@post-ironicweaboo commissioned me this series of characters from his fic The Kings Who Cared in 2020, and I got the green light to share! (part 4/4)

Tuesday, November 5, 2019, 6 - 8 pm

Image: Noa Yafe, Red Star, 2016-17. Photo by Gal Deren.

Slought is pleased to announce The Kids Want Communism, a public conversation exploring the legacies and meaning of communism today. The event will feature writers and scholars including Marissa Brostoff, Kristen Ghodsee, Malcolm Harris, and Joshua Simon, and marks the publication of the book  Being Together Precedes Being: A Textbook for The Kids Want Communism  (Archive Books), copies of which will be available courtesy of Ulises, and is presented in partnership with Philly Socialists. Specters are haunting the globe—the specters of anticommunism. From the European Union and its erosion to the disastrous "war on terror" and the destruction of the welfare state; from Wahhabism to neoliberalism; from debt economy to privatization; from game theory and disruptive innovation to cybernetics, and the surveillance of entertainment devices - all these anticommunisms are fighting one another, and collectively haunting us. What began with the implosion of real existing socialism almost thirty years ago comes full circle with the current collapse of the neoliberal arrangements that were then constituted. The discussion will consider communist legacies and knowledge inside and outside of real-existing socialism, to address some urgent questions facing us today: automation and reproductive labor, human capital and algorithmic management, environmental capitalist reform and planning for zero growth. From the Cold War to Global Warming, from the Soviet Block to Blockchain technology, from the Space Race to Space X, the word communism stands again as the radical opposition for exploitation and inequality. Being Together Precedes Being offers itself as a text book for The Kids Want Communism project, which was initiated towards the 99th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917 as a series of exhibitions, symposiums and conferences, screening programs, publications and a summer camp around the world. In this textbook, communism does not merely describe an "us versus them" relation, but also offers that we are becoming the future. This trajectory of communism runs parallel to us at every single moment and its guiding principle is that being together precedes being. This event is free and open to the public. 

For more information, please visit here.

Edited by Joshua Simon

Copies available here. 

Even as global capitalism’s extremes of inequality, violence, nationalism, and imperialism expropriate the lives and futures of most of the planet, hope for another future, one of justice, solidarity, equality, and life, continues to burn. The works collected here not only attest to the fact that the kids want communism. They fuel the desire for communism with new memories of its past and imaginings of what communism can be for us again.

— Jodi Dean, author of The Communist Horizon

We want what we got! This riotous, ravenous collection of communisms past, present and future is what we want and what we got, what we’ve had, what we have, and what we can have again. But the only way to have it is to share it. And the only way to share it is to share it all. So share this amazing book that was brought together to bring together.

— Stefano Harney, co-author with Fred Moten of The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study

In the turmoil leading to the October revolution Lenin wrote about the importance of finding a new slogan that will capture the totality of a specific historical situation. “The Kids Want Communism,” the title of the series of exhibitions documented in this volume, may be the appropriate slogan for today. This book brings new passions and joys to the spirit of communism, and reminds us that communism may be the truly human way of being together.

— Noam Yuran, author of What Money Wants: An Economy of Desire

This volume offers so much more than an updated version of Sartre’s famous dictum that existence precedes essence. Combining theory and practice, art and philosophy, politics and aesthetics, it is a resounding call to make communism a thing of the present.

— Bruno Bosteels, author of The Actuality of Communism

Contributions by Bini Adamczak, Odeh Al Ashhab, The New Barbizon Group (Asya Lukin, Natalia Zourabova, Olga Kundina, Anna Lukashevsky, Zoya Cherkassky) Toy Boy, Diego Castro, Angela Dimitrakaki, Paul Eluard, Max Epstein and Yuri Primenko, FAMU Archives (Piyasiri Gunaratna, Nosratollah Karimi, Nabil Maleh, Krishma Viswanath), Stano Filko, iLiana Fokianaki, Agnes Friedrich and Ivonne Dippmann, Tal Gafny, Jonathan Gold, Irena Haiduk, Nir Harel, Ronny Hardlitz, Raana Harlap, Micah Hesse, Yota Ioannidou, Nikita Kadan, Jakob Kösten, Konstantinos Kotsis, Mati Lahat, V.I Lenin, MAKI Archives, Alelsandr Medvedkin, Ohad Meromi, Olaf Nicolai, Tamar Nissim, Antonis Pittas, Praxis School Archive, Yakov Protazanov, David (Rabino) Rabinovici, Oleksiy Radynski, Yorgos Sapountzis, Joshua Simon, Tereza Stejskalová, Ian Svenonius, Kuba Szreder, Piotr Szulkin, Pelin Tan, The Union of Soviet Artists (Vasil Artamonov, Dominik Forman, Michael Hauser, Alexey Klyuykov, Avděj Ter-Oganjan), Vladimir Vidmar, Vangelis Vlahos, Nicole Wermers, Tony Wood, Noa Yafe, Dana Yoeli and Hila Laviv.

