Summer Wishes, 

News,,

Reading tips from Casco

Temperatures are rising and summer has finally arrived in the less-than-tropical Netherlands, which means that it’s time for us to introduce a short break in our program. During the summer holidays we’ll be happily taking time out to reflect on the past few months of Casco’s program, recharge and rejuvenate, and get ourselves ready for the fall season.

Before doing so, however, we would like to share with you some reading tips that connect to our program, practice, and those of our collaborators. We have two recommendations relating to activities in the recent past, three that raise the corner of the veil on our program in the near future, and finally; one that is simply obligatory reading for anyone who takes the summer holidays seriously. Enjoy reading!



On June 4 this year, we co-organized the INLAND Nederland Gathering “on un/common ground”, together with Fernando García-Dory, INLAND, and the Dutch Art Institute. The title for this event was inspired by the book Uncommon Ground: Rethinking The Human Place in Nature, by environmental historian William Cronon. If you are interested in understanding why, please find the first chapter, ‘The Trouble With Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature’ here.

Jerome Roos, editor of ROAR Magazine spoke at the event Revive La Commune! Lessons from the Paris Commune in today’s struggles, co-organized by Casco and Kritische Studenten Utrecht on June 30. If you missed this event, or if you want to learn more about the Paris Commune, make sure to read Jerome’s excellent interview with Kristin Ross about her recent book Communal Luxury: The Political Imaginary of the Paris Commune here.



Fred Moten and Stefano Harney’s The Undercommons: Fugutive Planning & Black Study has been a crucial source for Casco’s recent work, which is also a reason why we invited Harney to present his lecture Undercommoning Institutions at Casco in June 2015. If you haven’t managed to read this wonderful book yet, then this summer is the perfect time to catch up! And, as a further incentive, the book will also be the topic of one of the ReadingRoom meetings, which will take place again at Casco from September onwards. The entire book is accessible online here.

Also in September; (Un)usual Business, the research group focusing on community economies in and around Utrecht, will hold their festival Gat in de Markt. This festive gathering will also be the occasion for the launch of their new website and the second issue of their journal Utrecht Meent Het. In the meantime, please download the first Utrecht Meent Het on their current website here.

Later in the year our program will feature a solo project by Alex Martinis Roe comprising of an exhibition, performances, workshops, and much more. As was already apparent in her Utrecht performance Their desire rang through the halls and into the tower (2014), Roe is interested in tracing genealogies of feminist political practices and philosophies. One scholar that is of particular interest to Roe is Rosi Braidotti, whose essay ‘Punk Women and Riot Grrls’ can be found here.



Finally, if you’re looking to legitimize your summer slacking, Paul Lafargue’s classic The Right To Be Lazy (1883) is the perfect piece of critical theory for you. Read all about the “disastrous dogma” of (over)work in the online text here.

Please note that, while we do not have a summer program, the guest exhibition Another Place, My Life, organized by residency program Het Vijfde Seizoen, is still on view until August 21. The exhibition will be open Wednesday through Sunday, 12:00–18:00 hrs. Also, if you want to order copies of our limited edition Parasite Lottery vinyl sets, containing songs from our Parasite Lottery project with Wok The Rock, you can still do so by sending an e-mail to publications@cascoprojects.org.


Casco’s program is made possible with financial support from the City Council of Utrecht, Mondriaan Fund and DOEN Foundation. Casco is part of Arts Collaboratory.