Let's lovingly bring futures into the present.
Conversations that need happening with better questions awaiting to be asked.
Two weeks ago with our colleagues at Hidden Keileon, we were conversing with many players touching the fields of culture and civic imagination: GLA, council workers, property companies, artists... We got asked this question again: how do we see ourselves seven years later?
What they want to know is: in what way we are finding financial stability. We pointed in the direction of buildings like Shakespeare's Globe and said. "You are asking how these buildings are still standing."
If it has been so hard for us to dream, maybe it's time to make new paths. The current funding landscape is so nonsensical that even the giants stumble. Asking a grassroots group how they can climb these mountains is simply unhelpful. What we all need is radical reimagination.
The question to ask is how to build infrastructure for the next seven generations, not how to run a cafe to support cultural work. We need to move beyond and practise new economies that are regenerative and stop extracting from people, land and water.
Our role as cultural organisers is to invite these people sitting around the table to bravely dream together, especially with players who understand how to move resources around. We need to put on a steward mindset and distribute resources without funnelling.
Quoting Donella Meadows: "The future can't be predicted but it can be envisioned and brought lovingly into being."
These photos were taken at our ‘Embodied Ecology’ workshops at Rambert Dance and Bow Arts in the past month. Every workshop and gathering is precious to us. We get to meet people meaningfully and learn from each other. We feel alive and empowered through the coming together, which motivates us to make the world better through cultural work.
With the participants at Bow Arts, we gently questioned our own perceptions of borders and nationalities and shared the memories that our bodies hold. Representing that collision of our landscapes, we did drawings on a puzzle together, and we each took a few pieces home.
The performance aspect of our research on Embodied Ecology is inspired by queer gestures, Chinese medicine and landscapes. Exploring these concepts with this crowd at Rambert Dance’s The Playground marked our return to dance spaces as we travel across the boundaries of forms.
Our next workshop is on 14 May 2024 (Tue) at Sadler’s Wells on Mass Demonstration and Art Processes. It is a continuation of our work with Moving Margins in Berlin. We look at how personal experiences within mass movements during social activism across the globe contribute to cross-disciplinary artistic processes.
You can book your place to attend in person now here:
https://www.sadlerswells.com/whats-on/artist-led-session-ghost-and-john-workshop/
And you can book to attend virtually here:
https://www.sadlerswells.com/whats-on/artist-led-session-ghost-and-john-zoom-workshop/
More dates to mark in your calendar:
15 June 2024 (Sat): John’s spoken text showcase TBA
20-22 June 2024 (Thu to Sat): Thousand Papers at Migration Matters Festival TBA
Please do not hesitate to reach us for commissions, workshops and collaborations. You can read more about our work here and contact us at info@ghostandjohn.art
That’s all for now!
Sending lots of love to you all,
Ghost and John