Common-Place

THE FUTURE IS COLLECTIVE

24 - 26 January 2020

INVITED BY JUAN ARATA & ELI CORNEJO

Common-place is embarking on a new phase in its existence and we take this opportunity given to us by HilbertRaum to open up and share the discourses and activities that have led us to this point. As a group of precarious ‘cultural workers’ we ask ourselves what it means to organize collectively. How can we create true inter-disciplinarity in order to envision and build alternative structures and processes to the hegemonic systems of capitalism, neoliberalism and patriarchy. During the three days in the project space, common-place creates a welcoming environment in which we share food, and experiences, and invite you to look back with us at successful collectivities from indigenous egalitarianism to modern socialist movements such as the Black Panther Party, the Cuban and Chinese communist revolutions, and listen and move to a century of revolutionary dance music. By making connections with the past, we aim to gain insight into collective experiences and practices for the present and the future.

Common-place is a collective committed to the interrelation between cultural theory, radical politics, and creative practice. Through social and poetic engagement common-place acts on their longing for sustainable modes of collectivity and true interdisciplinary. Grown out of a series of lectures, discussions, screenings, and lunches that took place in July 2018, the collective takes its name from the writings of poet and philosopher Édouard Glissant (1928-2011). For Glissant, common-places (lieu-commun) are not made of preconceived opinions, but are ‘places in progress’ where one idea about the world meets another one, and where by questioning our own creative collaboration we get to see the role we have in the configuration of a truly common world.

Different activities will be announced on Facebook, such as talks, music, projections and productions in situ.