avatars function as chimaeras, expanding on this old mythological figure of “unnatural” hybridity to think against biological essences. Convened by Transformella Malor, one of these Avatars, Repro Communal Training Camp, is dedicated to the elaboration of a “repro-communalism” that challenges the neoliberal neo-nuclear family and its outsourcing of reproductive functions—via IVF and “reproductive tourism”—to the Global South. This training is part of ReproReality HackLabs, a series of gatherings on queer-futurist reproduction scenarios. The meetings with Transformella Malor are offered to likeminded or otherwise associated individuals, allowing other unconventional thinkers and activists to congregate, platforming subdued practices, and producing experimental failures. From the perspective of a fragmented and alienated subjectivity toward normality, Transformella Malor makes use of a thinking device to discuss ideas and develop tools around the reconfiguration of humanity’s use of industrial and globalized reproductive technologies—rethinking these technologies beyond their biopolitical determination by following an-academic methodologies that incorporate alien knowledges and techniques. The training sessions include a reading of Transformella’s manifesto and narrations of touring, Ikeality, and seek to intervene in discourses that are dominated by political formalism, professional knowledge barriers, and corporate instrumentalization.
PUBLIC PROGRAM #3: 13.30-21.30
19.00–19.30 hrs
DOORS OPEN
19.30–19.45 hrs
WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS
Maria Hlavajova (artistic and general director, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht) and Sven Lütticken (art historian, critic, and writer, Utrecht)
19.45–20.15 hrs
REPORT REPRO COMMUNAL TRAINING CAMP
Transformella Malor (Johannes Paul Raether, artist, Berlin)
20.15–21.00 hrs
LECTURE : DIE VERSPRECHEN DER GEGENWART (THE PROMISES OF THE CONTEMPORARY)
Bini Adamczak (philosopher, Berlin)
The economic crisis that erupted ten years ago has made neoliberalism’s promise that “you can make it, if only you work hard enough” ring hollow. If neoliberalism denied the very existence of the social (as in Thatcher’s phrase “there is no such thing as society”) and reduced life to competition between atomized men and women, with only the family remaining as a “natural” support system, the crisis has restored an awareness of the need for forms of collectivity and solidarity. However, so far, it is fascist promises about a restoration of the traditional gender system, nationhood, or racial supremacy that have proven the most enticing, with their reassurance that “you may lose your job or your apartment at any moment, but you can cling on to your masculinity or whiteness.” How then can alternative, emancipatory promises and narratives be developed?
21.00–21.30 hrs
Q&A, moderated by Sven Lütticken
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Tickets (via Eventbrite)
Day ticket training + public program: €10 normal/€7.50 student discount, including dinner on 13-15 November (Wednesday-Friday) at 18-19 hrs and 16 November (Saturday) 17.30-18.30 hrs by the Basic Activist Kitchen.
Per public program: €8.50 normal/€5 student discount.
Free places: For each training and public program, BAK provides a few free places for those who would otherwise not be able to attend. To apply, please send a short explanation (max. 120 words) to olga@bakonline.org, at least four days prior to the training/public program. (First come, first serve).
BAK’s activities are made possible through financial contributions by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the City Council, Utrecht.
BAK’s main partner in the field of education and research is HKU University of the Arts Utrecht.
