Non-Western Technologies for the Good Life
The experimental course ‘Non-Western Technologies for the Good Life’ (November 2023–May 2024) celebrates as its starting point the anniversary of 50 years since the publication of Tools for Conviviality, considering that Ivan Illich’s call is as relevant as ever.
Modernization is an all-conquering force, yet it is never enough. The climate crisis looms large, while extractivism and the war against life are pressing on. Illich called for a ‘multidimensional balance of human life’, for finding a balanced scale to the growth of anything, and for identifying the convivial tools needed to rethink technology and the relation to the world. Relying on convivial tools would enable communities and societies to exit the trap of the paradigm of infinite accumulation, to develop self-sufficiency outside globalization, and to regain an ethical life outside extractivism, exploitation and impoverishment. The course also responds to the new articulations of hope that have been woven more recently in the Global South, in particular through the surge of indigenous knowledges and of a new generation of congenial practitioners from all over the world.
The freestanding course is hosted by The Experimental Station for Research on Art and Life, in the village of Siliştea Snagovului, Romania, and challenges a growing community of diverse practitioners to observe the forces of modern destitution, to re-orient sensibilities by relating to indigenous philosophies of the good life, to engage in a process of grounding thought in a relational world, and to develop practices of renewal. The participants – artists, students, professionals – are invited to give themselves the time of slow growth and re-orientation of sensibilities which tends to be forbidden by the rhythm of productivity of the school, the university, the gallery, and the modern work. Each session goes through a process of collective reading in voice, and of receiving and offering tasks outside the space of the course, while keeping a diary of the encounters and a vernacular vocabulary of the learnings. Online sessions alternate with in-person encounters, which are events that are gradually gaining in complexity.
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Related activities
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HDK-Valand
Climate Forum
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–Van Abbemuseum
The Soils Project
‘The Soils Project’ is part of an eponymous, long-term research initiative involving TarraWarra Museum of Art (Wurundjeri Country, Australia), the Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, Netherlands) and Struggles for Sovereignty, a collective based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It works through specific and situated practices that consider soil, as both metaphor and matter.
Seeking and facilitating opportunities to listen to diverse voices and perspectives around notions of caring for land, soil and sovereign territories, the project has been in development since 2018. An international collaboration between three organisations, and several artists, curators, writers and activists, it has manifested in various iterations over several years. The group exhibition ‘Soils’ at the Van Abbemuseum is part of Museum of the Commons. -
–tranzit.ro
Non-Western Technologies for the Good Life
The experimental course ‘Non-Western Technologies for the Good Life’ (November 2023–May 2024) celebrates as its starting point the anniversary of 50 years since the publication of Tools for Conviviality, considering that Ivan Illich’s call is as relevant as ever.
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–Moderna galerijaZRC SAZU
Open Call – Summer School: Our Many Easts
Our Many Easts summer school takes place in Ljubljana 24–30 August and the application deadline is 15 March. Courses will be held in English and cover topics such as the legacy of the Eastern European avant-gardes, archives as tools of emancipation, the new “non-aligned” networks, art in times of conflict and war, ecology and the environment.
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–Institute of Radical Imagination
Gathering into the Maelstrom
‘Gathering into the Maelstrom’ in Venice at Sale Docks is a four-day programme curated by Institute of Radical Imagination (IRI) and Sale Docks.
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–Institute of Radical Imagination
Gathering into the Maelstrom (exhibition)
‘Gathering into the Maelstrom’ is curated by Institute of Radical Imagination and Sale Docks within the framework of Museum of the Commons.
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–SALT
Warm Earth Sounds for Plants and the People Who Love Them
‘Warm Earth Sounds for Plants and the People Who Love Them’ is a series of sound installations by Özcan Ertek, Fulya Uçanok, Ömer Sarıgedik, Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu, and Passepartout Duo, presented at Salt in Istanbul.
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–SALT
Sound of Green
‘Warm Earth Sounds for Plants and the People Who Love Them’ at Salt in Istanbul begins on 5 June, World Environment Day, with Özcan Ertek’s installation ‘Sound of Green’.
