The first reading in fold #07 on Solidarity is scheduled for the last Thursday of May 25th with artist and lecturer Charlotte Jarvis. Together, we will read the text Baroque technopatriarchy: reproduction written by Paul B. Preciado and published by the international magazine Artforum. As Charlotte Jarvis is based in London, she will join the reading session online. The Dutch-based readers are welcome to visit our location in Tilburg, Tivolistraat 22, for on-site reading.

Baroque technopatriarchy: reproduction

Baroque literally means irregularly shaped. In the text of Paul B. Preciado, the baroque refers to the way the bodies are shaped in the power systems of production and reproduction – sexual, social, and cultural. Preciado argues that reproduction is in fact the most crucial dimension of contemporary power because it directly connects to life.

“Life in the most basic sense, as defined by many different communities of knowledge, is a system that can sustain and reproduce itself.” 

Power structures have always controlled who and how (we) can reproduce, either directly or indirectly. Preciado suggests that in order to shift and initiate change, it is necessary to denaturalize reproduction and redefine the terms such as masculinity, family, and nation-states. He calls for more equitable ways of governing reproductive materials.

In relation to the questions of solidarity and how it relates to reproduction, we are thinking along the systems of solidarity as a radical response to the exercise of domination and power. Like attraction and repulsion, solidarity directly pulls in and away as an opposite pole on the magnet.

Paul B. Preciado

Paul B. Preciado is a philosopher, a curator, and a transgender activist. He was a curator of Public Programs of Documenta 14 (Kassel/Athens) and a writer-in-residence at the LUMA Foundation, Arles, France. His work relates to identity, gender, pornography, architecture and sexuality.

He has been teaching political history of the body, gender theory and history of performance at Université Paris VIII and he was the director of the Independent Studies Program of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona.

Charlotte Jarvis

Charlotte Jarvis is an artist and lecturer working at the intersection of art and science. Her practice often utilises living cells and DNA: she has recorded music onto DNA, seen her heart beat outside of her body and she is currently making the world’s first “female” semen. Her work explores the body as a liminal space – a site for transformation, hybridisation and magic. 

Jarvis makes large-scale multimedia installations and performances for international solo and group shows. She has been a resident artist at a number of institutions, including the European Bioinformatics Institute, The British Council in Argentina and the Hubrecht Institute. Currently, she is a Research Tutor at The Royal College of Art, London. Jarvis won the BAD Award in 2012, and the Alternate Realities commission in 2021.

Charlotte Jarvis website

The programme of reading sessions:

30.03.2023 reading with Doris Hardeman ft. Cas-co
23.02.2023 reading with Risk Hazekamp
26.01.2023 reading with Gladys Zeevaarders
in fold #06 on Reimagining

27.10.2022 reading with Anna Zvyagintseva
05.10.2022 reading with Jun Zhang
25.08.2022 reading with Christopher van Ginhoven Rey
in fold #04 on Awakening

02.12.2021 reading with Laura Castro
18.11.2021 reading with Sophia Holst
16.09.2021 reading with Amy Franceschini
in fold #02 on Commons

08.07.2021 reading with Sheng-Wen Lo
17.06.2021 reading with Katarina Jazbec
20.05.2021 reading with Mari Kesi-Korsu
in fold #01 on Empathy

More any suggestions for reading? Check out the Solidarity recommended booklist