Off-Europa and ICSC-Intercity/Switchcity presents: Sewn together; exploring commonality

Off-Europa and ICSC-Intercity/Switchcity presents: Sewn together; exploring commonality

This workshop is a joint venture between the Off Europa festival and curators Lea Vene and Kristina Semenova of ICSC -Intercity/Switchcity, an art exchange program between the Leipzig and Zagreb. As ICSC focuses on artistic and curatorial research in both the art scenes, for this occasion we invited Zagreb-based artist Selma Banich to spark off a discussion about collective and collaborative practice among local cultural workers. We start by asking ourselves; what constitutes us? What kind of a community do we want to build? How can we create a community without reproducing the hierarchical positions? Do we witness the tragedy of the commons; does art play a role in it? What to do when ‘the claims to critique in contemporary art’ are, and can be, readily assimilated with the interests of more or less dominant cultural, state and financial institutions?

About Selma Banich

Performance artist, lives and works in Zagreb. Has authored a series of artworks, created independently or in collaboration with other artists, groups, and initiatives. She uses the medium of dance performance, performance art, and action in public space, both on film and in theater, simultaneously being engaged in the field of non-formal education and practice-based research. While conceiving and presenting her own work, she strives to give priority to ethics over aesthetics, empathy over utopia, art making over politics, and nature over society, thus expanding the context for further learning, creation and participation in the organization of labor.