Public Program Gemeentegoed: Art & Democracy

Art & Democracy
From competition to compassion
Part of exhibition: Gemeentegoed.
Saturday 13 July 13:00 – 19:00 (including dinner) / Podium Explore
Bagijnestraat 59, 8911 DN Leeuwarden

With contributions from Emanuele Braga, Lara Khaldi, Jeroen Lutters and Pink Pony Express.
(The event is in English spoken. We facilitate translations from Dutch to English.))

VHDG pulls together with local artists Louwrien Wijers and Egon Hanfstingl for a special event on the 13th of July in Podium Explore on Art & Democracy. Join the dialogue on Solidarity, Democracy and Creativity. What is valuable to you, and how do we organize that together? Featuring Jeroen Lutters, Emanuele Braga, Lara Khaldi, and Pink Pony Express.

The event features a delicious and healthy meal cooked together with all participants, led by artist and chef Egon Hanfstingl.

“Science is the Past / Art is the Present / Food is the Future.”

This slogan has defined many gatherings that Louwrien and Egon have created in the Netherlands and elsewhere, where Egon taught how to cook fresh daily, and Louwrien facilitated dialogues about the future of our Digital Direct Democracy, a Basic Income for Everyone, to free the Creativity in every person on the planet.

“There must be a permanent dialogue about all human problems,” said Joseph Beuys. With this task in mind, Louwrien has, since 1968, brought scientists, artists, spiritual leaders, economists, and citizens together to discuss and imagine new ways of living in compassion rather than competition. In 2018, as part of the Cultural Capital of Europe program, Louwrien created the event 100dagen Beuys, where people who knew Beuys shared his ideas on Direct Democracy, Universal Basic Income, the Expanded Concept of Art, and Creativity as our Real Capital.

As another important landmark, on September 29th, 2023, Louwrien organized a conversation with Audrey Tang (former Minister of Digital Affairs in charge of social innovation) at the Fries Museum. Tang viewed their ministry as the Ministry of Plurality. “Plural means more than one. Plurality is about analyzing the human condition, not as individuals, not as an aggregation of individuals, but as plurality, as people sharing common knowledge and identities, acting in association rather than just as individuals.” Tang worked on innovating democracy through digital tools, striving towards Plural Democracy: a new democratic system that enables people to take collective action across differences and against polarization. This system helps citizens come together, make decisions, and work as an assembly on aspects of life they all care about: compassion, mutual care, and trust.

Now, on the 13th of July, VHDG, together with Louwrien Wijers and Egon Hanfstingl, continues this permanent dialogue by inviting three innovative artists and thinkers, and one artist collective: Jeroen Lutters, Emanuele Braga, Lara Khaldi and Pink Pony Express. Each of the contributors have set themselves the task, within their own field and unique set of practices, to imagine and form new ways of living and working together, in education, in the arts, and in the wider society. Democracy is not a given, but is something we need to practice, maintain, and innovate every day, and not just by politicians but by all citizens.

The event starts at 13:00 in the theater of Podium Explore. It is structured into three blocks of conversations, separately led by Jeroen Lutters, Emanuele Braga, Lara Khaldi. The event will be introduced by Louwrien Wijers and will close with a special performance and intervention by Pink Pony Express. Throughout the day, Egon Hanfstingl will prepare a healthy and delicious meal with you, which we can all enjoy after the rewarding conversations. We expect to finish around 19:00.

You are cordially invited to join our next Social Sculpture to cook, eat, speak together, and shape the democracy of tomorrow.

Het evenement is gratis. Aanmelden kan via de onderstaande link.

Jeroen Lutters is an art and culture analyst and educational designer. His critical educational theory concentrates on the central role of the arts and humanities in the contemporary curriculum, the need for artist educators as wandering teachers, the theory and practice of art-based learning, and the development of twenty-first‑century educational landscapes.

Pink Pony Express consists of Tara Karpinski, Cecilia Hendrikx, and Annemarie van den Berg. The collective creates site-specific work and settles in places where there is friction between the government and citizens. Pink Pony Express lives and works on the project site for months to become part of what is happening there. For example, Pink Pony Express traveled to Sint Eustatius to investigate the low trust among the local population in the democratic process there. Local communities are reflected in their work, often in unpredictable ways. This creates opportunities for generous and eccentric exchanges.

For this special occasion/symposium/day, the Ponies will stage a site-specific intervention inspired by vermilion, the color of the voting pencil.

Pink Pony Express presents a lecture on Golden Rock and The Captain – projects in which the democratic process takes center stage. A constant in their work is the application of imagery and symbolism, and how it can be used to question boundaries and create unexpected connections.

Their projects are fueled by preliminary on-site research where the uncontrollable and the voice of the other resonate.

Emanuele Braga is an artist, researcher and activist, operating in various contexts on the relationship between art, economy, labour and new technologies. He’s co-founder of Balletto Civile dance company, Macao, new centre for art and culture in Milan, Landscape Choreography and IRI — Institute of Radical Imagination. He’s a professor of Big Data and Digital Methods at Milan State University. With the Institute of Radical Imagination he published the work Art for Universal Basic Income (manifesto), which was produced in 2022, and which was co-edited by Emanuele, together with Marco Baravalle and Gabriella Riccio.

Lara Khaldi is an independent curator and critic from Jerusalem, Palestine, living temporarily in Amsterdam. She was part of the curatorial team of documenta 15. Until recently she was the head of the Media Studies Programme at Alquds Bard College, Jerusalem and a tutor in the Disarming Design MA program, 2020-2022 and Lumbung Practice MA, both at the Sandberg Institute. Since January 2023 Khaldi has been the director of the contemporary art space de Appel in Amsterdam. As a curatorial member of the artistic team of documenta fifteen, she works with the practice of lumbung, which “enables an alternative economy of collectivity, shared resources, and equitable distribution.”