Autor: blaspcbd

Thursday 6 July 6, 18.30

Meeting point: Entrance Tierpark Lange Erlen, Erlenparkweg 110, 4058 Basel

For the last Blasphemic reading soirée before the summer break, we will meet at Tierpark Lange Erlen to delve into the complicated relationship we share with the nonhuman members of our animalic family. In our beds, on our minds, behind bars, on grill bars in summer — is the concept of justice even useful to think about how we live with, of, and as animals?

We’ll take this question as a starting point, reading and discussing excerpts from philosopher Martha Nussbaum’s ‘Justice for Animals’ and getting further input from our partner in crime Pascale Hutter.  She has been interested in environmental issues and animals from an early age and went to study biology at the University of Zurich. Pascale works in an eco office in Baselland is committed to bat protection in her free time.
In addition to the reading, we will practice a performative score in relation to the non-human animals around us. The score is specially designed for the occasion by Krõõt Jurak and Alex Bailey, the artists behind Performances for Pets.

The soirée starts at 18:30, and is followed by an easy season finale barbecue by river Wiese. We’ll provide fire and beer with and without alcohol. Please bring your own blanket and what you’d like to eat/put on the grill. Plant based food is encouraged for this occasion.

ACCESSIBILITY: The reading is held in English and German. Tierpark Lange Erlen is wheelchair accessible. The barbecue by the river does not have optimal wheelchair access, but we are happy to assist with mobility if wished for.

Thursday, February 23, 18:30

Meeting point: Vogel Gryff Fähre, Unterer Rheinweg Basel

Ashes are blown into the Rhein, they are brought on mountaintops, returned to organic cycles in the soil or they are kept at private homes. There are many ways to shape the process of grieving. For some, it’s a relief to be able to choose their own rituals, while others are missing guidance in these moments. With a text by activist and writer Malkia Devich-Cyril, we will try to explore the political and collective dimension of grief. How far is grieving an individual, but also a collective skill? And what do we need it for?

In “To Give Your Hands To Freedom, First Give Them To Grief”, Devich-Cyril reflects on her own denial of mourning, and the feelings of guilt and blame that come along with it. It brings the writer to search for ways of grieving that produce agency and action. Especially in communities that have experienced a lot of forms of collective losses, resilient grief, so Devich-Cyril, is more than ever important to all struggles for twenty-first-century social justice movements. “Our bodies will die. Our organisations will die. Our movements will die. (..) Coping with loss is a skill that should be taught as fundamental to social movement leadership.”

Join us for a Soirée on the complexities, pleasures and joys of grieving, at the Vogel Gryff-Fähre, Unterer Rheinweg Basel. And bring warm clothes!

The text and soirée is held in English. All genders are welcome.

Thursday, October 27, 2022, 18:45
Conservation Room at Tinguely Museum, Paul Sacher-Anlage 4, 4002 Basel
(meeting at the museum’s info point)

For the second part of our trilogy loosely tied to Tinguely museum‘s thematic exhibition “Territories of Waste”, we are going to read the text “From Trash to Waste”, on Art‘s media Geology by Yvonne Volkart. The text describes the understanding of waste both as an activity of polluting the world based on consumerism and capitalism constrains in relation to “goods” and garbage and as form of matter and media itself that changes public property to private also reflected in art. In the current art and media discourses about revitalizing the trash as an artistic material, the concepts of waste, devaluation, and global justice have acquired a meaning that no longer merges into the trash discourse, but rather takes place in the concept of new materiality. The question of Volkart ” Not wasted if turned into art?” raises the questions about a new evaluation and reception of the geology, material and relational aspects of waste and how it effects the ways of imagining and planning the future of ecology and geopolitics relative within our relationship to materiality and nature.

In Tinguely museum with the guidance of Chantal Willi our partner in crime, we will have a short tour in the conservation room and being introduced to her practice there in relation to the objects and materials.

For those who want to have a look at the text beforehand, you can find the English version here .

The Soirée will be held in English.
All genders are welcome.

Photos: BRS & Museum Tinguely

Thursday, May 12 2022, 19:00
Meeting Point @ „Basel Weil am Rhein Grenze“ Tram 8
(Customs / Zoll Weil am Rhein)

Small Switzerland faces a big decision: On May 15, a vote will decide whether Frontex should receive even more money despite continuing human rights violations – or whether it is time for a new beginning.
The fear of such new beginnings is huge because they always confront us with uncertainties. If not Frontex, then what? What might be a different approach towards borders? How to include queerfeminist perspectives? How else could all this money be invested?

