BAK functions as a basis: a platform firmly rooted in thinking about, with, and through artistic practices in order to envision and enact the world differently than we know it. Art has a critical, propositional role in negotiating and drafting ways of being together otherwise that reformat the urgencies of the contemporary towards more socially just relations. The principal question that structures BAK’s practice is how to—by and in the space of art —constitute and empower the public.

Akin to a para-university for art, BAK is an internationally acclaimed art institution whose practices convene art, scholarship, and artistic activism through long-term, multi-faceted projects. These situated research events include a multiplicity of practices (research exhibitions, conferences, lectures, learning curricula, workshops and seminars, publications) as forms of public assembly.