Specters are haunting the globe—the specters of anticommunism. From the European Union and its erosion to the disastrous “war of terror” and the destruction of the welfare state, from Wahhabism to neoliberalism, from debt economy to privatization, from game theory and disruptive innovation to cybernetics and the deployment of computerized surveillance/entertainment devices—all these anticommunisms are fighting one another, and they are now haunting us. What began with the implosion of real existing socialism almost thirty years ago comes full circle with the current collapse of the neoliberal arrangements that were then constituted.

Being Together Precedes Being offers a text book for the project “The Kids Want Communism,” which was initiated towards the 99th anniversary of the Soviet Revolution of October 1917 as a series of exhibitions, symposiums and conferences, screening programs, publications and a summer camp. In this textbook, communism does not merely describe an “us versus them” relation, but also offers that we are becoming the future. This trajectory of communism runs parallel to us at every single moment and its guiding principle is that being together precedes being.

Edited by Joshua Simon. Published by Archive Books. 

Link to PDF preview here.

Specters are haunting the globe—the specters of anticommunism. From the European Union and its erosion to the disastrous “war of terror” and the destruction of the welfare state, from Wahhabism to neoliberalism, from debt economy to privatization, from game theory and disruptive innovation to cybernetics and the deployment of computerized surveillance/entertainment devices - all these anticommunisms are fighting one another, and they are now haunting us. What began with the implosion of real existing socialism almost thirty years ago comes full circle with the current collapse of the neoliberal arrangements that were then constituted. 

Being Together Precedes Being offers a text book for “The Kids Want Communism,” which was initiated towards the 99th anniversary of the Soviet Revolution of October 1917 as a series of exhibitions, symposiums and conferences, screening programs, publications and a summer camp. In this textbook, communism does not merely describe an “us versus them” relation, but also offers that we are becoming the future. This trajectory of communism runs parallel to us at every single moment and its guiding principle is that beingtogether precedes being.

Even as global capitalism’s extremes of inequality, violence, nationalism, and imperialism expropriate the lives and futures of most of the planet, hope for another future, one of justice, solidarity, equality, and life, continues to burn. The works collected here not only attest to the fact that the kids want communism. They fuel the desire for communism with new memories of its past and imaginings of what communism can be for us again.

— Jodi Dean, author of The Communist Horizon

We want what we got! This riotous, ravenous collection of communisms past, present and future is what we want and what we got, what we’ve had, what we have, and what we can have again. But the only way to have it is to share it. And the only way to share it is to share it all. So share this amazing book that was brought together to bring together.

— Stefano Harney, co-author with Fred Moten of The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study 

In the turmoil leading to the October revolution Lenin wrote about the importance of finding a new slogan that will capture the totality of a specific historical situation. “The Kids Want Communism,” the title of the series of exhibitions documented in this volume, may be the appropriate slogan for today. This book brings new passions and joys to the spirit of communism, and reminds us that communism may be the truly human way of being together.

— Noam Yuran, author of What Money Wants: An Economy of Desire

This volume offers so much more than an updated version of Sartre’s famous dictum that existence precedes essence. Combining theory and practice, art and philosophy, politics and aesthetics, it is a resounding call to make communism a thing of the present.

— Bruno Bosteels, author of The Actuality of Communism

Finissage and party for the exhibition series The Kids Want Communism and 100 years to the October revolution! ☭

See more here.

