NO UTOPIA: Artivism and Collective Action Today

#artandsociety #urbanspace

This workshop “NO UTOPIA: Artivism and collective action today” looks for the meanings and territories of current socio political issues, urban struggles with a focus of artistic interventions. We will focus on visiting and exchanging dialogues with different artivist groups in Berlin as well as planning small interventions within the possible urban spaces in the city.

The topic “Utopia” is a speculative term: it can be approached from several perspectives such as speculative design, activism, alternative futures and myth making. This proposed course “NO UTOPIA: Artivism and collective action today” looks for the meanings and territories of current socio political issues, urban struggles with a focus of artistic interventions.

This course will have a theoretical base on current readings and discussion on the topic of collective action and utopia and will focus on visiting and exchanging dialogues with different artivist groups in Berlin as well as planning small interventions within the possible urban spaces in the city.

The co-teachers Isil Egrikavuk and Silvia Gioberti are two womxn artist-academics who have worked at the UdK, and coming from the performance and architecture backsground. In 2024, Dr. Isil Egrikavuk published her PhD book “Global Protests Through Art: collaboration, co-creation, interconnectedness”, which was published by UdK Verlag and Books People Places. In her book, she discusses the current protest movements around the world and their changing vocabulary in the light of community art practices and dialogical aesthetics. The theme of utopia and art as catalyst are her main research topics.

Silvia Gioberti is co-founder of the Berlin-based artist collective Guerilla Architects, whose work focuses on the right to the city, spatial and legal grey zones, and collaborative community organising. The collective works cooperatively, research-based and site-specific as a critical spatial praxis.

Egrikavuk and Gioberti already collaborated during the Kollisionswoche in 2024 on similar topics in a transdisciplinary workshop between spatial praxis and performative expression.

Dr. Isil Egrikavuk is a Turkish-born international artist and academic based in Berlin, Germany. She received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and a Ph.D. in Communication from Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey. Egrikavuk lives in Berlin and worked as a faculty member at Berlin University of Arts (UdK) between 2017-2024. Currently she is a post-doc follow at LMU München.
Egrikavuk is the co-winner of Turkey’s first contemporary art prize, Full Art Prize in 2012. She is the founder of the other garden, a collaborative artistic research space that focuses on issues around ecology, diversity, inclusivity and radical care within the UdK.
Egrikavuk has participated in numerous international exhibitions, residencies, and her work has been published in both local and international journals. Recent exhibitions and venues include, Kunstraum Kreuzberg Bethanien, Berlin (2023), La Casa Encendida, Madrid (2022), Chicago Museum of Contemporary Photography (2022), Chicago Architecture Biennial (2021), Die Bu?ehne, Berlin (2019), Art Souterrain, Montreal (2019), Pluto’s Kitchen, Block Universe, London (2017), Every Kind of Myth is Written With Care, Propaganda in 21st Century, Lenbachhaus Museum, Munich (2017), Art of Disagreement, Salt Istanbul & Ankara (2016-2015), 11th Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah (2013), 11th Istanbul Biennial (2009), Endgame, South Korea (2009).

www.isilegrikavuk.work

Silvia Gioberti studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano and the Berlin University of the Arts. She is co-founder of the artist collective Guerilla Architects, together with Anja Fritz, Nike Kraft, Shahrzad Rahmani, and Benedikt Stoll. She works as a freelance art producer. This occupation has strongly influenced her view regarding the different interpretations and values of the production of art (and space). Questioning socially established paradigms and their new interpretation through design and unconventional use of (public) space is the focus of her collective work. Since 2022, she has been an associated researcher at the Faculty of Architecture, Chair of Building Planning and Design at the University of the Arts Berlin.

www.guerillaarchitects.de