I would like to bring your attention to one seminar and Learning Play that we organising on 2-3 of February at SMART projects (we have an exhibition there at the moment - see here http://www.smartprojectspace.net/)

- we are the collective of Russian artists, activists and writers from Russia (see at www.chtodelat.org)

Âhope that it might be interesting for your list

thanks a lot for spreading a word

all my best

Dmitry

++++++******* ++++

Sign up now to participate in Chto Delat?âs 48 hours seminar-commune /// obshezitie (*) and Learning play

Where has Communism Gone?

2-3 February 2011

SMART Project Space

*Obshezitie / seminar-commune is a series of 48 hour seminars initiated by the Chto Delat collective and the Socialist Movement âVperedâ in 2009, dedicated to the idea of political subjectivation through collective practices, and aimed at breaking the conventional formats of discussions and conferences and promoteÂ a dialogical, conflictual and personal relationship to knowledge production. An enormous number of events occur within cultural and political spheres that aim to address ideas around collectivity and the politicized subject. Lectures are read, seminars are conducted and exhibitions installed, but nothing is really at stake at most of these events; there is no feeling of shared struggle and no sense of solidarity is established. We should try to make it otherwise!

For this seminar at SMART there is an urgency to address what is Communism, if there is any sense to draw on this ideology again and whether the concept of communism has any relevance to contemporary cultural practices?

the reflections on previous edition of the seminar you can find here - at the Chto Delat? newspaper

Living, Thinking, Acting politically

http://www.chtodelat.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=232&Itemid=385&lang=en

Introduction

Where has Communism gone? This question refers, firstly, to the Russian revolutionary writer Andrey Platonov. It was the hero of this novel âChevengurâ, who suddenly awoke from a dream in the middle of the night asking where has socialism gone and searched for it as if it were an object, a thing which supposedly belonged to him. Socialism or communism is thus a matter of desire, and this kind of desire, as Fredric Jameson says, hasnât yet found its Freud or Lacan. By posing the question about communism, we aim to explore the nature of this political desire, which, in spite of the fall of what is referred to as âreal socialismâ or âcommunist regimesâ, is still persistent, at least in the field of contemporary theory and arts.

We are used to the reality principle of one-dimensional liberal propaganda, according to which, nothing is better than the present state of things, by translation this means the neoliberal economy accompanied by the rhetoric of human rights and legal democracy. They say that communism was a utopian project, which ended badly, with violence and totalitarianism, and that the only thing we can do now is to forget any hope of a better future for the whole society and to focus on our individual lives, to enjoy this eternal present â to use our possibilities and skills in order to succeed by walking up the money pyramid trampling on the heads of others.Â

Today however, after decades of excessive ideological overproduction regarding Communisms monstrosity, a general anti-communist phobia ends with a new disappointment. The liberal utopia, based on the notion of free individuals freely operating in a free market, was demolished by the intervention of the real of the global economic, political and ecological crisis. In this perspective, all the debates about communism not only as an experience of the past, but also as an alternative for the future, have become relevant and actual again. The only problem is that it would appear not to be taken seriously. Neoliberal institutions easily give their money to any kind of creative and sophisticated critics of the present, taking for granted that all these debates are based on market exchange, and that the ideas discussed there have their nominal value. The ghost of communism is still wandering around, and to transform it to a commodity-form seems as a good way to finally get rid of it. Conferences and artistic events dedicated to the idea of communism are going on one after another, speakers are paid or non-paid, advertisement production machine functions well, and the wheel continues to turn as before.

But beyond this exhausting machinery of actualization and commodification, we potentially still have this totally new desire of communism â the desire which cannot but be shared, since it keeps in itself a âcommonâ of communism, a claim for togetherness, so ambiguous and problematic in human animals. This claim cannot be privatized, calculated and capitalized, since it exists not inside individuals, but in between them, in between us, and can be experienced in our attempts to construct this space in between, to expose ourselves inside this âcommonâ and to teach ourselves to produce it out of what we have as social beings.

We invite you to join us, to think, discuss and live through these issues at our seminar and to imagine what you could bring to the representation of our debate and live together for two days through form and finally the staging of a Learning Play.

All interested please apply with your motivation to

Dmitry Vilensky â dmvilen@gmail.com

Or to SMART Project Space, Una Henry, una@smartprojectspace.net

The participation is free but demands full involvement for 2 days and includes an overnight sleep-in at SMART Project Space.

You are welcome to bring your own sleeping bags - those who do not have one will be provided with blankets.

The deadline for signing up is 29January 2011!

