Scientists warn of the imminent collapse of our civilization, but how can we speak of a civilization, if we are unable to do something about climate breakdown, if we are even allowing it to become worse? Programme, together with online art magazine Mister Motley, about climate breakdown, ownership, territory and colonialism.

Below our agenda-items on LAND. You can also take a look at the dossier LAND.

The aim of the Kitchen Table conversations is to exchange ideas about how we as artists and people can live and work with and relate to other people in our society. We reflect for example on the notions of home and belonging. Which stories are related to these notions. What makes a home in- or exclusive? We will also look at the aim for diversity and inclusion within ArtEZ as our educational ‘home’. We welcome everyone who wants to hear new ideas and share their own thoughts.

The Kitchen Table Conversations are organized by studium generale Zwolle in collaboration with the bachelors of Education in Theatre, Music, Art & Design, the RAT-days, and the Masters of Education in Art and Interior Architecture: Corpo-real. We also closely collaborate with the online magazine Mister Motley.

Do images move us? If so, in what direction? What has capturing “the world on fire” brought us, ranging from naïvely dangerous images of children playing with pebbles in cities during heat-waves to horrific birds-eye views of deforestation? Do we know better? Or are we just stunned and limited in our actions? How we make something visible or invisible is an ecological act. On what grounds can we act, create and care in times of heightened ecological crisis? Can we even remain attached to artistic practices?

The film series How on Earth? is about creative practices that can teach us how we can endure life, and envision forms of co-habitation on this Earth. It’s dedicated to artists, filmmakers, activists, and theorists, who through their work refute the universalising logic of techno-optimism or pessimism, and eco-efficiency of petro-capitalism. Together with invited guests we will discuss how we are accountable for the visual propositions we make.

Existential vulnerability is by no means solely a phenomenon of current times. We will be and always have been dependent on each other. In the words of Judith Butler:

““We are . . . social beings from the start, dependent on what is outside ourselves, on others, on institutions, and on sustained and sustainable environments, and so are, in this sense, precarious.”

As an instrument of governance, precarization however, is used to normalize a massive reduction of permanent employment contracts, the so-called “flourishing” of a gig economy with minimal or without security benefits, rising inequality and social exclusion. Under the domination of this process, some bodies are distinguished as in need of protection of precariousness, while others are not. Precarity does not limit itself to our relation to work, but it affects our sense of self and how we relate to others.

PRECARIOUS NIGHTS screens three films addressing this topic of precarity, precarization and precariousness, to understand our mutual dependencies and vulnerability and to unsettle hierarchical ideas of class formations. We will walk this slippery slope together with artists, researchers and activists who will introduce the films by means of performance, lecture or other delicate formats.

PRECARIOUS NIGHTS is a collaboration between WALTER books, Studium Generale ArtEZ and Focus film theater.