ICKPA Panels
DO 22.6, ACUD Club
Doors Open: 18:30
Free Entry | Donations to Ukraine Welcome
PANEL 1: Co-Curated with RA
Topic: On The Frontlines: Dance Music during Wartime
In times of war, the profound impact on societies extends far beyond the battlefield, reaching deep into the fabric of culture and expression. From the underground scenes that provide an escape and a sense of community to the artists who use their platforms to amplify voices and stories, we will explore the myriad ways in which dance music has acted as a powerful force of resistance, healing, and solidarity.
Participants*:
Dato Laghidze (IliaUni, Tbilisi)
Ash Scholem (Left Bank, Tbilisi)
Irakli (Staub, Berlin)
Human Margareeta (RA, Kyiv)
Moderated by Chloe Lula (RA)
*At least one and possibly two speakers from Kyiv might be added to the Panel 1, ICKPA team is making all efforts to bring them to the panel, but because of the situation in Ukraine, they can't confirm that desired speakers will be able to travel.
PANEL 2: Co-Curated with Daria Anosova and Michal Murawski
Topic: Political Friendship After Socialism
Will there be a future for politicised forms of friendship, for affective and emotional forms of politics, after the de-colonisation, de-occupation and de-russification of the (post)-socialist world?
In Soviet and state socialist contexts, monuments, bridges and infrastructural mega-objects were built, symphonies and ballets composed, dances danced and songs sung to honour friendship: Russian-Ukrainian friendship, Soviet-Polish friendship, East German-Vietnamese friendship, Georgian-Azeri-Armenian friendship, Uzbek-Russian friendship, Soviet-African friendship, and so on. Ideas of "friendship", "brotherhood" and "solidarity" were heavily marked by Marxist-Leninist ideology. For all their internationalist costume, these ideas were Russo-centric, racialised and directly indebted to the legacy of the Russian Empire. In the case of Yugoslavia, equivalent but not identical forms of Serbo-privileging Yugocentrism prevailed.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, neo-Soviet ideologies of friendship are being used to smokescreen processes of re-colonial expansionism and extractivism, weaponised sexual violence and attempted genocide.
This discussion will consider possible futures for political and artistic practices based on friendship, solidarity, sisterhood, brotherhood and allyship. How can we continue to build political collectivities - or affective communities, in Leela Gandhi's term - based on ideas and practices of friendship and solidarity? If we abandon them, what alternatives do we have to simply retreat back to the neoliberal idea of the individualistic citizen subject? Is there a future for politicised forms of friendship, for affective and emotional forms of politics, after the de-colonisation and de-russification of the (post)-socialist world?
This discussion constitutes a follow-up to a symposium on future of trans-socialist friendship held at the Tbilisi Architecture Biennale in October 2022.
Participants:
Nariman Skakov (Harvard)
Kateryna Rusetska (Dnipro Center for Contemporary Culture)
Tinatin Gurgenidze (Tbilisi Architecture Biennale)
Anela Dumonjić (University of Graz)
Daria Anosova (UCL)
Moderated by Michal Murawski (UCL)