When you join ‘how to start a movement’ you become part of a temporary gang.
As a collective we come together in public spaces, institutions and venues. We conquer train stations, restaurants, city offices, parks, libraries, waiting rooms, academies, squares and laundromats to reclaim our spaces by playing with the rules.
In ‘How to start a movement’ we depart from the idea that we all know what we can and cannot do in public space. Everywhere we go there are social norms to follow, unwritten rules to obey and scripts to perform. Most of the time we don’t even question them but what happens when we decide to go off script for a change?
‘How to start a movement’ is an artistic practice, a methodology and a toolbox all at the same time that can be used to experience ourselves, others and the world in a new or different way.
For the Slow Start Intervention Series across the festival mornings of Thursday and Friday, Rotterdam based artist, Merel Smitt, will take you on an adventure in public space. Together we will take a closer look at our direct surroundings and make an attempt to go off script, to make a little bit of trouble, respond to the harsh reality of our direct environments, and re-claim our ground.
About
Merel Smitt is an interdisciplinary artist based in Rotterdam and works as a director, organizer, curator, social designer, researcher and educator. Her live-art projects take place at the intersection of performative interventions, socially engaged art and cultural activism. Her work is developed site-specific in public spaces, in collaborations with different communities, activists, fellow citizens, academics, philosophers and experts, and is carried out through active participation of different groups of audiences. The projects can be seen as methodologies to reclaim spaces and build platforms in which strangers come together to experience themselves, others and the world in a new and different way.
Her artistic practice has been supported by several platforms in the European contemporary art scene such as SICK! Festival (UK), Metropolis Københvn (DK), Oerol (NL), Over Het IJ Festival (NL), Productiehuis Theater Rotterdam (NL), Giungla Festival (IT), STORMOPKOMST (BE), IN-SITU European Network, ACT (Art Climate Change) and other venues and institutions in The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Bucharest, New York, France, Belgium and Italy.