Save the date: Exhibition, Performances, and Workshops by the School of Commons’ 2023 Cohort

Exhibition, Performances, and Workshops by the School of Commons’ 2023 Cohort

On-Site at Toni Areal, Zurich University of the Arts, and Online
February 2-4, 2024

“What Could Possibly Go Right?”

Vjosa, one of Europe’s last wild free-flowing rivers found protection by transforming into nature reserves; the first independent newspaper has been printed in Kosovo after all other printed newspapers have ceased. We glean insights about lifelong learning from the German Volkshochschule, we learn to be better hosts, practice curation as community work, share collaboratively developed strategies on how to navigate through challenging funding frameworks and explore a communities’ collective intelligence that emerges in times of collective traumas. These are just a few examples of what the SoC 2023 fellows have been working on to shape this year’s programme. We invite you to explore their outcomes, reflections, and explorations through a selection of 25 practice-based projects presented in the form of an exhibition and accompanying performance and workshop programme.

The School of Commons’ 10-month peer-led programme grants each project the freedom to develop its research in self-directed ways. To be transparent the title “What Could Possibly Go Right?” emerged later and isn’t a strict curatorial concept guiding each contribution. However, upon closer inspection, the common thread among the 25 projects developed in the framework of SoC we observe is that most are making propositions for something they believe in rather than solely pointing fingers at what’s wrong in the world (which is undeniably important). These practices cultivate hope by fostering community, resources, tools, and infrastructures, predominantly as collective efforts bringing together individuals across diverse backgrounds, from the somatic to the scientific, and from the poetic to the political. Instead of adopting a simplistic solutionist approach of attempting to “fix” the problems of our time, they embrace the complexity and interconnectedness of the reality we inhabit and acknowledge that there is no such thing as an idea or an object in isolation. They share the belief that possibility and hope arise from being together, maintaining openness, and sometimes even playfulness.

With contributions by:

Agata Guńka & yourfriendkas
Akio Yuguchi
Andrea Liu
Catwings (Steph Joyce & Theresa Zwerschke)
Daniil Posazhennikov
Freedom Studies (Letitia Calin, Ella Asheri & Rose)
Jara Nassar
Lina Zeller, Marisa Godoy, Patrick Zeller
Maria Angélica Madero & Santiago Pinyol
Miwa Negoro
Mira Tyrina
Monika Dorniak
Oyoun (Dami Choi)
Makhandzambili (Pule kaJanolintji, Balkind, Elisa Lemma, Kit Kuksenok, Luyolo Lenga, Lizo Sonkwala, Duduzile Mathebula, Richard Welch Mic, Vuyiswa Xeketwane, Wandile Ndlovu & the Sidvwaba Cave)
Rahel Stange & Sinem Görücü
Riccardo Acciarino & Jasmine Alakari
Sarah Drapeau
There, there working group (Sabrina Herrmann, Eldar Tagi, Maria Aus, Germain Calsou, Anna Kücking, Lena Pozdnyakova & Luise Willer)
And others.

The full programme will be announced in January 2024. All workshops and events are free of charge and open to everyone.

Visual: There There Care(full) Spam Body by Lena Pozdnyakova and Luise Marie Willer