The idea behind the project is the decolonization of the subject of Heath.
The notion of Radical Empathy includes the Critical and Educational approach. The latest observations pointed on the lack of compassion and solidarity among our cultural community. The competitiveness, which is typical for the capitalist society with the ruling power of the free-market is blocking the resources of empathy and politically/socially framed creativity. I would like to oppose it by proposing the practice of Radical Empathy and Meaningful Care * referring to the notion of Global Solidarity.
The slogan Global Solidarity came from the article “The world after Coronavirus” by Yuval Noah Harari. It was one of the first articles that appeared at the very start of a global pandemic. Global Solidarity is used in the article along with Empowering the citizens as opposed to New Surveillance – a new form of control that the government is developing for its citizens. The new type of surveillance and control, scarier, and more sophisticated than ever, allows “them” to look under our skin. We have to be prepared for that and develop new types of protection and resistance, to stay healthy, keep our freedom ,to have enough air around ourselves and to be not totally controlled.
The Notion of Care is a multilayered subject.
On one hand, I would like to stay not ignorant of people’s needs, and my statement from 2002 when the Manifest “The place of the Artist is on the Side of the Weak” was written hasn’t changed since that time. On the other hand, to be able to help anybody, you should be very aware of the context of “other”, the one you want to give the helping hand to, with good intentions.
How should we think about Normality and Health now, within the Pandemic? How do we stay within a healthy spirit that is “a bit dirty” in a sense that nothing we can imagine now except the hybrid way of uniting with each other ??
What are the methods we, as artists and thinkers, have to invent to stay “healthy” (free and fearless) within the power structures which aggressively surveil the notion of “Health”?
The Plan of the project :
A series of research-oriented performative seminars which will result in an exhibition and performance or seria of the performances.
For organizing it I am deriving from my previous experiences of the projects Utopian Unemployment Union and Carnival of the Oppressed Feelings.
Seminars will be structured :
-Investigation of the NAZI conception of body and Heathy society, referencing it with the concept of Art of Germany 30-40 s )
– Conceptualizing the idea of the society as a body
-Examine the notion of Care, study the different concepts of Radical and Social Care.
The topic of Care is complex and has to be explored according to the current de-colonial debates and re-tinking the principles of modernity.
-Research about different approaches toward relationships between body and mind including the revisiting the notion of the Witchcraft ( by reflecting upon it ) and the healing rituals of Indonesian Indigenous tribes.
-Reading groups on the topic
I would like to construct a situation where participants can share their knowledge and experiences with a cross-pollinating result.
The idea is to encourage a cohort of Amsterdam based Artists and Thinkers mixed with the refugees and expats, spanning different generations and dialogical identities to rethink the notion of care drawing on indigenous, matriarchal, and, queer pieces of knowledge. The result of these encounters will be an exhibition assembling expertise, artefacts, storytelling, and new tools activated in the space by durational performance. Additionally, all the sublime efforts will be accumulated into the major performance under the working title: Clinic of the Sun Care.