Intro

Power To The Commons! is an ongoing collaborative project developed by arts initiatives in Latin America and Africa within the Arts Collaboratory network. The project is an explorative one, seeking ways of practicing the commons within artistic forms, but also understanding the specificities of the commons rooted in our various contexts. The project brings together arts initiatives and commons researchers in collaboration.

On the occasion of documenta15, and the AC School, Power To The Commons has gathered together a series of projects and people all concerned with imagining, creating, and theorizing the commons from the global south.

We started working together at the end of 2019. Our collective research was presented during the Afropixel #8 Festival in Dakar, Senegal in 2021 together with an online artistic residency in collaboration between artists from Colombia and Senegal. Since then, we started to dream about a gathering where we could meet in person and exchange with a broader ecosystem.

Assembly

The Power to the Commons Assembly took place between July 7th-10th 2022 in Fridericianium - The Fridskul Common library, one of the main venues of documenta15. The Assembly was framed with Platohedroā€™s CODE AS COMMONS at its centre, and joined by the team behind Common Life, as well as other projects and interests within the broader documenta15 programme and the ecosystem of Kassel. It serves as an opportunity to:

  • Share experiences and learnings from various projects and research processes

  • Develop explorations of Buen Vivir/Sumak Kawsay and Ubuntu as foundations for Global South imaginations of the commons

  • Develop radio and other tools to share knowledges emerging out of different projects

  • Develop creative responses to and a lexicon for commons in local contexts in the Global South

  • Connect with a broader ecosystem of initiatives, projects and organizations from the Global South

  • Lexicon and languages of commons from our contexts

Buen Vivir / Good Living is a concept based on Andean indigenous wisdom (Sumak Kawsay** in Quechua and Suma QamaƱa*** in the Aymara language) and practice of more balanced relationships within ecosystems and amongst all beings, human and non-human, as a path to a common well-being. For Platohedro, this is the vision that guides our practices and our missionary starting point (check here the description of each Buen Vivir Principles). Everything we do relates and adapts to this way of thinking, doing and being. And as such, we consider it a dynamic concept, which we translate and make our own with respect and care by situating it in time, context, needs and desires.

The agenda was built together during previous online and in-person meetings with the participants from both Power to the Commons! and Common Life Project. These activities were supported by DOEN Foundation. After the assembly, we made a post-evaluation together and started to collect all the audiovisual memories to make this web publication.

THE PROGRAM

We had a pre-designed program but every day we made decisions and updated it according to the ongoing conversations we had. The program was divided into morning sessions (internal) and public activities and conversations on the afternoons.

Day 0 - July 6

Morning: Power to the Commons Assembly

Presentation of Power to the Commons to Prince Claus Foundation members and general audience Welcome and Introductions by the Power to the Commons members Preparation of Power to the Commons Assembly venue in a circle format Preparation of the Code of Contact

Afternoon: Arrival of the Common Life project members to Kassel Informal discussion with Prince Clauss representatives at Trafohaus Dinner with all Power to the Commons Assembly members

Day 1 - July 7th

Morning: Power to the Commons Assembly

Short introductions by Common Life project members to the Power to the Commons Assembly Discussion on the assembly structure and preparation of the public programming for the afternoon open assembly sessions.

Afternoon: Public Open Assembly sessions Presentations: Code as Commons - Waza Basket - School of Commons Open assembly session: What commons means to you from your perspective ? Graphic harvesting of the session Party at Trafohaus Dinner together

Day 2 - July 8th

Morning: Power to the Commons Assembly

Introductions of the Power to the Commons and Commons Life project members Preparation of the public programming for the afternoon open assembly sessions

Afternoon: Public Open Assembly sessions

Check in with music: Could you be loved? (by Bob Marley) Presentation by Platohedro team: Sumak Kwasay principles and curating common wellbeing Tea ceremony by Ker Thiossane

Day 3, July 9th

Morning: Power to the Commons Assembly

Visit at MAMA project site - Staatspark Karlsaue Circle as assembly and the art of hosting activity Shopping ingredients for the collective kitchen activity in Day 4

Afternoon: Public Open Assembly sessions Short presentations of projects: Manga Libre (Platohedro) and Afrikan Arts Kollective, Common Life activities: Collective Reading Connecting through Totems Collective Harvesting session Tea Ceremony Code as Commons! event at Trafohaus

Day 4, July 10

Morning: Power to the Commons Public Open Assembly

Collective reflections on what happened on the previous days What can we learn from collective thinking on the commons?

Afternoon: Cooking together at Britto Collective Kitchen

Principles of Buen Vivir



Reflections

Post-evaluation reflection - Part 1 (Penny Travlou)

Post-evaluation reflection - Part 1 (Penny Travlou)

Post-evaluation reflection - Part 1 (Penny Travlou)

Some sketchy field notes during the Power to the Commons! Assembly - Transcript
"Itā€™s very interesting to mention this idea that the commons is holistic: that itā€™s not a pool of resources, but itā€™s relational and spiritual too. One element that may be missing from the definition of the commons in the Global North is its experiential quality and the spiritual element of commoning. One other thing that I was thinking about Documenta15 and more specifically about the work that we do in the Power to the Commons! Assembly is the way that Western theory is based on ā€˜theorosā€™, the ā€˜gazerā€™, thus, it focuses a lot on the ocular, the representational.
Here, what makes a difference is the focus not only on the occult but also the multi-sensorial way of understanding and experiencing the world within and around us. For example, Documenta15, on the one hand, is this major art festival where its audience comes to view, to gaze the artworks, but, at the same time behind the scenes and the exhibition displays, there are meetings and lumbungs which are about processes, tooling and togetherness. The latter bring a whole collective of collectives together.
So, there are two different ways to see things: the front stage exhibition and the backstage processes. It is also about individuality and collectivity; without the intention to exotice and romanticise this Documenta, there are a lot of people who consider these processes as the African way of doing events (as someone mentioned to one of us). This was in reference to the Documentaā€™s concept ā€˜bring your friendsā€™ as another way of celebrations where you invite your friends and their family and their friends and so on; so, it becomes an extended invitation to include everyone." (Penny Travlou)

Memories

Credits

Team

Coordination & production: Luciana Fleischman, Marion Louisgrand, Penny Travlou
Moderation: Molemo Moiloa
Facilitation: Penny Travlou, Alex Correa, Veronique Poverello Kasongo
Graphic Harvesting: MarĆ­a Collado
Audio recording and streaming: Juan Jaramillo & AndrƩs Fernandez
Audiovisual production: Sapho Wulana
Research coordination: Penny Travlou


Power to the Commons!

Waza (RDC): Patrick Mudekereza, VĆ©ronique Poverello Kasongo , Feza Ramwis, Futur-velours.com
(Belgique,RDC): Bren Heymans
KĆ«r Thiossane (Senegal): Marion Louisgrand Sylla
Platohedro (Colombia): Luciana Fleischman, Alex Rubeola, Maria Collado, Juan Jaramillo, AndrƩs Fernandez and Penny Travlou (University of Edinburgh, UK)

Common Life

The Ungovernable (South Africa): Molemo Moiloa
The Afrika Arts Kollective (Uganda): Gisa JR Gong Brian, David Kaiza Kino Kadre Community Cinema Circle (South Africa): Taryn Mckay, Sapho Wulana
Dzimbanhete (Zimbabwe): Laura Ganda