(Self) Education of New Subjectivities

During a two day event, a.pass welcomes a gathering of researchers, artists, a.pass program participants and public to engage with the struggle of being  an artist commoner today, and the role of (educational) institutions in bringing this subject about. Two days of presentations, exchanges and commoning practices. Two days of ateliers, books launches, performances, workshops and discussions.

When we talk about commoning in the arts, or of artistic production as a site of commoning, or the arts as a common good, we evoke economies of material and immaterial labour within the field of art. But we seldom consider the changing understanding of what an artist is, and how this historic subjectivity possibly undergoes a dramatic shift in response to the resurgence of the commons debate in the last few years. Not only do we need to ask ourselves how to be an artist and a commoner today, and how to produce art within commoning processes, but also what kind of a new artist subjectivity is summoned by the commons. Long gone is the conception of the artist as a craftswoman, long gone the conception of a solitary genius, yet the market still welcomes the individualistic producer, enamoured with the beautified reflection the neo-liberal consumer finds in the persona of the free-to-do-anything, singular novum-art-maker.

Does commoning, as a means of artistic practice, require a radically different self-conception of the artist? And if we see the emergence of a different artist subjectivity, what role does (self-)education in the arts play in fostering and welcoming this subjectivity? What kind of (educational) institutions can the artist- commoner take root in? How can these institutions engage not only in educating the artist about the commons but in developing radical methodologies of commoning education?

––––PROGRAMME––––

FRIDAY
10:00-16:00 Open space / habitat, with a.pass participants
11:00-15:30 office-work, with Femke Snelting, Kate Rich, Magda Tyzlik-Carver
15:30-17.30 Regime Change, presentation after office-work, with Femke Snelting, Kate Rich, Magda Tyzlik-Carver
18:00-22:00 Common Sweat Sauna, with Steven Jouwersma
18:00-19.30 Turn, Turtle! panel, with Vladimir Miller, Nicolas Galeazzi, Daniel Blanga-Gubbay. Followed by The Missing Chapter, by Guy Gypens & SPIN.
20:30-21:30 SITUATMENTS with Vladimir Miller, Lilia Mestre, Pierre Rubio, Kristien Van den Brande & Cecilia Molano, Steven Jouwersma,  Nicolas Galeazzi, Philippine Hoegen & Einat Tuchman
21.30-02:00 PRACTICES. Mobile Interviews + City of Commons + Reading out loud & von unten + Common Sweat Sauna + ArtsCommons rehashed

SATURDAY
15:30-16:30 Figures of Commoning, introduction by Rudi Laermans
16:30-18:00 Launch Bubble Score-publication, with Lilia Mestre, Philippine Hoegen, Miriam Hempel, a.o.
17:00-21:00 Common Sweat sauna, with Steven Jouwersma
18:00-19:30 Presentation of the ThK Journal #23, ‘Commons / Undercommons in art, education, work’, with Bojana Cvejić interviewed by Pierre Rubio.
20:30-22:30 Between what is no longer and what is not yet, performance by Juan Dominguez
22:30-02:00 introduction Dino Sound System + PARTY!