(c) NODE Berlin Oslo
free admission

Stateless Affairs:
Civilization cannot be saved from above

  • Panel

The list of historical, political, economic, social and ecological problems that stem from forms of nation-statehood is long. So how can these forms be overcome? Not to abuse them for personal interests, as some multinational companies do, but to discover new forms of living in community.

All over the world, there are communities that have chosen to organise outside the nation and nation-state, beyond hegemonic capitalist and patriarchal domination. Communities that are achieving greater justice, such as the Zapatistas (Chiapas, Mexico), Kurds (Northern Syria), ZAD (France), Women of Umoja Village (Kenya) and many more.

“Stateless Affairs” brings together activists, authors and thinkers to talk about some of these alternative experiences. What works well in these communities and why? What have they achieved? What are their limitations? And most importantly, what can be learned from them?

Speakers: Elif Sarican, Cristina Hijar González, Patricia Saif, Dan Furukawa Marques, Gunter Kramp
Rebecca Caroline Schmidt (Moderation)

Elif Sarican is a writer, curator, translator and a Kurdish activist whose research focuses on topics of feminism, radical politics and global history.

Cristina Híjar González is a researcher at CENIDIAP-National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico City who is engaged with topics of historical memory, the relationship between art and utopia and aesthetic practices articulated in social and political movements, with a focus on the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico.

Patricia Saif has been a member of the leftist undogmatic commune Niederkaufungen since 1998, where she works mainly as a gardener and tries to find new ways of agriculture in the face of changing climates.

Dan Furukawa Marques is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Université Laval, Québec City, who has been researching on and collaborating with the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil for more than a decade.

Gunter Kramp is a political activist and has been a member of the undogmatic left commune Niederkaufungen since 2015, where he works in the administration collective and as an IT administrator.

Rebecca Caroline Schmidt has a degree in law and is Managing Director of the Research Centre “Normative Orders” at Goethe University and Administrative Director of the Research Institute for Social Cohesion.

Mousonturm Studio 1
Duration: 3 hours
Language: English