The acronym K&A stands for Karla Isidorou and Alexandra Bellon, two gentle, playful community-minded artists with complex cultural roots based in Geneva, Switzerland. They have been trained in music, theatre and visual arts and have been creating amazing participatory projects in different parts of the world . In these, they always find new ways for people to connect. That is what attracted ICAF to them and what attracted K&A to us.
At ICAF, they were going to present their participatory art project ‘8102’ (2018 backwards). They have been developing it since the end of 2018, trying to lure friends, colleagues and total strangers into creating a year-long diary in which they imagine their daily lives and the world around them more than 6,000 years into the future. To K&A, 8102 is the ‘ultra future’, seemingly impossible to imagine, but when you start to think about it the most amazing stories (and objects) are generated. We thought this idea fit perfectly with our ‘vision’ theme and, we were convinced, it could kick start the creation of a new expanding community. Earlier participants in this ongoing project had already sent more than fifty hard copies of their agendas and diaries to our ICAF office in Rotterdam, with more still on the way. The idea was that, each morning during ICAF, K&A would read from these diaries or perform elements from them. At the same time, they hoped to seduce ICAF visitors to also become involved in creating their own diaries and thus become part of this evolving project.
Not easily discouraged by any circumstance, after the cancellation of ICAF-8 K&A immediately started brainstorming about an online version the intervention they had planned for ICAF. They had already begun collaborating with ARTEZ University of the Arts in Arnhem (their alma mater in the Netherlands) on a series of podcasts. Now, they have produced a special video just for you and us in which they explain and illustrate their intriguing project and to invite you to contribute to this expanding online collection of creative products in which people imagine what the year 8102 will bring us. Training our fantasy to think about the future is a useful exercise for all of us during these confusing times.
Discover 8102 online:
Channel of video podcasts:
https://vimeo.com/channels/1549880
Open call to send us a voice-message from the year 8102:
Interview with K&A about ‘8102’ (in Dutch):
https://www.theaterkrant.nl/nieuws/niet-op-karla-isidorou/
On how this project started:
K&A (@karlaandalexandra) • Instagram photos and videos
