THE CRITICAL DRINKING CURRICULUM

A public program coordinated by Hannah O’Flynn and Vita Buivid

The Critical Drinking Curriculum is a public program coordinated by Hannah O’Flynn and Vita Buivid under the politics of food research group IMBISS. The program takes the form of a series of public events that look at alcohol as a political substance, as well a place of intersection for the relationship between the body and the State. The curriculum thinks this history from the scope of race, gender, class and age, between others. It considers how the historical production, trade and consumption of alcohol, together with the cultural codes surrounding these practices, entangle themselves with global politics. The public program opens up this entanglement by doing an artistic enquiry into some of the different histories of alcohol production, trade and drinking. The program will make public appearance in the forms of a pop up bar, performances, an exhibition, lectures, a podcast, a publication, film screenings, round tables or a supper club.

As part of the series Promises of Ever-coming Prosperity // نوید آبادانی with Sepideh Behrouzian.

Time Tunnels (Happiness — Nostalgia: a Story of Linear Time) is a re-reading of Sia Armajani’s work before/after (1970). In her work, Sepideh Behrouzian reconceptualises Armajani’s formulation of a linear temporality into a structure where happiness is the object of desire. This happiness becomes not only the object of acquisition, possession, distribution and contagion, but also a duty that perpetually stays out of reach.

In Time Tunnels, Behrouzian instrumentalises the popular and very distributed footages of Iran’s previous regime. This footage was once used in the previous regime’s propaganda to represent the happy prospect of Iran in an era to come. Today, these footages are used by the opposition to look back at a lost happiness. In both cases, happiness becomes an object impossible to acquire, yet with a strong power to evoke on and mobilise society. Through associations and cinematic effects, Behrouzian inserts these footages into two opposing linear temporalities, happiness becoming an unattainable promise that stretches both into the future and the past, creating a tunnel of linear time.

Sepideh Behrouzian’s Time Tunnels was projected at with the rubbles of old palaces on the 13th of May 2022, followed up by a Q&A on the artist’s research for this project and an open discussion with the public.

A Politics of Food Research Group

IMBISS is a research group that thinks food as that which is simultaneously life sustenance, a cultural ecosystem and a political product. The research looks at the intersections between eating practices, culinary histories, food production and trade, and global politics. The group has been existing since 2020 under the intermittent assembly of Hannah O’Flynn and Vita Buivid, and currently takes form within the framework of with the rubbles of old palaces. IMBISS works as an umbrella for different lines of research and practice, as well as a holding place for collaboration.

Founded a conceptual and physical space of communal study in Kreuzberg, Berlin

with the rubbles of old palaces is a conceptual and physical space of communal study that develops its research through art, film, dance, music, performance, literature and critical theory.

with the rubbles of old palaces was co-founded in Berlin in the summer of 2020 by Rosalia Namsai Engchuan, Litchi Ly Friedrich and Hannah O’Flynn. At present, it holds its physical location in Kreuzberg, Berlin. The space is imagined as a node within a larger network of like-minded individual and collective collaborators outside and within the city. with the rubbles of old palaces was born out of our common desire of creating different futures for all of us and finding that the spaces we navigated were not always conducive to more experimental and intuitive ways of collectively rehearsing for other futures yet to be configured.

Our aim is to make and hold space for those who align with our core values and visions: to carry out intersectional, inclusive and queer projects that further de-colonial/anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and ecological desires towards futures fundamentally different from the present. with the rubbles of old palaces is an open space for anyone who shares the struggle against the domination of colonialism, imperialism, the patriarchy and capitalism. We especially welcome those who do not have easy access to formalised and institutional spaces of knowledge production that operate on exclusive and elitist modes of meritocracy. And we understand that this needs us to re-examine how we do things, how we talk to each other and how we learn together.

While acknowledging that we are different, we believe that difference does not have to be encountered as a problem to be eliminated (through practices such as integration programs), but instead want to explore how we can move forward together while remaining in difference. with the rubbles of old palaces is our vessel and bridge as we embark in the process of thinking and practicing together through such difference.

with the rubbles of old palaces is an attempt at repurposing existing tools in a subversive way, as we believe the possibilities for radically different futures are always already latent. They therefore need to be nurtured. We think of change and futurity from a feminist and queer stand point: we believe that care is crucial and that it can only ever be actualised in a relational and dialogical process. We believe that this endeavour is a process that can only ever be successful if it remains in its ever-processual nature of never reaching its final destination of being fixed and defined. We thus propose as a practice a continuous collective rehearsal, rather than searching for the radically new in destruction and total eradication (an inherently fascist concept) of an old that might still hold valuable possibilities for future organisation. Rather than starting from an abstracted ideology of the new, we want to work from ground forms of organisation and care that change reality through playful and sensitive “tuning”. In doing so we want to search for different possible futures in the long histories and legacies of already existing revolutionary organising, from which we learn, ask further and want to build from and build on.

with the rubbles of old palaces is about making and holding space through the conceptualisation, production and dissemination of projects. From our own research projects and practices we develop a public and collaborative curriculum. This curriculum includes and is not limited to the organisation of collective research projects, dialogical processual knowledge production, publication through different mediums (books, texts, audio, film and two dimensional visual matter), private “safe space” as well as public events such as presentations, workshops, reading groups, meetings for community organising, mentoring, trainings, exhibitions, screenings, conferences, round tables, and performances, summer schools and small festivals.

ONLINE ADDRESS

www.withtherubbles.org

PHYSICAL ADDRESS

with the rubbles of old palaces

Basement, 14 Grossbeerenstraße

Berlin 10963

Germany