Special workshops | Josefov Summer School

Special Events

Wandering is a performative walk where we will all together focus and continue with ongoing debate about climate crisis.

Considering its large and scary complexity we are not able to understand it as a whole. But let’s try to localize it and find where it hits us most on personal level. We will create a space for collective perception and embodiment of changing living conditions of humans and non-humans. Through this slowly night where informal exercising or wandering around will be held, we could try to give the paralysing aspects of our fear away.

We will gather inside the secure fortress and then together we will leave this safe space to experience other perspectives

Studio Without Master was established as a student's initiative focused on art education with emphasis on non-hierarchical structures and consensus-based decision-making. Our structure has changed after we finished our studies and we settled as a smaller group of a few graduates of various art disciplines. We meet to share each one’s specific knowledge and to discover and problematise possible methods of its reception and production. We consider (self) care as one of the most influential knowledge to practice and share.

Černík and Volfová: War and peace - convivial seminar

Today's capitalist economy has been intertwined with dependence on fossil energy sources from the outset. The energy infrastructure was created together with the institutions of the nation state, co-shaping the way of production and organization of work on a global scale. Cultural lock-in in the form of a military-industrial complex is evident not only in the interconnection of the method of production and the repressive apparatus, but also in the way of education. Fossil energy infrastructure is built in conflict localities (commodity frontier) through unequal power relations. Similarly, the impacts of climate change create power imbalances, impacting heavily on the socially disadvantaged, who lack the resources to deal with them. According to the Stern report, 2% of global GDP would need to be spent annually to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. At the same time, spending 2% on military spending is a commitment of NATO member states.

Climate disruption is a major security threat today, but it is also an opportunity to develop resilient, fair, emancipatory and sustainable projects, as demonstrated by community and cooperative renewable energy projects. Even renewable energy projects or green infrastructures can accentuate or produce social injustice. In Josefov, where the physical space created by the many years of presence and history of military infrastructure across history, the question arises of how to (re) utilize or reshape specific conditions for climate-friendly forms of community life. In a non-hierarchical, post-practical and convivial seminar (we will cook and eat together) we will develop site-specific socio-technological ideas of climate justice.

Mikuláš Černík

Marika Volfová

Round table: Academic bodies in action

Round table: Academic bodies in action. Medias of protests in times of climate crisis.

Manifestos, open letters, protests, strikes and acts of civil disobedience are only few of strategies undertaken by the representants of different social groups in order to resist deepening the climate crisis. Our discussion will be based on chosen examples of Polish and Czech manifestos and protest actions and on our own experiences. We’ll question how universities and cultural institution with its ethics of producing and sharing knowledge, building communities and creating arts should react to the global crisis. We’ll discuss the specifics of each “medium” of the protest with its advantages and restrictions, its potentials and efficacy. We’ll discuss also the ways, how our intellect and our bodies are involved and affected with the climate crisis and protest actions. We’ll talk about vulnerability of human body, about our feelings and fears. The “round table” formula is meant as horizontal space for sharing ideas, experiences and reflections, allowing each of participants to take a floor, regardless to her or his previous experiences with environmental activism. In face of global catastrophe, we’re all beginners.