Islands of Kinship symposium

Language spoken: English 
We are looking into possibilities to provide sign language interpretation or live transcription for this event. Please contact us through reserveren@stroom.nl if you would like to make use of an interpreter and/or live transcription.

Everyone welcome: RSVP via Eventbrite [please register for every event separately] 

On Friday June 14th, together with our European partners from Islands of Kinship, we are organizing a symposium on the theme of accessibility in art institutions, focusing particularly on the role of language and communication. The program brings together multiple professionals with various specializations (including visual arts, accessibility and mediation, crip theory) and includes workshops, lectures, screenings, performances, artist talks, and the launch of ‘Islands of Kinship: A Collective Manual for Sustainable and Inclusive Art Institutions.' The book is a major outcome of the two-year project Islands of Kinship which interconnects six mid-scale visual art institutions across diverse regions in Europe in an innovative collaboration model addressing issues of inclusion, kinship and togetherness, democratic exchange, and the ethics, emotions and practical solutions for a sustainable and fair institutional operation.
Click here to read more about Islands of Kinship. 

PROGRAM  

11:00-12:30 - Workshop #1, by Isa Hukka
To Isa Hukka, accessibility is the starting point for humanity, connection, and communication for the well-being of all kinds of communities. In their work, they have developed the practice of comprehensive accessibility. Hukka's methods are rooted in a crip reality and are universally applicable. In their workshop at Stroom Den Haag, they invite us to rethink accessibility together. The workshop includes Hukka's presentation and suggested tasks, such as writing and discussing. As a participant you are encouraged to do what your bodymind needs.
The workshop ‘Cripping communication' explores understandings of disability in relation to inclusive communication. It is mixed-format: including first a lecture, and then suggested tasks. Characteristic to Hukka's work in crip art and philosophy, also in this workshop theory and practice become inseparable. The suggested tasks in the workshop are e. g. small group work and individual reflection. Please bring equipment for taking notes, preferably by hand, if possible. During the workshop, we practice making the workshop more accessible and doable for all of us, including ourselves. Do you need to lie down, move around, have water, take breaks, have your headphones on, or maybe leave the workshop? You are welcome to explore what you need. The workshop is a space for questions, wondering, trying, and failing.
 
Access note: amateur-style visual descriptions are provided. The space can be accessed with mobility aids and has an accessible bathroom. The workshop is in English, and you are welcome to use other languages. Assistants and support persons are welcome. The event itself is not made accessible sensory-wise, so please feel free to do your own adjustments. There will be around max. 30 participants in the workshop. The enrolled participants will receive more information regarding the workshop closer to the event. Please contact reserveren@stroom.nl if you have any questions, and please see our access information as part of Stroom's visitor information here.

12:30-13:30 - Lunch 

13:30-15:00 - Workshop #2, by Paulina Seyfried 
Cultural organisations and artists are slowly opening their doors to a wider audience and a diverse community. We have realised that there are different forms of knowledge and heterogeneous interests that need to be represented in a contemporary institution. More precise communication internally and with the audience must therefore be part of the journey towards an inclusive and accessible institution to enable involvement on an equal footing. The workshop  (In-) Accessibility of Language in the Art Field is intended to provide an initial self-positioning on an individual and professional level. It also encourages joint reflection on the power dynamics (of language) in the art field. We will discuss language not only as a barrier, but also its ambivalent role as an opportunity for social rise. Starting with a check-in and input, we will approach plain language on a very practical level by doing writing and translating exercises. Mandatory for participation is to read a short text as an introduction and the willingness to leave academic language behind towards new ways of communication. Please bring something to write.

15:00-15:30 - Coffee break 

15:30-17:00 - Artist talks and screening by Alžbeta Bacíková and Sarah van Lamsweerde  

Alžbeta Bacíková's presentation will reflect on three audio-visual projects in which she played the role of initiator, director, collaborator or producer: Encounter (2018/2020), DJ (2020) and Our Space (2019). The emergence of these projects has been accompanied by a process of finding a shared language with the collaborators, articulating different needs or interests, and exploring available means of communication in image and sound. With regard to public outputs, the projects then raised questions of the representation of different identities in the form of an artwork and issues of accessibility to different communities. Bacíková observes the changes in the relationships in the long-term collaboration between creative subjects with different cultural experiences and different backgrounds over time. Even after all these years, these projects open up discussions about privilege, the visibility or amplification of voices in artistic production, or the possibilities of art to formulate and materialize common ideas and desires.

Sarah van Lamsweerde will talk about her art practice, which is dedicated to experimenting with extracurricular methods, such as oral traditions, unfamiliar languages and underprivileged senses. Introducing a selection of previous art projects, the presentation will touch upon the various areas of her work featuring performances, installations and publications.  

The artist talks will be followed by a moderated dialogue between the artists and the audience. 

17:00-17:30 - Coffee break 

17:30-18:00 - Performative lecture and spatial intervention by Ludmila Rodrigues 

For this special occasion, Ludmila Rodrigues has created a spatial intervention for one of Stroom's rooms, where visitors are welcome to slow down while experiencing a decrease of sensory stimuli. The artist will share her latest experience in music theater making, where different modes of perception were engaged. In collaboration with theater collective [in]operabilities, from Hamburg, she has developed haptic and acoustic objects for both actors and audience members. The project questioned how a diversity of bodies perceive music and theater and ultimately what bodies are entitled to perform.

