Sunday, 19 February 2023, 4 pm to 7 pm, diffrakt | centre for theoretical periphery
a reading group about institutional critique
organised by
Mujgan Abdulzade | Mio Kojima | Neige Sanchez | Eleonora Toniolo
– PLEASE NOTE: Only Session 2 will take place at diffrakt, see below. –
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, we will 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.
Session 1
Sunday, 29 January 2023, 4 to 7 pm
Gelegenheiten, Weserstr. 50, 12045 Berlin
“A Project Doomed to Fail?” by Ahmed Ansari in Design Struggles. Intersecting Histories, Pedagogies, and Perspectives, edited by Claudia Mareis and Nina Paim
Session 2
Sunday, 19 February 2023, 4 to 7 pm
diffrakt | zentrum für theoretische peripherie, Crellestraße 22, 10827 Berlin
“Existing in the World: Blackness at the Edge of Trans Visibility,”
Che Gossett and Juliana Huxtable in conversation in Trap Door, Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility, edited by Reina Gossett, Eric A. Stanley and Johanna Burton
Session 3
Sunday, 26 February 2023, 1 to 4 pm
hopscotch, Gerichtstraße 45, 13347 Berlin
text tba
The events are 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 our code of conduct before registering.
Seats are limited to 10 people. Please register via mail to: slits.in.the.monolith@gmail.com.
We will send you the text a week beforehand in case you prefer to read it alone. However, we will dedicate some time to a collective reading in the format itself. We also encourage you to bring in a text or add something to our collective body of references via mail.
This reading group is organized by Eleonora Toniolo, Mio Kojima, Mujgan Abdulzade and Neige Sanchez, in collaboration with ABA – Air Berlin Alexanderplatz, diffrakt | centre for theoretical periphery, and hopscotch reading room.