Meeting with Anne and Maria , 5.11

(5.11.17)

Three people continued with the exercise: we write in a group in silence (on the same paper) for 30' about the topic that we are discussing. If there is no topic, we write in silence in a group about the topic we are searching to find. (a meta discussion on the topic). The text that we had after 30' of writing was the following.

So what topic(s) are you interested in at the moment?

I would rephrase the question by asking:

“What is the topic of our discussions?”

I heard a lot about commitment and “imagining something else”.

Personally, I would like to build up more on the topics that we have already discussed, such as “identity”, “home” etc. concepts.

What lays beyond the concept of “home”?

For me the topic has to be related to the creation of a work that takes us in a different place from the place we have been before. The notions of “home”,”identity”, “belonging” are anyways there. But for me a question like: “How to imagine working together” is more related and is linked to the above.

Or what work is the work we want to do together? Work in femininity? On art? On socio-political concerns? Where does our research start? What is at stake?

I am interested in socio-political concerns of:

How to create a new form of “living together” which is open to everybody in society and not dependent on working/not working, money, same interests, belonging, close relationships.

How can we share “being together” in “equal states”, in open community groups, in society and even architecture and public places where people meet and there is no distinction due to money, race, intellect etc.

Also: how can we equally be attached to each other?

In this new form of living together would you like to equally include a rapist, a fascist, and/or a person who does not respect others?

What is equal to you?

How does equal include others in a group?

These are very interesting questions, but I think we need to be more focused on the “broader topic” to agree on. Then, we can start discussing how to develop this main “topic”.

So what is this main topic for you, what comes after “home”, “identity”?

It can be building up another form, in relation to feminism.

“Another” has to be “as good-as”, “the same”, “better” or could it be worse? We could for example build up another, but worse form of society.

Obviously, there is a need to think about “society”, “way of living/being together”,

“different to what is now”.

How do you imagine this new society?

So now the topic moves on to imagining a new form of society. Imagining is quite different to building up. I can participate in the discussion of this topic.

Art can contribute a lot I think. We are talking about social imaginaries then!

And about creating new tools that can help us imagine a new society?

The only thing that makes me a bit ambivalent about this topic is that it is the topic of an artist and researcher I personally know very well, and I have participated in her workshops, seen her work etc. and also it is the topic of a reading group in a theatre in Holland , but that I don’t mind as I asked permission to bring to Zurich.

I am wondering though if we can have a more precise topic related to the arts ?

For example :

How can we create spaces where we take things out of their context and place them there where a new reference is created for them?