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<div><img src="cid:f0624082ad9fd7814b568@[192.168.0.59].1.0">Carmen
Papalia,<i> Open Access</i>, collective performance in the context
of<i> Trainings for the Not-Yet</i>, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst,
Utrecht, October 26, 2019. Photo: Tom Janssen.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><i><b>Propositions #10: Instituting Otherwise</b></i> is a
one-day public symposium organized by BAK, basis voor actuele kunst,
Utrecht on Saturday, December 7, 2019, from 1-9pm. The symposium
probes the question of how to institute spaces for art in the face of
the pressing urgencies of the present.<br>
</div>
<div>Driven by these urgencies-such as environmental violence,
persistent racism, systemic inequalities, as well as fascisms and
micro-fascisms-the symposium engages with the proposition of the art
institution as a microcosm of a world centered on social and
ecological justice. In this proposition, the practices of the art
institution are the actualization of the collective alternative
imaginings of the "not-yet": of "another world" and "another
future." Key to such an imaginary are the constituencies the
institution serves, and the consequent re-compositions of
institutional practice not only with regard to what western modernity
used to call "audiences," but across all institutional processes.
The symposium discusses challenges related to such a repurposing of
the art institution, and considers notions of civic practice,
collaborative learning and radical pedagogy, solidarity and mutual
care, as well as the fallacy of institutional politico-ideological
neutrality.<br>
</div>
<div>The notion of "instituting otherwise" has been an adage since
the inception of BAK in 2000, which has driven its practice as a basis
where art, research, theory, and social action meet in coalition to
imagine and actualize alternatives to today's world. Over the past
20 years, BAK has been developing this notion through various
multifaceted programs, research, and publications, as well as in
intensive collaborations with its multi-talented, poly-vocal
constituencies. "Instituting otherwise" is a method of continuous
interrogation of the conditions of the world, with and alongside these
constituencies, and a way of confronting the injustices in the world
collectively and propositionally. It is at the same time a systematic
move away from institutions as they persist-specifically in the west
and in ways redolent of the colonial era-as custodians of power
engaged in depoliticizing and neutralizing the possibility of art as
aesthetico-political experimentation geared toward another future.
Instead, this method moves toward a concrete, tactical realization of
alternatives to the world we know today.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Full program <a
href=
"https://email.e-flux-systems.com/campaigns/jg90106e06967/track-url/rl482sqxhp5a5/05e13c3b21cff50acf383b25561f1ca34498d0a1"><span
></span>here</a>.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><b>BAK, basis voor actuele kunst</b><br>
Pauwstraat 13a<br>
3512 TG Utrecht</div>
<div>the Netherlands</div>
<div><a
href=
"https://email.e-flux-systems.com/campaigns/jg90106e06967/track-url/rl482sqxhp5a5/05e13c3b21cff50acf383b25561f1ca34498d0a1"><span
></span>www.bakonline.org</a></div>
<div><a
href=
"https://email.e-flux-systems.com/campaigns/jg90106e06967/track-url/rl482sqxhp5a5/dbac70f5b8dc45928e7e511b338e70c7fcffecd6"><br>
</a></div>
<div>BAK's main education and research partner is HKU University of
the Arts Utrecht, Utrecht.</div>
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