What do we do?

with the rubbles of old palaces is a conceptual and physical space of communal study that develops its research through art, film, dance, performance, music, literature and critical theory. It was founded in the summer of 2020, and started occupying its present-day address in Kreuzberg in January 2021. It currently engages as local collaborators: Hannah O’Flynn, Liu Chao, Pablo Giménez Arteaga, Tian Guoxin, Marc Norbert Hörler and Joannie Baumgärtner.

with the rubbles of old palaces is imagined as a node within a larger network of like-minded individual and collective collaborators outside and within the city. The space was born out of our common desire of creating different futures for all of us and finding that the spaces we navigated were not always conducive to more experimental and intuitive ways of collectively rehearsing for other futures yet to be configured. Our aim is to make and hold space for those who align with our core values and visions: to carry out intersectional, inclusive and queer projects that further de-colonial/anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and ecological desires towards futures fundamentally different from the present. with the rubbles of old palaces is an open space for anyone who shares the struggle against the domination of colonialism, imperialism, the patriarchy and capitalism. We especially welcome those who do not have easy access to formalised and institutional spaces of knowledge production that operate on exclusive and elitist modes of meritocracy. And we understand that this needs us to re-examine how we do things, how we talk to each other and how we learn together. 

While acknowledging that we are different, we believe that difference does not have to be encountered as a problem to be eliminated (through practices such as integration programs), but instead want to explore how we can move forward together while remaining in difference. with the rubbles of old palaces is our vessel and bridge as we embark in the process of thinking and practicing together through such difference. 

with the rubbles of old palaces is an attempt at repurposing existing tools in a subversive way, as we believe the possibilities for radically different futures are always already latent. They therefore need to be nurtured. We think of change and futurity from a feminist and queer stand point: we believe that care is crucial and that it can only ever be actualised in a relational and dialogical process. We believe that this endeavour is a process that can only ever be successful if it remains in its ever-processual nature of never reaching its final destination of being fixed and defined. We thus propose as a practice a continuous collective rehearsal, rather than searching for the radically new in destruction and total eradication (an inherently fascist concept) of an old that might still hold valuable possibilities for future organisation. Rather than starting from an abstracted ideology of the new, we want to work from ground forms of organisation and care that change reality through playful and sensitive “tuning”. In doing so we want to search for different possible futures in the long histories and legacies of already existing revolutionary organising, from which we learn, ask further and want to build from and build on.

with the rubbles of old palaces is about making and holding space through the conceptualisation, production and dissemination of projects. From our own research projects and practices we develop a public and collaborative curriculum. This curriculum includes and is not limited to the organisation of collective research projects, dialogical processual knowledge production, publication through different mediums (books, texts, audio, film and two dimensional visual matter), private “safe space” as well as public events such as presentations, workshops, reading groups, meetings for community organising, mentoring, trainings, exhibitions, screenings, conferences, round tables, and performances, summer schools and small festivals.