Date

21 November 2019

Where

University of Bath

Speaker

Ana Cecilia Dinerstein
Sara Vilardo

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How can art transcend its micro-world to insert itself into public debates without losing its aesthetic function? How can artistic and academic knowledge work together to produce positive transformation in social relations? Organised by the SWDTP Standing Seminar in Critical Theory, and facilitated by Italian performer and theatre maker Sara Vilardo, this workshop will open an artistic space in the University to reflect in practice about the predicaments of today’s world in dialogue with the “world of hope” that we are trying to build.

This workshop will take place at the University of Bath, from 11.15am to 6.15pm on Wednesday 20 November. The room is 4 East 3.19.

Background:

In 2016 Artist Collective Victoria Deluxe and other organisations from the cultural sector, academia, the media and civil society in Ghent, Belgium developed a joint European research project with many others European countries titled ‘The Art of Organising Hope (TAOH)’, named after the title of Ana Cecilia Dinerstein’s book (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), where the author reconceptualised social movements’ autonomous resistance as a prefigurative praxis. By highlighting the affinity between autonomy and Bloch’s Principle of Hope, she defines autonomy as ‘the art of organising hope’: the art of shaping realities which are not yet assembled but that can be anticipated by prefigurative collective action.

The goal of the TAOH project was ‘to find and discover ideas, collaborations, practices and structures around Europe that might foster a different societal order’. The culmination of the TAOH project was a four-day summit ‘New Narratives for Europe’ held in multiple venues in Ghent, Belgium (8-11 November 2018).

Workshop:

This workshop of creation, learning and collective thinking is a continuation of the TAOH project and the idea of "The art of organising hope”. It will explore in practice the possibility to embodied alternatives by mobilising imagination with methods that enable us to envision alternatives. The workshop will also explore the complex relationship between art and theatre/performance with the social and political context of the present, and the possibility for radical change.

We will use different art/performance-based methods to mobilise creativity and the imagination (such as social dreaming, changing narratives, reinventing stories, corporeal exercises and video watching and discussion to organise collectively critical affirmative responses and alternatives to wider world problems.

Participants, Registration and Preparation:

We welcome researchers, academics, practitioners, artists, social activists, students, interested in reflecting on the power of the solidarity and collaboration, and the relation between cultural and political practices today towards the future. After registration via Eventbrite MAXIMUM 25, participants will receive instructions from the convenors for their minimal preparation required before the workshop.

- Please wear comfortable clothes and bring a small yoga blanket/little duvet.

- Bring your own "HOPE": this can consist of a story, a film, a photograph, an object, a person, a ship, a piece of land … that for you symbolizes or embodies concrete utopia, a positive change that you have experienced or witnessed. Use your imagination to decide on the right carrier for your message - from a poem to a rock - .

- Ahead of the workshop, think of a topic or theme which concerns you at the moment (violence, childcare, hunger, etc.) and you would like to use to inspire your work in the workshop.

Facilitator:

Performing Artist Sara Vilardo is a performer, a theatre-maker and a yoga teacher. She was born in Milan, Italy and lives in Belgium, and has projects in Belgium, Denmark and Italy. She did performance studies in Italy, and holds a Postgraduate degree in 'Advance Performance and Scenography Training' (APASS, Belgium, 2010) and a Master in "Stage Performance and Visual Culture" (University of Castilla La Mancha, Madrid in collaboration with the Reina Sofia Museum, in 2017).She has collaborated with various artists internationally and she is also the dramaturge of her own shows. The main theme of her work has been the condition of women and the gaze of society on the female body in the contemporary Western world, with the works: Le mie parole sono uomini. My words, they are men, (Bersani/ Vilardo, 2011 / BE EN - I'm looking for the face I had before the world was made (Demey/Vilardo, 2012/BE), - Shewee, Fountain of freedom, (2013 BE), Misschien zal ik toch blijven, (2013 / BE).

Over the years she has specialized in the creation of performative interactive projects, site and human specific and in collaboration with several international companies, including Wunderland (DK), Lis Lab Performing Art (IT), Sisters Hope (DK), Cie Willy Dorner (A) Pleiades Art Production (IT), Vereningde Planeten (BE), Lundhal & Seithl (S). She is an artist/activist in the project Victoria Deluxe Project: The art of organizing hope, TAOH, in the world.