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–Museo Reina Sofia
Open Call: Research Residencies
The Centro de Estudios of Museo Reina Sofía releases its open call for research residencies as part of the climate thread within the Museum of the Commons programme.
Related contributions and publications
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To Build an Ecological Art Institution: The Experimental Station for Research on Art and Life
Ovidiu Ţichindeleanu, Raluca VoineaArt for Radical Ecologies ManifestoClimateSituated Organizationstranzit.ro -
Dispatch: The Arrow of Time
Catherine Morlandtranzit.ro -
Dispatch: Practicing Conviviality
Ana Barbutranzit.ro -
Dispatch: A Shared Dialogue
Irina Botea Bucan, Jon Deantranzit.ro -
Dispatch: From the Eleventh Session of Non-Western Technologies for the Good Life
Ana Kuntranzit.ro -
Decolonial aesthesis: weaving each other
Charles Esche, Rolando Vázquez, Teresa Cos RebolloThe Soils ProjectClimateVan Abbemuseum -
Climate Forum Readings
Nkule MabasoThe Climate ForumClimateHDK-Valand -
…and the Earth along. Tales about the making, remaking and unmaking of the world.
Martin Pogačar... and the Earth alongClimatePast in the Present -
Art for Radical Ecologies Manifesto
Institute of Radical ImaginationArt for Radical Ecologies ManifestoClimateInstitute of Radical Imagination -
Pollution as a Weapon of War
Svitlana MatviyenkoClimate -
A Letter Inside a Letter: How Labor Appears and Disappears
Marwa ArsaniosThe Climate ForumClimate -
Seeds Shall Set Us Free II
Munem WasifThe Climate ForumClimate -
Pollution as a Weapon of War – a conversation with Svitlana Matviyenko
Svitlana MatviyenkoClimateClimate book launchHDK-Valand -
Françoise Vergès – Breathing: A Revolutionary Act
Françoise VergèsClimateClimate book launchHDK-Valand -
Ana Teixeira Pinto – Fire and Fuel: Energy and Chronopolitical Allegory
Ana Teixeira PintoClimateClimate book launchHDK-Valand -
Watery Histories – a conversation between artists Katarina Pirak Sikku and Léuli Eshrāghi
Léuli Eshrāghi, Katarina Pirak SikkuClimateClimate book launchHDK-Valand -
The Veil of Peace
Ovidiu ŢichindeleanuPast in the Presenttranzit.ro -
Indra's Web
Vandana Singh... and the Earth alongPast in the PresentClimateZRC SAZU -
One Day, Freedom Will Be
Françoise VergèsArt for Radical Ecologies ManifestoTowards Collective Study in Times of EmergencyInstitute of Radical ImaginationClimate -
Art and Materialisms: At the intersection of New Materialisms and Operaismo
Emanuele BragaArt for Radical Ecologies ManifestoInstitute of Radical ImaginationClimate -
Dispatch: Harvesting Non-Western Epistemologies (ongoing)
Adelina Lufttranzit.ro -
Dispatch: Notes on Separation and Conviviality
Raluca PopaSituated Organizationstranzit.ro -
Art, Radical Ecologies and Class Composition: On the possible alliance between historical and new materialisms
Marco BaravalleArt for Radical Ecologies ManifestoInstitute of Radical ImaginationClimate -
‘Territorios en resistencia’, Artistic Perspectives from Latin America
Rosa Jijón & Francesco Martone (A4C), Sofía Acosta Varea, Boloh Miranda Izquierdo, Anamaría GarzónArt for Radical Ecologies ManifestoClimateInstitute of Radical Imagination -
Unhinging the Dual Machine: The Politics of Radical Kinship for a Different Art Ecology
Federica TimetoArt for Radical Ecologies ManifestoInstitute of Radical ImaginationClimate -
Cultivating Abundance
Åsa SonjasdotterThe Climate ForumClimatePast in the PresentHDK-Valand