Open Call no.3: Choreography
To elevate, to flow, to convert – Rituals, Ceremonies, Celebrations, Commemorations, Chants, Recipes, Conundrums
This open call invites contributions that explore the choral nature of life and how it can unfold beyond choreographies of power. How do we move together when rhythms are imposed, fractured, or disrupted? What steps do we follow when the familiar patterns of movement reinforce asymmetries rather than transformation?
We are interested in the tensions between constraint and improvisation, repetition, and rupture – those habits, behaviors, and mentalities that persist even as we attempt to forge new constellations and dynamics. This fall, we reflect on the complex movements of bodies and goods within nature-cultural environments, tracing the shifting rhythms that shape our relationships and collective actions beyond the fluxes and trends of capital extraction and consumption.
In this process, we examine how attachment to certain values – whether inherited, imposed, or chosen – choreograph our movements through change, synchronizing solidarities or disrupting patterns of co-optation. We seek a range of formats that explore these questions from embodied, analytical, and historical perspectives.
Topics:
- Borders and Bodies in Motion:
- The movement of people across borders as a reflection of power, migration, and resistance – looking at how bodies navigate shifting political landscapes.
- Collective Decision-Making Rituals:
- Exploring the choreographed nature of decision-making in collectives, and how power and agency are shared or contested in these spaces.
- Rituals of Resistance:
- The embodied practices, from protests to ceremonies, that serve as acts of resistance to the forces of power and oppression.
- Embodied Activism:
- How activism is embodied – through performance art, protests, or everyday acts of political agency.
- Collective Movement and Solidarity:
- Exploring how people move together in solidarity, whether in large-scale political movements or intimate, local efforts.
- Rehearsing for a New World:
- Reflecting on the behaviors, mentalities, and habits that persist even in efforts to create change, and how we can unlearn these patterns.
- Ceremonial Choreography:
- The ways ceremonies and public rituals serve as political or cultural choreography, shaping collective memory and resistance.
- Intergenerational Choreographies:
- The passing down of political, cultural, and activist rituals between generations – what do such choreographies look like across time?
Formats:
- Manifestos or Protocols:
- A declaration or set of guidelines for collective action, focusing on the embodied and choreographed nature of resistance.
- Scores or Scripts:
- Written or visual representations of choreographed actions, whether in protest, ritual, or collective action.
- Speculative Fiction:
- Submissions that imagine new forms of choreography for a future world–how will collective bodies move in a radically different political reality?
- Critical Reflections on Art and Activism:
- Essays that analyze specific movements or artistic practices that have changed the way we “do” politics together.
- Visual Contributions:
- Photographs, performance documentation, or hybrid documentation of political, activist, or artistic performances that focus on the embodied aspects of social change.