18:00-19:00 - Launch of the Islands of Kinship publication followed by a panel discussion

19:00-20:00 - Dinner with listening session by discourse

Inclusivity measures for this event
Stroom will provide coffee, tea and other refreshments and/or snacks during breaks. Food will be vegetarian and/or vegan, and we can provide glutenfree options upon request. If you have any dietary restrictions or food allergies we should know about, please contact us through reserveren@stroom.nl

Stroom provides basic seating possibilities (chairs and stools) for events. If you require any additional measures for comfort or support, for example a cushion or a desk chair, please contact us through reserveren@stroom.nl

It can be visitors with multiple chemical sensitivities and/or autoimmune illnesses are present. Therefore we kindly ask you not to wear strong fragrances.

Language
This event will be spoken in English. There will be not sign language interpretation available, but we are looking into possibilities to provide live transcription for this event. Please contact us through reserveren@stroom.nl if you would like to make use of an interpreter and/or live transcription.

Bio's of participants 

Alžbeta Bacíková (1988) is an artist based in Prague. She has created a series of video portraits of real or fictional characters. In 2018 she completed her PhD studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno. Since 2018, she has been collaborating on her projects with protagonists with visual or hearing impairments. This led to the production of a film called Encounters (2018/2020), which won the 2018 Czech Centres Award at the Jindrich Chalupecký Award. Together with deaf actor Mac Henzl, she also created another film project DJ (2020) for the exhibition Hotel Beethoven at the BOZAR Fine Arts Centre. She was a resident of the Art in General program in New York (2019), the Artist-in-Residence program at MuseumsQuartier in Vienna (2018). From 2017-‘20 she was curator of the Etc. Gallery project in Prague. Currently, she works as an editor for the online platform Artycok.TV. In 2024, she will develop her new film project Can't Arrest a Movement during an artist residency at the Czech Center in New York. 

Isa Hukka is an artist, writer, and facilitator based in Helsinki. They have studied philosophy and gender studies, and taught philosophy. In their local context, Hukka has done pioneer work on the practice of cripping. Overall, Hukka has collaborated with more than 15 art and cultural institutions in Finland and abroad. In addition to participating in crip grassroot organizing and making performances in Helsinki,Hukka has published their award-winning poetry in various magazines. In 2022-‘23, Hukka worked in Baltic Circle's multi-year project Coming Stage as a facilitator of a crip artistic working group. The piece 'inviting precarious perspectives' by Hukka and the rampa associations working group received the Theatre Act of the Year 2023 award. 
www.isahukka.com 

Sarah van Lamsweerde (Brussels, 1971) creates performances, installations and publications that question the way we interact with nature and culture. Working with underexposed knowledge (from oral traditions or sensory experiences) is central to her often collaborative processes. She graduated from Dasarts in Amsterdam with a master's degree in artistic research and performance (MA). Her work has been presented internationally by Stedelijk Museum, Sonic Acts (NL), STUK, Extra City (BE), Akademie der Künste der Welt, Kunsthalle Mainz (DE), Ateliers Picha (DR Congo), among others. Van Lamsweerde lives and works in Belgium and is a member of the interdisciplinary collaborations Tre Tigri (Amsterdam) and Meyboom Artist-Run Spaces (Brussels). 
www.sarahvanlamsweerde.com 

Ludmila Rodrigues  (Brazil, 1979)operates as an artist, spatial designer, lecturer and occasional performer, at the intersection of architecture, perception, and ritual. Her spatial interventions and choreographic objects become interfaces to activate the senses and explore physical dialogues with her audience. Through performative situations, Rodrigues investigates the entanglement of social interaction, vulnerability, agency and trust. Originally from Rio de Janeiro, she has been based in The Hague since 2009 and currently teaches at the Non Linear Narrative master at the Royal Academy of Art / KABK. Rodrigues holds a degree in Architecture and Urban Planning by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ, 2007), a bachelor in Art by the ArtScience Interfaculty (KABK, 2013) and a MFA by the Art Senses Lab (PXL-MAD, 2018). Rodrigues has shown works at the Nederlands Dans Theater (Netherlands/Athens/Ludwigsburg), Cinekid (Amsterdam), GoteborgsOperan (Gothenburg), Space Media Festival (Taipei), FILE (São Paulo), Schema Art Museum (Cheongju), and TodaysArt Festival (The Hague). 
www.ludmilarodrigues.nl

Paulina Seyfried (she/her) describes herself as disabled, queer and white. She is an art historian, freelance cultural producer and structural consultant by profession. She has been working as a freelance cultural producer in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Berlin since 2014. Her work focuses on collaborative projects, exhibition development, artist management and organisational coaching, catalogues raisonnés and the production of transmedia cultural events. Paulina is the author of various artist and exhibition texts and producer of various independent projects and institutions, including Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Temporary Gallery for the Creative Europe project Islands of Kinship, Festival Theaterformen and insert female artist - literary forum for feminist voices. Since August 2023 she has been co-head of the residency program at the Academy of the Arts of the World in Cologne and from July 2024 inclusion consultant at un-label. 
www.paulinaseyfried.de

discourse, moniker of Katayoun Arian, is an Iranian-Dutch DJ and selector from Amsterdam. She began digging, collecting, and playing music from 1930s-1980s Iran since 2015. First at self-organised parties and later at the iconic Red Light Radio. Her radio show titled 'Female Vocalists from Iran (and Beyond)' is a journey of deep listening across different musical landscapes, interweaving the voices of 20th-century female vocalists from Iran, and at times, the larger geographical area that comprises Iran. Her sounds span from soulful Persian Avaz to jazzy tunes, upbeat funk, and synth dusting up and bringing to the fore sweeping sounds and lesser known and forgotten gems from Iran in her sets.

The symposium is taking place within the international project Islands of Kinship, co-funded by the European Union.