Event | ‘Fuck Healing (?): The Insomniac Dreamers’ – Summer Program

Event | ‘Fuck Healing (?): The Insomniac Dreamers’ – Summer Program
Dates: 29 May – 4 June 2023
Location: OT301 (Vereniging EHBK / OT301, Overtoom 301, 1054 HW, Amsterdam) & Treehouse NDSM (Tt Neveritaweg 55G, 1033 WB, Amsterdam)
Organizers: Erica Biolchini, Bethany Crawford, Dina A. Mohamed, Professor Patricia Pisters and Bogna Bochinska
Registration: e.biolchini@uva.nl
Registration & application deadline: 30 April 2023
Credits: 3 ECTS (participation in “Exhausting Theory” sessions) & 6 ECTS (participation in “Exhausting Theory” sessions and “Exhaustive Creation” workshops, contribution fee of 100€) – more details below.
Read more here.

The Fuck Healing collective is pleased to announce its first Summer Program which will take place between 29 May and 4 June, titled “Fuck Healing (?): The Insomniac Dreamers”. It is a series of events comprising lectures, seminars, creative workshops, screenings and art interventions at OT301, culminating in a one-day final event at Treehouse NDSM. We are pleased to invite students to participate in the entire program (lectures/seminars and creative workshops) through a selection process. 

“Fuck Healing (?): The Insomniac Dreamers” is a weeklong program of events that creatively and theoretically responds to the concept of “exhaustion.” With orientation to the text “The Exhausted” by Gilles Deleuze (1995), the program works conceptually from “exhaustion” as the end of all possibilities. However, new subjectivities and realities may yet emerge from that state of rupture. As the ultimate condition of exhaustion, the theme of insomnia invites reality, dreams, consciousness and subconscious worlds to merge in a heightening of the porosity between self and other. Insomnia dismantles the perceived boundaries between individual subjects and the objective environment, allowing for an empowered state of collective connection from which to reimagine the present.The program aims to collectively empower the marginalised, along with those exhausted by the contemporary hegemonic regimes of oppression. To do so, the program unites diverse contributions from creative practitioners, theoreticians and important Amsterdam-based organisations in order to question how to work from and with “exhaustion” to reconceive of potential futures from the insomniac’s dreams.

About the program

The project comprises three program sections across the first five working days: a morning theoretical program titled “Exhausting Theory”; an afternoon creative workshop program “Exhaustive Creation”; and an evening program of artistic interventions and screenings as “Exhausted Pleasure”.

The morning “Exhausting Theory” program will be open to students via advanced registration, and will feature lectures and seminars from invited theoreticians working at the intersection of Deleuze’s theory and creative practice on the theme of “The Exhausted”. Contributions are confirmed by Patricia Pisters (Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis), Toni Pape (Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis), Rick Dolphijn (Utrecht University), Halbe H. Kuipers (University of Amsterdam) and Hypatia Vourloumis (Dutch Art Institute). For the “Exhausting Theory” sessions, no application through a written statement is required. If you’re interested in participating, please send a registration email to: e.biolchini@uva.nl (more details below). 

The “Exhaustive Creation” workshop sessions across the afternoons will be for a closed group of participants selected through an open call (more details below on how to apply). Selected participants will engage with one of two workshop streams, which together contribute to a group presentation for the final event at Treehouse NDSM on 4 June.The first workshop stream will be led by Clara Saito from the Jacuzzi performance collective in exploration of themes of disassociation, multiplicity of being and character transformation in the “Theatre of Drag” workshops. The second workshop stream will be hosted by Sara Giannini of the If I Can’t Dance collective, titled “Invisible labour and performances not to be seen”.  This workshop considers exhaustion caused by the invisibilization of reproductive labour under current cultural, economic and political conditions through exploring the form of the invisible performance. The invisible performance explores whether (and in what manner) a performance that withdraws itself from public exposure, a performance that refuses, refutes and subverts the canons of performativity, or that simply turn routines and infrastructures into ‘art’, can contribute to life transformation, spiritual expansion, and activate change. If you’re interested in participating to one of the creative workshops for the entirety of the program, please submit a 250 words written reflection to: e.biolchini@uva.nl (more details below). 

The “Exhausted Pleasure” evening program will be open to students through advanced registration. It is a collaboration with representatives from multiple institutions in Amsterdam and beyond. The program features screenings hosted by Kseniia Bespalova, as a representative of the “Programmers of the Future” initiative of the Eye Filmmuseum, as well as a screening from Jeffrey Babcock of Jeffrey’s Underground Cinema. There will be an audio night walk in collaboration with Extra Extra Magazine from Rotterdam, as well as a conceptual canal boat tour by artists Rocco Enzo Ter Haar, Ege Yılmaztürk, Eric Peter, Bethany Crawford and Bogna Bochinska. The end of the week of workshops will be celebrated with a club night event in collaboration with the Amsterdam-based music platform Steppin’ Into Tomorrow in the form of a genre b(l)ending rave. 

The closing event at Treehouse NDSM on 4 June will publicly present the works generated through the workshops. Importantly, it will gather all the program contributors, collaborators and public participants to foster continued connections and transdisciplinary exchange.

For more information about the schedule and detailed program, please go to: 

Fuck Healing (?): The Insomniac Dreamers – Full Program 

How to apply

If you’re interested in participating in the “Exhaustive Creation” afternoon workshops and the “Exhausting Theory” morning sessions for obtaining 6 ECTS, please send 250 words motivation statement clarifying which “Exhaustive Creation” workshop you would prefer to join – either with Clara Saito (Jacuzzi) or Sara Giannini (If I Can’t Dance) – and explaining your interest and how the workshop and broader program thematic can benefit your practice/research. For the creative streams, we offer a limited number of places to students. Please be aware that there would be a contribution fee of 100€ to cover the creative workshops when participating in the 6 ECTS model. This contribution fee covers tickets and access to all of the events of the program. Send your motivation statement to: e.biolchini@uva.nl. 

If you’re interested in participating in the “Exhausting Theory” morning sessions for obtaining 3 ECTS, with the option to join the “Exhausting Pleasure” evening program, please send a registration email to: e.biolchini@uva.nl. 

If you’re interested in signing up for individual lectures or events (i.e., no credits allocated), the signs-up will be made available at a later date via public registration.

Credits allocation

Students can obtain either 6 ECTS or 3 ECTS for participating in the program:

6 ECTS

• Participation to “Exhausting Theory” with preparatory readings and “Exhaustive Creation” (one stream of creative workshop) – May 29th to June 2nd at OT301
• Performance/contribution to final exhibition – June 4th at Treehouse, NDSM
• Written reflection (1500 words)

3 ECTS

• Participation to “Exhausting Theory” with preparatory readings – May 29th to June 2nd at OT301
• Final paper/written reflection (2000 words)