Photos below by Ariel Blitz:

12 earths: Conversation between curator Joshua Simon and artist Michael Jones Mckean

12 earths: Conversation between curator Joshua Simon and artist Michael Jones Mckean

12 earths: Conversation between curator Joshua Simon and artist Michael Jones Mckean

A Hole in the roof: Tal Gafny on Ilya Kabakov’s The Man Who Flew into Space from His Apartment, Atidim, MoBY and the Soviet Cosmos

A Hole in the roof: Tal Gafny on Ilya Kabakov’s The Man Who Flew into Space from His Apartment, Atidim, MoBY and the Soviet Cosmos

A Hole in the roof: Tal Gafny on Ilya Kabakov’s The Man Who Flew into Space from His Apartment, Atidim, MoBY and the Soviet Cosmos

A Hole in the roof: Tal Gafny on Ilya Kabakov’s The Man Who Flew into Space from His Apartment, Atidim, MoBY and the Soviet Cosmos

Bat Galim: Conversation between artists Michal Helfman and Tal Gafny

Artists Ivonne Dippman and Agnes Friedrich : The Kids Want Communism collection fashion show

Artists Ivonne Dippman and Agnes Friedrich : The Kids Want Communism collection fashion show

“Two, One, Zero”: sound work + DJ set by Netaly Aylon

“Two, One, Zero”: sound work + DJ set by Netaly Aylon

After the closing and final weekend of The Kids Want Communism at MoBY and at Kunstraum Kreuzberg Bethanien (curated by Joshua Simon), we would like to say thank you to everyone who has been involved and supported this project!

TKWC would not have been the same without the participation and collaboration with: Bini Admczak; Toy Boy; Diego Castro; Maya Elran, Efraim Davidi; Tamar Gozansky; Max Epstein; FAMU Prague program curated by Tereza Stejskalová: Nabil Maleh, Piyasiri Gunaratna, Krishma (Krishna) Viswanath, and Nosratollah Karimi; Tal Gafny; Nadya Bakuradze; Michal Helfman; Jacob Blumenfeld; Michael Jones McKean; Jonathan Gold; Nir Harel; Raanan Harlap; Micah Hesse; Ivonne Dippmann and Agnes Friedrich, The Israel Communist Party Archive (MAKI); Nikita Kadan; Jakob Koesten; Mati Lahat; Hila Laviv and Dana Yoeli; Ohad Meromi; Ian Svenonius; Stano Filko; Olaf Nicolai; Tamar Nissim; Ingo Niermann; Angela Dimitrakaki; Jonas Staal; James Bridle; Vincent van Gerven Oei; Irena Haiduk; Kostis Stafylakis; "Notes on Division" (curated by iLiana Fokianaki): Konstantinos Kotsis, Yota Ioannidou, Antonis Pittas, Yorgos Sapountzis, and Vangelis Vlaho; Praxis School archive curated by Vladimir Vidmar; Yuri Primenko; Katya Oicherman; Natalia Kopelanskaya; The New Barbizon: Zoya Cherkassky, Olga Kundina, Anna Lukashevsky, Asya Lukin, and Natalia Zourabova; Nicole Wermers; Noa Yafe; Ekaterina Degot.

It has been amazing to see TKWC evolve and grow together with institutions around the world throughout 2016 and 2017: tranzit, Prague; The Visual Culture Research Center, Kyiv; Free/Slow University Warsaw; State of Concept, Athens; Skuc Gallery, Ljubljana; West Space, Melbourne; Marx200; CCA Tel Aviv; The Young Communist League of Israel (BANKI); The Left Bank; SDAJ; ZHdK and Corner College; Northwestern University; Erev Rav; Artis Contemporary; Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin; Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung; Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung - Israel Office; MoBY Museums of Bat Yam.

The Kids Want Communism was organized by iLiana Kokianaki, Vladimir Vidmar, Oleksiy Radynski, Vit Havranek, Patrice Sharkey, Kuba Szreder, and Joshua Simon.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this project happen and kept us going!! Naama Henkin, Meir Tati, Noa Tsaushu, Avi Bohbot, Ofir Finkelstein, Alina Yakirevitch, Nechama Winston, Michal Raz, Nufar Kaplan, Shulamit Bialy, George Choresh, Jonathan Goldstein, Moyu Honda, Ariel Blitz, Rani Rosenheim, Shimon Malka, Moran Paz, Layne Goldman, Jordan Selan, Michelle Paterok, Matthew Turell, Ofri Omer, Yafir Ido, Sassi Mazor, Danielle Kaganov, Yael Meromi, Tamir Davidov, Tali Konas, Tsafrir Cohen, Raffi Gueta, Stephane Bauer, Theres Laux, Esther Tusch, and many others.

We're excited for The Kids Want Communism book which will be published next year!

