Following the first exhibition of the Rojava Film Commune, Forms of Freedom, in the United States, which opens at e- flux curatorial platform on the 21st of February 2020, Vera List and e-flux co-organize a day of discussions and screenings that respond to the exhibition and the general practice of the commune as one informed and formulated through political ideology. Their work poses many questions in relation to the role of political ideology in artistic practice, as they use cultural production as a space to engage and shape ideological compositions. This one-day public event at Vera List will address this particular aspect of cultural practice, that sits between activism and artistic expression, and springs from a specific ideological framework.
Through the discussion, we explore what is the role of ideology in art in the twenty-first century, and what new toolbox emerges through ideologically informed cultural practices to confront our turbo-capitalist present. Can some of the key ideas of political experiments from indigenous and revolutionary struggles (like the Rojava revolution) that are built on equality, feminism, social ecology, and anti-capitalism positionings, be useful for cultural practices in the Western context as well?
ART AND THE SPECTER OF IDEOLOGY – ACT 2
11:10-1:00 pm Session One
Ideological Tropes of Feminisms versus Capital in the 1960s: New York Radical Women and the Movements of Ideology
Peggy Dobbins, academic, activist and artist, New York Radical Women, W.I.T.C.H
Bev Grant, photographer, labor and social activist, New York Radical Women, W.I.T.C.H
Kathie Sarachild, writer and editor, New York Radical Women, Redstockings
iLiana Fokianaki, moderator and curator of Forms of Freedom
1:00 pm Screening
Marwa Arsanios, Who is Afraid of Ideology Part 1, 2017 (22 min)
1:30 pm Break
2:00-4:00 pm Session Two
Institutions vs Institutionalization of Ideology in Contemporary Practice
Coco Fusco, artist
Steve Lyons, core member of Not an Alternative
Christian Nyampeta, artist
Amir Husak, moderator and Assistant Professor at the School of Media Studies at The New School
4:00-5 pm Closing Remarks and Reception
This program is co-organized by the Vera List Center and e-flux and is curated by iLiana Fokianaki.
This event is part of the Vera List Center's program series, If Art is Politics.
Presented by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the Schools of Public Engagement.
The Vera List Center tries to share its programs as widely as possible, which means recording our programming and making it available on the Vera List Center and The New School websites. By entering the event premises, you consent to photography, audio recording, video recording and its/their release, publication, or exhibition. You can view past Vera List Center events at veralistcenter.org/events/past
The Rojava Film Commune is a collective of filmmakers that lives and works in Rojava, which means “West” in Kurdish and is located in the Northern part of Syria. The region has been in the limelight for the last five years due to the alliance of Kurdish, Assyrian and Arab peoples that developed a new form of “stateless democracy” while effectively defeating ISIS in the larger region–and more recently due to the decision of President Trump to withdraw US troops from the region, leaving the Rojavans extremely vulnerable to President Erdoğan’s military operations. The Rojava Film Commune has been operating on the ground for these last five years, producing films, sustaining a film academy and a film festival, utilizing the medium of the moving image as a tool to spread the political and cultural imaginaries of the Rojava Revolution.
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