Collective Frictions and Fictions – Part II
Women, as the primary subjects of reproductive labour, have historically been dependent on access to the commons – from clean air and water to collectivised reproductive work – and have hence been at the forefront of struggles to secure them. Today many of us space practitioners are still engaged in activities and discourses defending the commons in urban and rural areas.
But what do we mean when we talk about “the commons”, or their verbal translation, “commoning”? If there was a learning from the first event, it is that answering this question collectively is not easy: there are so many implications, contradictions, misunderstandings and misuses behind those terms and the interconnectedness of various systems of oppression – capitalism, patriarchy, colonialism, imperialism – has left traces on what practices are medially and academically read as commonings.
During this second event we would like to continue our search with you, and approach this topic through our bodies in movement, as individuals and as a community. Still inspired by the words of Silvia Federici, we want to explore ways of “producing ourselves as a common subject”.
Imaginary Genealogies – Installation and Brochure by Who Are We with Jenni Baus
We put together our own fictional genealogy: who inspires us? on whose shoulders would we want to climb to have further sight and vision? who is carrying and caring for the legacy of flinta* groups and the creative and diverse forms of their struggles: from protests and attacks, to occupations and camps, demonstrations and carnivalesque performances, self-organised services or the creation of women cooperatives and communities? We will spend an afternoon in good company that will hopefully continue to inspire and stay with us in the future.
Embodying Struggles – A workshop with Josephine Findeisen
Josephine Findeisen, who is a dancer and choreographer, will accompany us with anatomic exercises and scores collected from performance history in public space. In her choreographic practice, she examines socio-economic realities and their influence on moving bodies. In doing so, Josephine deals with proletarian perspectives and researches the entanglements of class, gender and body.
*wear comfortable clothes and bring a yoga mat, if you have one! Movement is for all body types and skills.
We would like to festively close the workshop and another Who Are We’s year in conversation with you and the women who preceded us around a bite provided to us by Ayscha Omar, who uses multidisciplinary media on the border between design and art. Ayscha will provide us with frictionary snacks as the basis for a conversation around our practices.
Collective Frictions and Fiction is a workshop by Who Are We?, organised upon invitation of Nina Peter and Kristin Lazarova and hosted by the Netzwerk Urbane Praxis.
Who Are We? is an initiative by Mascha Fehse and Licia Soldavini for Flinta* practitioners that aims to promote feminist approaches to the analysis of spatial practices: Who can become and is part of them? What are the existing power structures that define these practices? What are the dominant cultures of communication and decision-making? What projects, spaces, cities do we design and construct accordingly? How do they influence the way ‚our‘ shared city is produced and represented?