The book "Communists Anonymous," edited by Joshua Simon and Ingo Niermann, will be published by the end of the year in the Solution Series by Sternberg Press in Berlin. 

We would like to celebrate The Kids Want Communism with a recap of all the events, conversations, exhibitions, and conferences that have taken place in the last two years below. 

☭

The Museums of Bat Yam — MoBY, Israel:

The Kids Want Communism, Installment One

Also see here

Ekaterina Degot: Shockworkers of the Mobile Image

Also see here

Kuba Szreder: The Political Economy of Art and Beyond

The Kids Want Communism, Installment Two 

Also see here, here and here

Artist Talk: Nir Harel

“The Future Is Ours,” Reunion of The Young Communist League of Israel 

Also see here for stories from the history of The Young Communist League of Israel—BANKI

The 10th Marx Forum in Israel: “Imperialism Then and Now”

As Radical As Reality Itself

See more photos here

The Kids Want Communism, Installment Three / Final Installment 

Also see here, here and here

Artist Talk with Tamar Nissim and Tal Gafny

Artist Talk with Max Epstein and book launch of RESTRooM

2017 Marx Conference: 100 Years after the October Revolution

Finissage and party for the exhibition series The Kids Want Communism and 100 years to the October revolution

The Visual Culture Research Center, Kyiv, Ukraine:

The Postman always rings twice: Why does history repeat itself? Day 1

The Postman always rings twice: Why does history repeat itself? Day 2

tranzit, Prague, Czech Republic:

First congress of the Union of Soviet Artists/ painting symposium and exhibition

Also see here and here for an interview with the initiators of the First congress of the Union of Soviet Artists in Prague (Artalk magazine, September 6th, 2016)

Škuc gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia:

Nikita Kadan: Above the pedestal the air condenses in a dark cloud

Also see here and here

Free/Slow University Warsaw, Poland:

Summer camp hosted by the Free/Slow University of Warsaw

State of Concept, Athens, Greece:

Solution Communism, a one day symposium organized by iLiana Fokianaki, Ingo Niermann and Joshua Simon 

Also see here for video recordings of some of the talks, panel discussion and Q+A

See  “Assemblism” by artist Jonas Staal, in  e-flux journal issue #80. The text came out of a lecture presented at the conference Solution Communism

West Space, Melbourne, Australia:

The Kids Want Communism at West Space

ZHdK and Corner College, Zürich, Switzerland:

Guest lecture of the Postgraduate Programme in Curating CAS/ MAS ZHdK — Joshua Simon: Verschüttete Traditionen // The Great Soviet Encyclopedia: Communism and The Dividual

Northwestern University, Chicago, USA:

Visiting Artist Lecture, in collaboration with the Graham Foundation: Joshua Simon, The Great Soviet Encyclopedia: Communism and The Dividual

CCA Tel Aviv, Israel:

The second gathering for Solution Communism on April 6, 2017

Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin, Germany:

The Kids Want Communism in Berlin, to mark 100 years of the Bolshevik Revolution (also see here and here)

Also see here for an interview published online by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung in Israel with Joshua Simon

Photos from the Vernissage (also see here)

A celebration of 100 years of Soviet Revolution: Lecture & music

☭

Photographs from 8th Sept 17 Vernissage at Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien

Images below taken by © Nihad Nino Pusija

See more here and here

We are celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the Soviet Revolution in Berlin! ☭

The Kids Want Communism is now up at Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien through November 12, 2017.

All friends in Berlin are invited to join us and check out the exhibition! ☭

More can be found here.

The Kids Want Communism is a joint project of numerous individuals and organizations, which hosts its exhibitions, screenings, discussions, seminars and publications in a variety of locations; among them Tranzit, Prague, Free/Slow University of Warsaw, State of Concept, Athens, Škuc gallery, Ljubljana, Visual Culture Research Center, Kyiv, Westspace Melbourne, and MoBY: Museums of Bat Yam. 

With works by: 

Bini Adamczak | New Barbizon: Olga Kundina, Zoya Cherkassky, Natalia Zourabova, Asya Lukin | Diego Castro | Nir Harel | Micah Hesse | Hila Laviv und Dana Yoeli | Ohad Meromi | MAKI Archiv | Olaf Nicolai | FAMU Prague: Nosratollah Karimi, Nabil Maleh, Piyasiri Gunaratna und Krishma (Krishna) Viswanath | Praxis School | Noa Yafe