bblackboxx – Art as Emancipatory Practice Against Border Politics

Talk by Almut Rembges, with discussion

Location: Café “Pablo”, Bul. 8 Septemvri, br.8, vl. 2, lokal 6, Skopje
Opening: 05. 11. 2013, Tuesday / 19:00 h.

“bblackboxx is an independent art space at the border of Switzerland, in the neighborhood of a detention complex, where 300 asylumseekers are kept and sometimes deported. Since 2007, a network of artists and theoreticians around bblackboxx have developed an curriculum of art actions and theoretical work, which stands up against the increasing xenophobic and suppressive migrations politics in the country.”

The initiator Almut Rembges will talk about the specific emancipatory practices of bblackboxx, as a counter model against a context which is otherwise defined by control and charity. 

More information: www.bblackboxx.ch

Almut Rembges is a conceptual action artist from Switzerland. In her twenties she had started studying business economy. She stopped that on one day, when she had to listen to a professor who explained why capitalism needs the poor. Then she switched to art theory at Basel University where she made her MA in 2003. After a short period as museum guide, she became assistant for various independent theatre groups in Switzerland and Germany, where she learned about practices of documentary performance. In 2007 she started to run “bblackboxx”, an outdoor offspace at the Swiss-German border where she collaborates with artists and theoreticians, who are engaged in a critical discourse about European border politics. The space is shared by both Basel citizens and asylum seekers (non-citizens), who live in a reception camp nearby. Together they have built an open collaboratory network which has realized more than 60 artprojects on the spot. Most of the projects circle around questions of self-empowerment, self-organization and anti-racist activities. Rembges summarizes the work of bblackboxx network as an ongoing counter performance against suppression and isolation of non-citizens in the country. It is also a self-teaching no border academy which is open to anyone, who is interested in gaining independent knowledge about the consequences of current migration politics in the Schengen area.

Since 2010, Rembges has transferred bblackboxx practice to other places, for example to the city gallery of Bern and the Museum of Cultures in Basel. From time to time she is guest teacher at Universities and Art Academies in Switzerland.

 

This event of KOOPERACIJA is a result of cooperation that Almut Rembges accomplished during her month-long stay in the artist in residence program supported by Pro Helvetia and realized in collaboration with the festival CULTURESCAPES, “Faculty of things not learned”, AKTO festival for contemporary art and Centre for culture Bitola.

Kooperacija would like to thank Mile Stanishkovski Stanish and  Café “Pablo”  for putting the space at our disposal.