self organised (art) space in leeds
many of the conversations i’ve been having in leeds about spaces for artists, organising, meeting and ‘publicness’ concern:
- lack of affordable space
- the precarity that established spaces experience due to rising rents and gentrification
- the homogeneity of spaces in the city centre meaning that a diversity of activity can’t take place. Particularly spaces for making/fabrication/experimentation, exhibiting, regular meeting and communing in non-commercial spaces
how this manifests and intercepts with people’s lives in the city may be particular to leeds but......the overarching narrative and the structures underpinning this story circles in the soils of various places and grows there too. yup, its not new!
since a meeting organised by live art bistro (leeds based live art venue) earlier this year i’ve been reflecting on how renting space is not a sustainable model for arts/community organisations because it leaves us vulnerable to landlords seeking higher rents, councils and their ever decreasing budgets, highly competitive (sometimes highly outcome driven) funding application processes and basically the neoliberal mess that undervalues public experimention and learning - especially the type of activity that is ‘un-productive’, process driven and co-operative.
i think by un-productive I mean, the type of activity that does not as its main aim seek to create some kind of profit. But also, activity that is critical of power structures/deeply reflective/resistant.
my feeling is that we need to own the physical spaces in which we would like the activity to take place, and when i say ‘we’ I’m thinking about collectives and not isolated/atomised individuals owning and running spaces. however, i started battling these thoughts a few months ago due to a lack of trust of people’s intentions and feeling very isolationist myself. going against the idea of collective non-hierarchical organising in my mind in favour of organising something that would be ‘for’ others but would not include those people in the creation process. instintively i felt the jolt in my perspective and have been questioning it backwards and forwards.
asking myself:
- why should something for others exist if only i want it to?
- how will it cater to others if my vision, voice, mind and experience are the most dominant in the blueprint? is this always the case?
- but how will i cope with the thoughts/decision making of others in this state of distrust?
- is this doomed?
these questions and several others roll round in non-obtrusive loops like background noise that at times changes volume.
so in light of this i’m currently meditating on the following:
1. current experience of self-organised artist residency at villa magdalena k (hamburg)
villa magdalena k is a self-organized artist workshop/studio and living space for (straight women, queer women, trans and intersex people). Learning about the origins of the space, reflections on conflicts and resolutions and seeing how this space operates as a community of communities that use, live and make in the space. (i’ll write a longer reflection on this space when I leave)
2. paulo friere - pedagogy of the oppressed (especially this section)
“ A deepend conciousness of their situation leads people to apprehend that sistuation as an historical reality susceptible of transformation. Resignation gives way to the drive for transformation and inquiry, over which men feel themselves to be in control. If people as historical beings necessarily engaged with other people in a movement of inquiry, did not control that movement, it would be (and is) a violation of their humanity. Any situation in which some individuals prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence. The means used are not important; to alienate human beings from their own decision making is to change them into objects.”
reflection continues....and i’m hoping to involve people in the discussion somehow when i return to leeds.
perhaps also getting this book in the next few days:
Self-Organised
Editors Stine Hebert Anne Szefer Karlsen 2013 215 x 157 x 18mm 168 pages
love,
s
