October 1–31, 2020
Samah Hijawi&Reem Shilleh The Ramallah Club Network:
Yael Bartana - The Shofar School: October 1–31
Tania Bruguera: October 1–31
Bouchra Khalili - An Audio Family Album: October 1–31
Christian Nyampeta - École du soir: October 1–31
With The Diasporic Schools, Kunstenfestivaldesarts commissions and presents six new artistic projects by Tania Bruguera, Bouchra Khalili, Otobong Nkanga, Christian Nyampeta, Yael Bartana, and Samah Hijawi & Reem Shilleh, based on new forms of circulation of knowledge in diasporic contexts, and transmission as a political and empowering tool.
In recent months the pandemic and the health crisis have forced many, in pedagogical, work-related and artistic contexts, to exchange information remotely. However, far from being a novelty, remote transmission has always existed for diasporic communities, in which archipelagos of identities are kept alive by developing methods for staying in touch and sharing content in conditions of impossible proximity. From one letter a month, to one audio-cassette a year; from one phone call a week, to a video-message a day.
The six artistic projects of The Diasporic Schools function as classes, each creating a group of selected participants related to the question and based anywhere in the world, and experimenting collective production and circulation of knowledge from a distance. In doing this The Diasporic Schools strengthen existing bonds, and the possibility of learning in the diaspora and from it, and to reflect on the history, politics and future of distant conversations.
Tania Bruguera creates an open phone line, to allow and facilitate private discussion and political conversations between strangers belonging to the Cuban diaspora and Cubans living in the island. Christian Nyampeta forms a group of co-researchers, in a temporary school to collectively re-write from the inside the history of Rwanda, and recenter the importance of poetic and usually marginalized sources. Bouchra Khalili creates an open archive of stories of emancipation and political struggles, starting from the methodology of Al Assifa—a theatre group active in France between 1972 and 1978 and consisted of a group of North African workers and their French student allies—and passing it on to a new generation. Otobong Nkanga creates a project in four podcast episodes, each of them starting from the life of one product or element, tracing its transportation in an expanded geography, and unpacking history from the perspective of its existence. As a way to disclose forms of political reflection and feminist empowermen, Yael Bartana creates an an online platform to connect people in the Jewish diaspora to learn together how to blow the shofar. Samah Hijawi and Reem Shilleh reference the Ramallah Clubs Network of the Palestinian diaspora in the US, and create a radio broadcast, to reflect on the role and circulation of intangible elements in keeping a community connected.
The six projects of the Diasporic Schools will take place as a series of meetings in October 2020. All the school activities are free of charge and aim to accommodate a multiplicity of possible participants. Applications for each of the six projects are open until September 13. More info about the six projects and how to apply to one of them on: kfda.be/en/thediasporicschools
Kunstenfestivaldesarts is a Brussels international arts festival dedicated to contemporary theatre, performance and dance. Since last year Kunstenfestivaldesarts hosts a Free School, a platform supporting artistic projects working with experimental pedagogy, and engaging with the sharing of practice and knowledge.
