[-empyre-] reclaiming

Wed Mar 7 01:24:15 EST 2012

Hola all,

While I can appreciate the exit culture of performing recalcitrance, 
which at least for me recalls Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the 
Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street" with his mantra of "I would prefer 
not to" - the urban capabilities that enable those who are less powerful 
to reroute around the recalcitrance of those in power to change or 
delete themselves - is connected to another "R" word (we seem to be 
enjoying the impulse of alliteration): reclaiming. Performing 
reclamation of spaces that dislocate and add to the entanglements of 
"recalcitrance", "resilience", "resistance" has been an important 
trajectory for recoding the flows between the country side and the 
urbanscape - specifically for me the gestures of the Zapatistas, since 
1994, to reclaim land and the city as an intercontinental process. In 
fact they enact the reclaiming the planet as a whole.

Here at UCSD students, labor, and faculty have been performing the 
reclamation of spaces that the UC system says it can no longer afford - 
libraries and student study areas in the last couple of years. At this 
moment the UCSD Chancellor space has been reclaimed as well. As a study 
area for students. By reclaiming space, and time (study-time), as not 
being an "occupation" shifted the response by the UCSD police and the 
Administration. To what degree then can urban capabilities function as 
sites for reclaiming what has been condemned into less than ruins by the 
violence of financial weapon for the Forth World War (as the Zapatistas 
like to say) by not only staying in the city - but reaching out beyond 
its walls of the smart city to the even smarter site of country where 
"recalcitrance", "resilience", "resistance" has been developing as well 
and perhaps even longer - as networks to reclaim the ruins of system yet 
to be built.

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/jessica-davies/2010/02/zapatistas-reclaim-mother-earth

http://reclaimucsd.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/statement-of-intentions/

Thousands of students and activists marched on the state Capitol on Monday
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-protest-20120306,0,718441.story

My very best to all,
Ricardo Domingue
http://bang.calit2.net

On 3/5/12 9:07 PM, Ana Valdés wrote:
> There are many of you who named Olav Westphalen and his research at 
> Mejan, Kungliga Högskolan i Stockholm, the Royal Academy for Fine 
> Arts, here comes the invitation for a seminar about it. A pity I am 
> not in Stockholm now.
>
> Ana
>
>
> Welcome to *Performing Recalcitrance,* a week-long public programme 
> taking place at Kungl. Konsthögskolan | Royal Institute of Art in 
> Stockholm between March 24 and March 30, 2012.
>
> *Performing Recalcitrance* comprises performances, lectures and 
> workshops. It serves as the public culmination of a thematic cluster 
> of courses and academic events around recalcitrance, which are being 
> held throughout the academic year at Kungl. Konsthögskolan | Royal 
> Institute of Art. But it is also its own symposium, festival and 
> meeting point for discussion.
>
> While "resistance" and "revolt" are commonly employed as positive 
> terms, "recalcitrance" has overwhelmingly negative connotations. The 
> current definition of the word "recalcitrance" dates back to the 17^th 
> century (Fr. /récalcitrant/, lit. "kicking back," 17c.-18c.). It 
> defines a stubborn, obstinate, at times even passive-aggressive or 
> lazy attitude. Nevertheless, it seems to be an appropriate description 
> of the nature of certain current social and political confrontations. 
> This programme explores the role of obstinate refusal in contemporary 
> art and society, including the academic setting. It asks whether, 
> under certain circumstances, recalcitrance could be a meaningful 
> attitude and whether the performance of recalcitrance can be a useful 
> artistic and social tool.
>
> *Performing Recalcitrance* highlights a range of artistic practices 
> through works produced for the programme as well as in talks and 
> workshops. The members of the Berlin-based artist's group *Maiden 
> Monsters* decide to withdraw from any protest movement and stay in 
> bed. They invite us to a private encounter with art history and the 
> women's rights movements, but only after having undergone an 
> initiation ritual. Israeli artist *Omer Krieger* of Public Movement 
> stages a collective performance, scrutinizing codes of conduct, 
> legislative texts and the aesthetics of protest movements in the 
> Swedish context. *Klas Eriksson* sets up a temporary, unauthorized 
> McDonald's branch on the museum island Skeppsholmen in Central 
> Stockholm, turning the logic of the standardized and optimized 
> production line inside out. *Michael Smith* will speak about his role 
> as an American recalcitrant within mainstream popular culture, such as 
> sit-coms and commercial films over the last three decades. Filmmaker 
> *Eyal Sivan* will show a selection of his films and comment on his 
> work, a critique of nationalism and the politics of memory. *Khaled 
> Hourani*, artist and founder of the art academy in Ramallah, will 
> speak about his project "Picasso in Palestine", which brought a 
> "Modernist masterpiece" to Palestine for the first time. *Valeria 
> Graziano* discusses the role of procrastination in a culture of 
> entrepreneurship, constantly inducing us to produce value. *Geert 
> Lovink* will focus on the role of recalcitrance in online media and 
> speak about debate and anonymity on the net. *Donatella Bernardi's 
> students* will run TV Mejan, a continuous, fully operational web TV 
> studio, while *Mårten Spångberg*  and *Olav Westphalen* will organize 
> "Non Talk Radio," an intense, 24 hours-a-day, sleepover workshop 
> producing live-radio programs, which cannot be talk radio; no 
> journalism, no documentary, no filling time with knowledge (real or 
> presumed).  A number of further workshops, performances, lectures, a 
> book launch, film screenings and a final panel discussion will round 
> off the programme.
>
> *Performing Recalcitrance* has been conceptualized and programmed by 
> Olav Westphalen and Stefanie Hessler. The public programme has been 
> organized by Kungl. Konsthögskolan | Royal Institute of Art in 
> collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Stockholm, Iaspis, Index -- The 
> Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation, Konst-ig, Kulturhuset, Moderna 
> Museet and DOCH, the University of Dance and Circus in Stockholm.
>
> We look forward to an intensive week and invite you to participate in 
> *Performing Recalcitrance*.
>
> The programme is available here:
> www.kkh.se/index.php/sv/undervisning/performing-recalcitrance/1268 
> <http://interspire.e-flux.com/link.php?M=20548&N=2110&L=4195&F=H>
>
>
>
> -- 
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>
> mobil/cell +4670-3213370
>
>
> "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth 
> with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you 
> will always long to return.
> --- Leonardo da Vinci
>
>
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