Read-In Symposium: Killjoy, confronting mainstream identities

Since 2013, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art and the Willem de Kooning Academy collaboratively organize the Read-In Series for the WdKA Critical Studies minor. During this yearly program students are encouraged to sharpen their personal vision on the social relevance of art and culture through confrontation with theories, concepts and analytical methodologies. The Read-In Series consists of four close-reading sessions followed by a closing symposium organized by the students of the minor.

This year, following the central theme of the series, the symposium will focus on “Other Voices”. During four Read-In sessions students explored identity politics, with texts of Simone de Beauvoir and Lucy Lippard as points of departure to become familiar with feminist philosophy on the one hand and (post)colonial awareness on the other. Based on the reading of four challenging texts, written by Judith Butler, Frantz Fanon, Audre Lorde and Sara Ahmed the students of the minor have invited four speakers to contribute to a closing symposium.

Visual artist, cultural activist and womanist Patricia Kaersenhout will contribute with her research on decolonial aesthetics. Professor Wouter Gomperts of the University of Amsterdam will investigate identity from the angle of psychoanalysis. Artist Fabienne Zuijdwijk will share her thinking on empathy related to personal trauma and systems of oppression. And finally Nana Adusei-Poku, Research professor in Cultural Diversity is invited to give a critical overview into Gender, Queer and Critical Race theory.