ABA

Sunday, 29 January 2023, 4–7 pm | READING GROUP
 

A reading group about institutional critique

Hosted by Eleonora Toniolo, Mio Kojima, Mujgan Abdulzade and Neige Sanchez

Museums, galleries, art schools, and other cultural institutions have been promoting “inclusion” and “diversity” with increasing vigor. But who does this apparent change actually benefit? When museums make so-called marginalized positions more visible but still lack support systems, when decolonization is included in the curriculum, but universities still promote Western ideologies, diversity and inclusion remain a shallow promise, while discriminatory structures are solidified and marginalized positions once again exploited.  

In three sessions, the reading events explore the friction between visibility and appropriation by reading and discussing together critical texts about art, cultural and design institutions. As a group, we will examine how to shift an exploitative act of “looking at” into an intentional practice of “looking with and alongside one another” and ask how to articulate critical thinking within cultural institutions from counter-hegemonic perspectives. Our aim is not to look for simplified take-away solutions but rather to develop collective thinking and knowledge sharing practices, while leaving room for doubts and fragilities.

Text for Session 1 

“A Project Doomed to Fail?” by Ahmed Ansari in “Design Struggles. Intersecting Histories, Pedagogies, and Perspectives,” edited by Claudia Mareis and Nina Paim.

The text will be sent to you a week beforehand in case you prefer to read it alone. However, the format will dedicate some time for collective reading.

Seats are limited to 10 people. The event is free of charge and for FLINTA/queer/BIPOC only to ensure a safer space to discuss and share thoughts and own experiences. Please also have a look at the code of conduct before [removed];

Stay tuned for session 2 and 3!

Eleonora Toniolo (she/her) is an interdisciplinary designer—in the midst of social, graphic and product design—with an inclination toward creating relational experiences.

Mio Kojima (she/her) is a German-Japanese designer, researcher, and educator with a focus on collaborative, intersectional, feminist, and decolonial approaches to creating and sharing [removed];

Mujgan Abdulzade (she/her) is a visual designer with a strong interest in information design and storytelling. Her work tries to shed light on gender, social, and environmental issues through design activism strategies.

Neige Sanchez (they/them) is a French-swiss visual artist, photographer, curator, and [removed];Neige’s research focuses on the politics of representation and (in)visibility through queer-feminist perspectives. Neige has been part of the Air Berlin Alexanderplatz residency program since September 2022.

Since 2006, Gelegenheiten resides in a former butchers shop in Neukölln. The non-profit organization hosts concerts, film series, art exhibitions, public readings, photographic workshops and other kinds of cultural/social [removed];

Air Berlin Residency:

Neige Sanchez from September 2022–Feb 2023, Switzerland
Matheline Marmy from September 2022–Feb 2023, Switzerland
Machiel van Stokkum from September–December 2022, Netherlands