Prefiguring World(s)
Through Artistic Practice
15 and 16 of December

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Lucha y Siesta
Via Lucio Sestio, 10
00174 Roma RM

Registere here
(Free entrance)

Find more about Mixtape 3: Artistic Activism and Prefigurative Politics here

Prefiguring World(s) Through Artistic Practice titles a series of events happening at the women’s center in Rome Lucha y Siesta on the 15th and the 16th of December. Inviting artists, curators, activists and scholars to take part in two roundtable discussions, an open lab, and an exhibition, the two day event will look at the relations between prefiguration and artistic practice, discussing how the practice of art and art organizing prefigure forms of cohabitation, propose new conceptions of welfare, and activates relations of commoning and empowerment. The events mark the end of a two-year research on creative institutionalism in Rome analysing relations between artistic practices and protest movements, as part of the IMAGINART project at ASCA, Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis of the University of Amsterdam. Prefiguring World(s) Through Practice will be an important exchange between diverse local, national and international actors investigating the relations of art to activism.

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Program

December 15th
11:00- 13:00
Practicing Communities – Yazan Khalili and Aria Spinelli

How do cultural practices create communities? The event will host a roundtable discussion on practices that involve communities, creating an inclusive platform that forwards collaborative relations between practitioners and community members.

December 15th
14:30 -17:00
Open Lab – Prefiguring the city – Sara Alberani, Marco Baravalle, Marina De Angelis, Chiara De Cesari, Giorgio de Finis, Nuraini Juliastuti, Yazan Khalili, Matteo Lucchetti, Morteza Khaleghi (MAd’O), Maria Pecchioli, Lucha y Siesta, Serena Olcuire, Lorenzo Romito (Stalker), Gabriella Riccio moderated by Aria Spinelli

This Open Lab will discuss how self-organized spaces prefigure and practice an idea of a sustainable city, inclusive forms of cohabitation and self-managed public space. It invites actors from across Italy to think of shared knowledge and common strategies that foster a debate around future common practices.

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December 16th
18:30
Exhibition Opening: Luchadorəs – Anahi Mariotti and Sofia Moriggi

Luchadorəs is a critical reflection on forms of empowerment. Comprising two solo shows, the exhibition hosts works of photography, sound art, and art installations based on a collaboration between Anahi Mariotti and Sofia Moriggi. Luchadorəs engages with overcoming gender violence and collective resistance, highlighting unforeseeable dynamics of oppression exercised on spaces and bodies. The exhibition’s itinerary within the spaces of the Women’s House Lucha y Siesta focuses on key concepts, such as strength, sisterhood and self-determination. It shows us how gender violence cannot be treated without consistency as isolated cases but rather tackled as a culturally rooted phenomenon. Luchadorəs invites audiences on an experiential and conceptual journey through the stages related to overcoming violence, such as recognition, encounter and self-discovery.

December 16th
18:30 – 20:00
Practicing Care – Nuraini Juliastuti, Anahi Mariotti, Daria Damiani, Milagros Sanchez
Moderated by Aria Spinelli

Scholar and artist Nuraini Juliastuti and members of Lucha y Siesta will discuss practices of commoning and care. Moderated by Aria Spinelli, the roundtable discussion will address artistic activism and artists-run spaces in Indonesia, and how collective kitchens activated by artists during the COVID pandemic are tied to a more extended history of struggles for democracy. The Luchadoras in Rome are form of artistic activism that engaged in a participative artistic practice that follows similar traits, breaking divisions between artists and audiences through empowerment.

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The event is part of the research project IMAGINART – Imagining Institutions Otherwise: Art, Politics, and State Transformation of ASCA – Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam (NWO project number VI. Vidi. 195. 178).