Recommended Reading List

Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolution

[PDF] Ñ ÑÐÐÑÐ rutgers.eduR Stites - 1991 - Oxford University Press, USA

K. Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia

Progress versus Utopia; Or, Can We Imagine the Future? (ProgrÃs contre Utopie, ou: Pouvons-nous imaginer l'avenir)

F Jameson - Science Fiction Studies, 1982 â JSTOR

Andrey Platonov, Tchevengur

ÂThe Structure of the Seminar

DAY 1ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ 2 February

10:00

Arrival of participants and breakfast.

11:00 â 12:00

1.1. Intro session
Dmitry Vilensky and Artyom Magun will give insights on the topic of the seminar.

12:15 -14:00

1.2 ÂOpen discussion and self positioning of all participants. We suggest to every participant to talk about their individual relationship to suggested issue and take a stance. We recommend in this talk to reference your own practice and personal histories.

Screening of any visual material is welcome.

14:00
Preparation and eating lunch (1.5 hour)

15:30 â 17:00 Â

1.3 - 1st Dialogue Session

Artyom Magun & Oxana Timopheeva

The ghost of communism: utopia between time and space

In this panel weâll discuss utopia as not simply a place which doesnât exist, or a non-space, but a space related to its time â future or past. It has no place in the present, itâs not presented. Thatâs why communism is a ghost. Be it a ghost from the past or a phantom from the future, the existence of communism is spectral. Besides a widespread historical inertia regarding the idea of the real communism as a lost paradise, there is, or rather there was, another lost paradise, which is not a paradise of the past, but a paradise of the future. The image of this future is the image of communism which never existed yet, the future lost in the past. To forget the hope of communism, cherished by the past, means to close this door once and for all, to let it die for the second and the last time.Â

But is there any possibility of utopian thinking and imagination today? In the 20th century, after an intense work of utopian imagination in the 1920s and 1930s, âutopiasâ were rejected both in the socialist and capitalist block. The fall of socialist regimes was construed by the liberals as an âend of utopiasâ. This proved to be so far the case, and the lucidity of critical analysis of the todayâs authoritarian and imperialist capitalism does not produce a powerful social movement, lacking a positive imaginary. Capitalism does have such an imaginary, even if it is demobilizing, in the consumerist and technological utopia it promotes. However, there is space, if not for macro-utopias, then for more local utopias or âexperiments in beingâ (Nietzsche), such as occupations of universities or street universities, such as communes or even internet networks, etc. Not to be as naÃve as to imagine that one can subvert the imperialist machine by creating one cooperative bookshop, but to be able to present an alternative.

Thus, the question: what practices can we enact now, to demonstrate the possibility of an alternative socio-political order?

Can we:

- choose government/ruling organs by drawing lots?
- raise children together?
- create self-governing economic entities?
- organize creatively decision-making within an artistic-intellectual group?

If we canât - then why?Â What else can we imagine and/or plan? Or is it worth doing?

17:00

Break for 1.5 hour â free time

18:30 â 20:00

1.4.Â 2^nd Dialogue Session (1.5 hours)

On relations between art and communism

Alexander Skidan & Dmitry Vilensky

Every creative act originally (that is, starting fromÂchildhood) involves mimesis - capacity, which, in its turn, presupposes some kind of social relations, an interplay with the other(s). We imitate our parents, adults, later - our famous writers and artists. WeÂappropriate and transform their heritage, or "property",Âwhich, again,ÂisÂmade of an endless - even if indirect -Âdialogue and exchange with the community of predecessors. Thus, creativity isÂnot onlyÂbased onÂthe "commune" (where initiative, or stimulus,Âalways already comes from the others), but is addressed to it as well.ÂThis is the basic anthropological structure the consequences and distortions of which - on the level of the capitalist mode of culturalÂproduction â will be discussed.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ

20:00
Cooking & eating dinner together

22:00
Film screenings (drinks)

Screening programme â unique collection of late soviet films

01:00 or later

Collective sleep

Day 2ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ 03 FEBRUARY

10:00

Wake up and militant aerobics (with Olga Egorova- Tsaplya)ÂÂ

11:00

Breakfast

11:30 â 13:30

2.1. ÂMagun-Timopheva-Vilensky-Skidan

intro to the play

Exchange of ideas and discussion on the possibilities of the script development.

13:30

Preparing and eating lunch

15:00 â 17:00

Rehearsal of the play

17:00 â 19:00

Break and snacks

General rehearsal with all participants

19:00

Break

20:00

Public staging of the learning play
âWhere has Communism Gone?â

22:00

Cooking and eating dinner 10pm-12pm

23:00

Closing session - Collective dance

END