INITIATIVE FOR PRACTICES AND VISIONS OF RADICAL CARE


English version

Initiative for Practices and Visions of Radical Care, fondée par Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez et Elena Sorokina, est née en région parisienne lors du premier confinement lié à l’épidémie de COVID-19. Johanna Fayau et simona dvorák les ont ensuite rejoint.

Formée sur la base d’amitiés et de liens professionnelles, l’Initiative se donne pour mission de réunir des recherches et des pratiques curatoriales et artistiques liées aux pratiques du soin, qui s'interrogent sur des problématiques associées à la solidarité et au care. La notion de care est de plus en plus explicitement liée à celle de solidarité et se situe à l'intersection de mouvements sociaux, antiracistes et écologiques.

Se positionnant comme une protection, plutôt qu’une contestation, elle souligne l'importance de prendre soin et d'être des garant.es, attentif.ves et bienveillant.es de nos sociétés comme écosystèmes. Faisant face à la crise du COVID-19 et aux mobilisations du mouvement Black Lives Matter, la France connaît l’une des discussions les plus vives sur les questions de racisme et de care en Europe. En effet, l'histoire française du colonialisme et de la discrimination raciale diffère considérablement de celles d'autres pays. Plusieurs institutions d'échelle modeste franciliennes ont entrepris, depuis de nombreuses années, un travail engagé consacré à l'ensemble de ces questions.

Nous souhaitons mettre en relation ces espaces essentiels sur le plan social et artistique avec d'autres travailleur.ses de l'art et publics européens et internationaux.

Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez et Elena Sorokina

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INITIATIVE FOR PRACTICES AND VISIONS OF RADICAL CARE


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WHW Akademija 

May 17 and 18, 2024

For the 2024 ‍WHW Akademija summer school, the Initiative was invited to join the professorial team to conduct a series of workshops and conversations for this year's cohort of artists. The program focused on rethinking and redeveloping notions of care and eco-social values, “with particular attention to strategies of repair, artistic ecologies, and collective learning”.

On May 17th, the participants engaged in a conversation with Elena Sorokina and artist Charwei Tsai. During the session, Tsai presented an excerpt of her video Hear Her Singing (2017) made in collaboration with Tibetan filmmaker Tsering Tashi Gyalthang. The video features members of the Refugee Women Drama Group, a vocal therapy workshop for women detainees and asylum seekers in the UK.

When asked about gestures of solidarity and care in her work, Tsai reflected on a recent trip to Nepal where she made clay pots with the local community. These pots, intended as an offering for the collective wellbeing, were passed along and sculpted by different people, removing any sense of individual authorship. Tsai also reflected on the freedom she feels when working with organic material, their return to the earth conveying a sense of trust applicable to collaborative human efforts.

The following day, Elena Sorokina and Natasa Petresin Bachelez hosted a ‘Charging station’ with activist Magdi Masaraa. The exercise was inspired by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman’s intervention in the exhibition When Solidarity is Not a Metaphor presented at the 2024 Venice Biennale. During this session, participants were invited to hold a space for hope by reading poetry and texts by Ocean Vuong, Felix Gonzalez Torres, and Alessandra Pomarico, among others. Some participants also shared personal writings and stories. Magdi Masaraa then offered a presentation on his work and his Initiative Durmongaa. The day concluded with a convivial exchange between the activist and the participants.

Images: Sanja Bistričić Srića