Skip to main content

Spring Lessons / دروس الربيع





This is to say that this now exists:


Spring Lessons / دروس الربيع Initiative
is an international network for socio-
cultural events
----------------------------------------------------

Description
We are an international network of artists, academics, curators, designers, filmmakers, journalists, musicians, storytellers, teachers and others who support, initiate and carry out cutural projects that further an understanding of freedom of speech & space, human rights and a global dialogue.

Info
In the wake of the uprisings in Arab countries, the Middle East, Gulf states and MENA region, an incredible wealth of new images, sounds and sensations have reached the world.

In turn violent, beautiful, moving or shocking, this input has also generated an unprecedented artistic and cultural activity and international recognition for artists and cultural activists from the region. The uprisings have also inspired people worldwide to re-examine the situation closer to home and to look for new solutions to problems either forgotten or hitherto ignored.

The Spring Lessons Initiative seeks to create forums in which cultural activites and initiatives can be presented and put in context through exhibitions, discourse and installations. Photographs, films, spoken words sung, shouted, cursed and whispered demonstrate the ways through which people tell their stories. They are finding new ways to help others, and themselves.

Through arts, culture and media cooperations, it aims to further the global discourse on social justice, human rights, and democracy.

Mission
The main interest of the Spring Lessons Initiative is to create a wide network of people involved in the sociocultural field and to help with the conception, organisation and realisation of such projects.

In addition, we are planning a series of projects and events throughout 2012 and 2013 which will focus on the Middle East, MENA and Gulf States setting current developments and long-standing conflicts into (artistic) context.

Joining
JOIN US We are looking for support from cultural actors, activists and artists with a specific interest in such projects. Should you be interested in our ongoing activities or wish to suggest a project, please contact us via this page.

WE SUPPORT YOU We can provide you with our own expertise and experience, with conceptional, logistical and organisational support for international projects, with our backers list and wide networks, and first and foremost with innovative, interesting projects to join. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IGAF: Utopia- Les Jours Meilleurs

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote this post, titled Dystopia , containing a dark version of the future, a look at the negative outcomes that might crawl out of the COVID-19 crisis. It has, by now been described as "9/11 in slow motion". Someone else broke a golden editorial rule to describe it as "2008  on crack". Media outlets, including Youtube, have warned of the long-term effects of this, on civil rights, labour and employment, surveillance and press freedom. And some, most notably Mr Orban of Hungary, have used this excellent opportunity to pass new, restrictive legislation that concentrates power in their hands. There have been calls for the elusive COVID cure not to be patented. And yet… And yet… It's easy to lose yourself in a media bubble, following the news and media 24/7, following, queuing in line to get into expensive shops, just walking into discount stores and the constant desire for many drinks (preferably with 10 friends or more, in a park...
Post a Comment
Read more

IGAF: Disappearing the inconvenient.

This IGAF (Is Goodness a Fashion) series explores, from a non-expert point of view, the social, economic and narrative ramifications I see developing from the COVID-19 crisis, worries, but also hopes for a future that the current shock to the system may result in. It's a pity that random things happen when random people interact. That a person might be exposed to unexpected, or unpleasant sights when they leave the house. That we might see trash, homeless people, the effects of gentrification, closed stores in polluted streets, trees withered by mercurial weather, people in environmental suits, afraid of the diseases lurking within the safe confines of those suits. The world divided into those who have to face the streets, the Outside, and those who are safe Inside. It's a pity that these still interact. Our measure as a species that claims moral, ethical and intellectual hegemony over this planet will be two-fold as we deal with the COVID-19 crisis: On the one hand, socie...
Post a Comment
Read more

IGAF: An ahistoric crisis?

One of the many reasons I have grown to appreciate interviews with Arundhati Roy over the last year of what I'm calling her book tour is that, in contrast with many speakers at conferences and interviewees, I never have the feeling she is trying to sell me something. She speaks in a calm, collected voice, full of knowledge, experience and occasional wisdom, without being desperately full of herself. One of my favourite sayings is, so far, goes something like "The most successful revolution was the secession of the rich onto a global planet, wherefrom they cannot see the poor. There is no more India, no more USA, no more Europe- there is planet Rich, then there is planet Poor, and both are global."* Carers at their limits- now more than ever. For €2400 and some chocolates?  A month or so into what may be a new normal, my life is still pleasant- with some adjustment, I am, so far, privileged in this absence of change and an ability to follow the crisis as I would fol...
Post a Comment
Read more