With a text by E. Tendayi Achiume, we take a step towards Imaginative Justice and approach visions that are thinking beyond existing conditions. „Migration as Decolonization“ looks at fortress Europe and how it seeks to hold back so-called economic refugees. Achiume reminds us that with colonisation, many Europeans left the continent for economic reasons and used non-European resources to build a better life. The ongoing economic imbalance in the world today therefore needs a counterbalance: economic migration must be understood and supported as a necessary response to the colonial era.

Our special guest will be Selam Habtemariam, part of the Migrant Solidarity Netzwerk and of the No Frontex referendum committee. We are going to read together – where else – on the external border of Switzerland, in a garden right next to the German customs!

The soirée will be hold mostly in English, but don’t be shy if you think your English is not perfect enough – we always find a way to communicate. And as usual: all genders welcome!

Friday, April 22, 2022, 19:00
HGK Critical Media Lab, Freilagerplatz 1, 4142 Münchenstein
(i.e. Tall glasshouse, 3rd floor)

Together with basel.codes, we invite you to the challenging universe of algorithms. We will read “Calculation and the Division of Labor” (2017), a text by Lorraine Daston. It traces the development of automated computing power that now shapes our digital everyday life. We will talk about the meaning of the “automated” and ask ourselves, how the invention of algorithms out of a bourgeois-patriarchal setting is related to the systematic devaluation of digital care work. How algorithms shape a digital hierarchy of gender. And where the subversive deviations for a queer-feminist digital future might lie.

Lorraine Daston is Director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.

The Soirée will finally happen in physical presence and will be held together with basel.codes, a network that organises events on topics related to the digital universe. They will bring along several short movies that shed light on the connection of gender, the division of labour and technology.

For those who want to have a look at the text beforehand, you can find the English version here a few days before the Soirée.

The Soirée will be held in English. All genders are welcome.

26.08.2021, 19:00 Uhr
St. Margarethengut
4102 Binningen
Anfahrt

**english translation below

Die Schweiz und die Bauernhöfe: Wem gehören die Höfe? Wer profitiert von ihnen? Wessen Arbeitskraft bleibt unbezahlt? Die Landwirtschaft ist, nicht nur in der Schweiz, die Lebensgrundlage für viele Menschen. Die Macht- und Besitzverhältnisse und damit die Abhängigkeiten sind nach wie vor stark patriarchal geprägt. Historisch gesehen sind die Besitzverhältnisse auf dem Land entscheidend, denn davon leitet sich ab, wer wieviel von was bekommt. 

Mit der Blasphemic Reading Soirée #18 begaben wir uns einen Abend lang auf die Heuballen auf dem St. Margarethengut hinter dem Bahnhof SBB und lasen zu Silvia Federicis Beobachtungen zu den „Commons“ – ein vielschichtiger Begriff, der oft mit “Allmende” oder “Allgemeingut” übersetzt wird, und der auf ein anderes Produzieren und Verwalten verweist.

Federici erinnerte uns daran, dass Privatisierung von Allgemeingut historisch gesehen meistens mehr zu Lasten der Frauen* fiel und dass sie es auch waren, die sich am stärksten gegen die schleichende Abschaffung der Commons einsetzten. Von historischen Kämpfen und wilden Utopien versucht Federici eine feministische Perspektive zu entwickeln, wie wir Commons heute neu denken können. 

Und ganz konkret? Was ist überhaupt die Situation der Bäuer*innen in der Schweiz? Kompliz*in Jo Bucher betreibt einen Biohof im Luzerner Seetal. Gemeinsam versuchten wir Theorien und Realität aufeinander prallen zu lassen. Hier ein Interview mit Jo Bucher aus an.schläge: https://anschlaege.at/das-ist-die-chefin/

Herzlichen Dank an die Christoph Merian Stiftung.

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Farmer* wants Land!

The Soirée will be held primarily in German but some English translations of the text will be available. In the discussion, we will find a solution to translate upon need.

Switzerland and it’s agricultural tradition: who owns the land? Who benefits and whose labor remains unpaid? Agriculture is the foundation of life, not only in Switzerland. The power and ownership structures and thus the dependencies are still strongly patriarchal. The question of who owns the land is decisive, because from this it is derived who gets how much of what.

With the Blasphemic Reading Soirée # 16, we spent an evening at the St. Margarethengut behind the SBB train station and read about Silvia Federici’s observations on the commons, which refers to a different agricultural production and management tradition.

Federici reminds us that, historically, privatization has mostly been at the expense of women and that it was them who were the most strongly opposed to the creeping abolition of commons. From historical struggles and wild utopias, Federici tries to develop a feminist perspective on how we can rethink the commons today.

And in concrete terms? What is the situation of farmers in Switzerland anyway? Accomplice Jo Bucher runs an organic farm in Lucerne. Together we try to let theories and reality collide.

Many thanks to the Christoph Merian Foundation.