Re_Generation: Training for political Imaginaries (2023)

Kick-off meeting on 11/26/2022, workshop camp and symposium from 05/05 til 05/14/2023.

A cooperation with FFT Düsseldorf, Siegmar Zacharias and Cheers for Fears

In biology, loss or damage is followed by regeneration. an octopus can grow a new limb if one has been torn off, the soil can regenerate after it has been severely depleted by monocultures and human skin regenerates every 27 days to maintain its protection and function. Regeneration means restoring a system to its full potential. It is a process of change that honors what already exists.

The project Re_Generation was a cooperation of the international production house FFT Düsseldorf, the performance artist Siegmar Zacharias and the initiative Cheers for Fears. The cooperation partners have trained together with students, art and culture professionals to practice the future.

Part of the Re_Generation project were various smaller sub-projects and events – the Re_Generation Group, the workshop camp “Re_Generation: Training for Political Imaginaries” and a concluding symposium with performance program at the FFT Düsseldorf.

Re_Generation Group

At the beginning of the project, students and cultural practitioners were invited via an open call to participate in the Re_Generation Group and, through artistic methods, to reflect on the conditions under which we live: Climate crisis, capitalism, colonialism, in other words: exploitation and exhaustion.

How can we live the future when so much seems impossible? What can recovery look like when healing is not an option? How can we mourn losses and injustices while drawing strength together for change in solidarity?

In order to practice future action, Re_Generation used queer, decolonial, and feminist perspectives and focused on exchange between different generations and the sharing of knowledge, in addition to regeneration as renewal and recovery.

The project Re_Generation started on November 26th with a kick-off meeting of the Re_Generation Group, consisting of students and cultural workers, the artist Siegmar Zacharias and Cheers for Fears.

Responding to a call, participants came together to reflect on their own artistic, curatorial, or scholarly practice and/or to engage with the issues raised in the future. How do we work with each other? How do we relate to our environment? How do we produce in such a way that we promote regenerative and transformative forces?

Starting from this kick-off meeting, the Re_Generation Group met regularly within six months in various formats – the Re_Generation Reading Group (led by Katja Grawinkel-Claassen and Kathrin Tiedemann), regular check-ins with Siegmar Zacharias, and lectures by Alexis Pauline Gumbs and Bayo Akomolafe. Participants formed groups in which they conducted independent research on a variety of topics.

The Re_Generation Group developed some of the research into workshops that were shared with the public at the workshop camp “Re_Generation: Training for Political Imaginaries.”

Workshop-Camp „Re_Generation: Training for Political Imaginaries“

From 05/05 to 05/07/2023, interested parties came together at a workshop camp at the FFT Düsseldorf. The various workshops addressed Re_Generation from multiple perspectives, referencing queer, feminist, and decolonial theories and practices.

During the three days, workshops led by participants of the Re_Generation Group alternated with workshops led by artists of the Re_Generation Festival program. The workshop camp offered an insight into different practices of Re_Generation and created spaces to exchange together about current issues, discourses and crises, to try out ways of acting and to imagine a common future.

To read – Literature list Re_Generation reading group

„Gathering Moss“ Robin Wall Kimmerer

„Undrowned“ Alexis Pauline Gumbs

„These Wilds Beyond Our Fences“ Bayo Akomolafe

More information on the further program of Re_Generation can also be found on the website of the FFT Düsseldorf: https://www.fft-duesseldorf.de/reihen-festivals/re_generation