Can anyone be anti-capitalist, what does anti-capitalist even mean, why have an anti-capitalist practice at all?
Join us at Modern Art Oxford for a joint exploration of what is meant by anti-capitalist practice.
The day will consist of guided discussions using a participatory format, and with reading material to hand, to allow anyone who wants to join in to speak, but if you’d rather just observe what promises to be a stimulating exploration then that’s possible too.
Since the advent of the industrial revolution artists, activists, trade unionists, educators and practitioners of all kinds ranging from bicycle mechanics to alternative therapies, from sustainable farming cooperatives to credit union banking, have described what they do as a form of anti-capitalism.
Some see the development of these practices and forms as a way to create a matrix of alternatives to the system that has given rise to most of the current crises.
Others understand their alternative activities as a way to resist, through practice, society’s dominant structures, namely its economic, political and cultural system and the limitless growth, profit-based values and attitudes integral to this.
As practitioners working in this field, we believe that by spending time as a group exploring questions surrounding anti-capitalist practice – its reality, its forms and uses, its potential – we might intensify the potential for some of those who wish to make positive changes in society to come together and develop new insights and a common agenda.
We will use a mixture of accessible texts, practice-based case studies and personal experiences to explore these questions.
The venue of Modern Art Oxford adds a valuable dimension to these discussions about the value of ‘connective’ understandings and practices, because it opens up a consideration of how art and its associated cultural institutions can challenge or reinforce society’s norms; divide or unite those who seek to shift paradigms.
Convened for University of the Trees and the Social Sculpture College by Will McCallum and Shelley Sacks. Hosted by Modern Art Oxford.
Date: 2014 March 22
Venue: Modern Art Oxford
Time: 11 – 6
Entry free. All welcome.