Islandthinking: How to Co-Op(erate)?
 
Dutch Art Institute Islandthinking

DATE
1st of June 2018

WHERE
A - DASH project space

Part of COOP Summit 2018, Dutch Art Institute

Through practising organisation, a group of eight curators, artists and researchers has worked towards a commonality of interests and intentions. But how to find unity when members stem from various educational and cultural backgrounds? And how to practice this unified organisation in a roaming context—in places yet unknown? Via diverse practices arisen from a year of get-togethers, they’ve come to the structure of ‘islandthinking’ as a means to collaborate through collective knowledge.

‘islandthinking’ is a concept to be approached in poetic, social, geographical or organisational terms. Archipelagos consist of multiple islands, which in their turn can be understood in an absolute, atmospheric and socio-political sense: as structures of some mass surrounded by another mass, as climatological, or as communities distinct from the mass. ‘islandthinking’ brings these different readings together as a metaphor for interconnectedness of different notions whilst simultaneously maintaining individuality. Dependency is a great strength in this web of interrelations too. Think of boat routes between islands for example, where one often has to cross through specific islands to access others.

Athens will see the first public programme of ‘islandthinking’ consisting of lectures, workshops, walking routes, printed matter, a video screening and a radio broadcast. The programme culminates in a group-led walk on 1 June 2018.