The last reading group in the fold VI. on Reimagining is delivered in collaboration with the Belgian project space and artist in residence space Cas-co in Leuven. Their current artist in residence Doris Hardeman suggested the excerpt from the book Breathing: Chaos and Poetry written by Franco “Bifo” Berardi. 

As we will have an hour to read and discuss the text through the lens of an artistic practice, we will not read the full text but the selected snippets will be shared by the artist. You can join in person or online.

This time we are grateful to be hosted by team of Cas-co who kindly suggested the cross-border collaboration. We meet on location at Cas-co, Vaartstraat 94, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. The online invitation and the text will be sent to registered online readers.

Breathing: Chaos and Poetry

Doris Hardeman is influenced by the grammatical and mnemonic structures in language when constructing her visual vocabulary. She describes the reading text as a beautiful and dense meditation on finding rhythm through breathing during the suffocating chaos which is brought up by the corpse of financial capitalism. 

Breathing as a political act and a poetical therapy is a way to reimagine the return to harmony. Breathing is, according to Berardi, reactivated through poetry which has a power to awaken the social body and unchain communication exchange. Breathing: Chaos and Poetry follows up on his previous text The Uprising: On Poetry and Finance.

Franco “Bifo” Berardi

Franco Berardi, aka “Bifo,” is an Italian philosopher and theorist mainly focusing on media communication and the role technology has in the post-industrial capitalist system. He is a founder of the famous “Radio Alice” in Bologna and an important figure of the Italian Autonomia Movement. He is a writer, media theorist, and media activist. He currently teaches Social History of the Media at the Accademia di Brera, Milan.

Doris Hardeman bio

Doris Hardeman (1993, Rheden, NL) lives and works in Brussels. Through the media of sculp­tu­re, wri­ting and instal­la­ti­on, Doris’s con­cep­tu­al and mate­ri­al research departs from the hete­ro­to­pic spa­ce that balan­ces on the bor­ders of both the per­so­nal and the com­mer­ci­al struc­tu­res of soci­e­ty. Through col­lec­ting, repro­du­cing, and recon­tex­tu­a­li­sing objects, she attempts to cre­a­te anec­do­tal yet poe­tic sce­na­ri­os that latch onto soci­al issues sur­roun­ding today’s indu­stri­al manu­fac­tu­ra­bi­li­ty. Within the cre­a­ti­on of the­se sce­na­ri­os, which are intertwi­ned with mythi­cal refe­ren­ces and set in con­tem­po­ra­ry fra­me­works, Doris sear­ches for a means to reflect on how objects can sha­pe the way we rela­te to time and the­re­by fra­me the per­cep­ti­on of our sur­roun­dings. Paying clo­se atten­ti­on to the broad ver­sa­ti­li­ty of mate­ri­als in terms of crafts­mans­hip and the mass pro­duc­ti­on indu­stries, her works play with the authen­ti­ci­ty, uti­li­ty, prac­ti­ca­li­ty and the ori­gi­nal value of her cho­sen mate­ri­als, ampli­fying con­no­ta­ti­ons con­cerning the indu­stri­al manu­fac­tu­ra­bi­li­ty of our pre­sent time.

Doris Hardeman website

Cas-co

Cas-co provides space for visual artists, designers, theater makers and performers in Leuven. Cas-co does this by developing affordable and quality studios, providing sustainable support tailored to the artists, actively creating project and presentation opportunities, and opening up a relevant network. Cas-co Vaarststraat consists of fourteen studios for permanent residents, three studios for temporary project residencies, shared workshops, communal facilities and an artist-run presentation platform.

Cas-co website

The programme of reading sessions:

23.02.2023 reading with Risk Hazekamp
26.01.2023 reading with Gladys Zeevaarders
in fold VI. 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 V. 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 II. 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 I. on Empathy

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