Syllabus Reading Group #4:
The Great Witch Hunt of Europe
Syllabus reading group #4: The Great Witch Hunt in Europe
7 Aug 2020, 8 - 10 pm (Brussels time), in English
Together with the Ghent book club Other Women's Flowers, Kunsthal Gent organises a monthly reading group around Jesse Jones' Syllabus. Join us online on Friday 7 August at 8 pm (CET) for the next session of the reading group.
We will read 'The Great Witch Hunt in Europe' (pp. 163-179) from 'Caliban and the Witch' by feminist activist Silvia Federici. Feel free to take the floor, or just listen in - also in case you do not manage to read the text beforehand.
This session will be hosted by artist Jesse Jones, Other Women’s Flowers and feminist researcher Sigrid Vertommen (UGent). It will also take place online, with live images from inside Jesse Jones’ work in Kunsthal Gent: the space formed by a monumental curtain with an image of Silvia Federici’s left arm.
PRACTICAL
Register at info@kunsthal.gent: we will send you a zoom link to the meeting, a few days before the event. Here you can find the text, or here in another version. Here you can find an existing audio file of the first chapters.
BACKGROUND INFO
Silvia Federici is a feminist, writer, teacher, and activist. Her research and political organizing accompany a long list of publications on philosophy and feminist theory, women’s history, education, culture, international politics, and the worldwide struggle against capitalist globalisation and for a feminist reconstruction of the commons.
Jesse Jones is a Dublin-based artist and teaches visual arts at the TU Dublin School of Creative Arts. Her practice crosses the media of film, performance and installation. She often works in collaborative structures and investigates how historical examples of shared culture can play a role in our current social and political experiences.
Other Women’s Flowers is a beehive, a book-club and an artistic playground. It was born out of the wish to share, discover and discuss the written work of women, and to do so in a celebratory, playful way. Our dinner gatherings are a moment to share literary enthusiasm, debate contemporary challenges and rethink solidarity, one book at a time. Everyone is welcome to join the gatherings.
Sigrid Vertommen is conducting postdoctoral research on the political economy of global fertility chains at the Department of Conflict and Development Studies at Ghent University. She is particularly interested in understanding women's role and participation in the bio-economy as egg vendors and surrogates through the lens of reproductive labour.
Syllabus: In January 2020, Jesse Jones’ work Syllabus opened in Kunsthal Gent: a monumental curtain that when pulled, fills the space with an image of Silvia Federici’s left arm. As agreed in a contract signed on the opening, the work is to stay in the exhibition space for 5 years, on the condition that Kunsthal Gent will host a monthly reading group or related event inside the circle that is created by the work. The contract foresees that ‘Events may be postponed where necessary due to unforeseen circumstances including, but not limited to, acts of God or enemy, earthquake, fire, or flood, riot, war or civil commotion, trials, examinations, pestilence, epidemic or accusations of demonic possession.’ A facsimile of the contract is available from Kunsthal Gent.
Image: Jesse Jones, Syllabus
