[un]learning structures | kickoff
language: german or english
During 8 sessions and over a period of 6 months, the event series [un]learning structures will gather voices and experts from German and international contexts to share knowledge and best practices in the form of workshops and inputs.
[un]learning structures offers a space for learning, networking and reflecting on one's own work practice in exchange with others. The goal is to build a sustainable network with a shared pool of knowledge and the opportunity to exchange questions, experiences and more.
During the kickoff, the curators and organizers of the series - melmun bajarchuu, epona hamdan and nara virgens - will briefly introduce the series and the invited guests and give an overview of the content of the individual events.
care-based producing & power critics
As a producer, production manager or project manager, we not only oversee and coordinate processes, but often also shape and form communication and decision-making mechanisms.
We move a lot at the interfaces of a structure or are even the interface ourselves. As a result, we often have a notion of structure and an understanding of decision-making mechanisms. At the same time, we often work under high pressure and in precarious conditions. The independent performing arts are economically as much victims of neoliberalism as other sectors of society. It's just that we lack the monetary resources to put ourselves in a better structural position. Compared to the independent economy, our team structures are often extremely outdated. This is diametrically opposed to the often critical content that is negotiated aesthetically and artistically. To the question: "Why do we need theater at all?", the answer is still: "Because it is a space of possibility in which we can explore social questions and possible scenarios.
Unfortunately, people still burn out in the process by the dozen. Because of overwork, stress, financial worries and the incompatibility of work and private life. The essential problem with this little utopia of scopes of actions is, moreover, the fact that it is only accessible to a few, and that these access mechanisms are still marked along lines of race, class, gender, and body.
Accordingly, the utopia of scopes of actions - or: agency -, is a utopia of the few and, strictly speaking, no longer a possibility space. For in order to decline essential social questions, everyone must have the possibility to be part of the practice. Furthermore, the question arises how it can be that this scope of action is still produced in completely outdated structures?
As producers, curators and accomplices, we - melmun bajarchuu, epona hamdan and Nara Virgens - came to the conclusion that it is important and exciting to discuss these questions with and for producers. This led to the idea of a series of events in which different voices on the topics are gathered.
anti-ableism, anti-racism, sustainability
On the topic of power-critical work as care-based production and the question of approaches, we have circled three main fields that we will deal with in the event series.
Accessibility from an anti-ableist perspective, racism from a structural perspective, thinking about sustainability at the intersection of these two issues - and how these approaches can be put into practice.
To open up structures, to make them more sustainable and egalitarian, we refer to the concept of care as a possible strategy to think structures away from a white, capitalist, neoliberal logic of the few. But rather to ask the questions of how we can create structures that will not be perfect but that will always ask the question of what the structure needs in order to be constantly in development. So that it is accessible and the well-being of all those who are part of the structure is just as much in focus as artistic projects and aesthetic realizations. So that the space of possibility is also reflected in the structure and we also have the chance there to decline questions and scenarios through.