SCHOOL OF RESISTANCE: REVOLUTION TODAY

The so-called Arab Spring a decade ago, the Chilean revolt of autumn 2019, the Black Lives Matter protests of summer 2020. Worldwide, people are claiming the streets and expressing their protest. But can these insurrections be compared? Where do these revolutionary situations meet and where do they differ? What can each movement learn from the other? And what can be the role of performance practices and art?

 In the 14th episode of the School of Resistance series, NTGent and IIPM bring together the theoretician Susan Buck-Morss, the artist-activist Nora Amin and colectivo LASTESIS to discuss the possibilities and contradictions of revolutions of the present. How can we use artistic tools to create a common, global language of progress and change?

Susan Buck-Morss is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at CUNY Graduate Center, and holds the title of Jan Rock Zubrow ’77 Professor Emerita of Government at Cornell University. Her book Revolution Today appeared in 2019 (Haymarket Press). Her new book YEAR 1: A Philosophical Recounting was published in April 2021 by The MIT Press.

Colectivo LASTESIS is an artistic, interdisciplinary and feminist women's collective from Valparaíso, Chile, composed of Daffne Valdés Vargas, Paula Cometa Stange, Lea Cáceres Díaz and Sibila Sotomayor Van Rysseghem. The collective is dedicated to disseminating feminist theory through performance.

Nora Amin is author, performer, theatre director and choreographer, founder and artistic director of Lamusica Independent Theatre Group (2000), and The Egyptian nation-wide project for Theatre of the Oppressed and its Arab network (2011). She published four collections of short stories and four novels, as well as the first Arabic book on theatre and human rights.

How can we shape the future of our planet, without falling back into the damaging capitalist narratives of the past? That's the central question of the livestream debate series School of Resistance. The series gives a platform to different experts from around the world: artists, activists, politicians and philosophers. IIPM and NTGent continue their work on the contradictions of the global economy: using the means of activism and art, the aim is to create a blueprint for a politics of resistance.