depowering explorations

depowering explorations

How can we level out power imbalances that keep us divided,
and separated from a peaceful and solidary life on this planet?

And what could be a lever to that from a powerless position?

Or, once we are in power, how do we avoid recreating vicious circles
of power games, power addiction and abuse?

How can artistic practices and attitudes support this process?

This book is a call into action, unfolding into an ongoing collaborative artistic research practice.

a depowerment manifesto
(56 pages, b/w, illustrated, thread stitched, coloured soft cover, first print edition of 50 is sold out)

download the pdf of the first edition here

The word “depowerment” is currently being tested on its practicability.
The following print editions of “a depowerment manifesto” will be updated accordingly.

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preparations for a depowerment manifesto

On my way to assembling a depowerment manifesto, I bump into the inherent contradiction thereof. A stream of thoughts spoken while swimming in a cold pond one warm night, July 2017. This is embodied thinking, it happens when you let your thoughts stream by whilst you are moving with pleasure and awareness.
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Collecting illustrations for a depowerment manifesto
at the summer party of APAB at gr_und, Berlin, August 2017
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Writing a depowerment manifesto, August – October 2017
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Preparing the depowerment research #1 with Agnese Bordjukova in Nice and Monaco, November – December 2017
resulting in the performance video “depowering the empire”
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Hibernating with Agnese Bordjukova at betOnest in Stolpe, Uckermark, February 2018, resulting in the performance video “sandhill moves”

 

Launching the first edition of “a depowerment manifesto” on February 25, 2018 at Somatische Akademie Berlin, with a two-hour depowering session, facilitated by Latvian dancer and choreographer Agnese Bordjukova and myself, combining an embodied research practice with a reading, video screenings and options for feedback and exchange.
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March 2018
Presenting a half-hour condensate of this session at the winter symposium of Circle 7 – Artistic Research – of the Nordic Summer University in Riga, Latvia
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June 2018
Flaws of Power, a public commenting of “The 48 Laws of Power” on the window panes of the department store window “Donau Ecke Ganghofer” during the Neukölln art festival “48 Stunden Neukölln”
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Since May 2018
Preparations for a participative audio imaginary to research through the body how to collectively survive capitalism.
Talks and practical explorations with Bernhard Wöstheinrich, Anna Nowicka, Erin Christine Bell and many many others.
The date of realization has been postponed several times since the Jury recommendation for realization in June 2018, and will be realized in Summer 2021, see below.
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March 2019

First tests of an audio imaginary in Vilnius, Lithuania (European Humanities University)
and Amsterdam, Netherlands (Performance Philosophy Biennial, Universiteit van Amsterdam)

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June — October 2021
The participative audio imaginary “Re: forms on Steinplatz (How we collectively survive Capitalism”
is realized.