This issue brings together thoughts on the failure of the settler-colonial Zionist project of occupying the dream of Palestine, the inevitable failure of economic and cultural sanctions, how algorithmic management equals authoritarian management and results in precarious jobs, and the unfair burden of pushing for change on bodies already burdened by discrimination. Sanabel Abdelrahman, Rohan Stevenson, Elham Rahmati, Vidha Saumya, Hanan Mahbouba, Olga Spyropoulou, Marja Viitahuhta, and Toshiya Kamei are among the contributors to this issue.
The Western sense of superiority over all other beings in the universe isn’t something that needs further “unfolding” or “unearthing”. I don’t want to get into the deep-seated anger I felt when I saw all the Finnish art and culture institutions that we have been urging for months to extend solidarity to the Palestinian struggle for decolonisation publicly and to participate in the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, have not wasted one moment in issuing solidarity statements for Ukraine and halting collaborations with Russia. Mohammed El-Kurd was on point when he wrote, “Hypocrisy” doesn’t describe this adequately. The appropriate word is psychosis."
READEditorial / March 2022
Elham Rahmati makes a case against sanctions and coaxes us to step down from high moral horses; and Vidha Saumya on leaning on planning when distressed by spontaneity.
The settler-colonial Zionist project may have, for now, occupied Palestine physically, but its failure to occupy the dream of Palestine in the Palestinians inside and outside of historic Palestine not only signifies a failure of the project as a whole but foreshadows a mammoth failure in the future of the necropolitical state.
READOccupying the Palestinian Dream
Sanabel Abdelrahman on the failure of the settler-colonial Zionist project of occupying the dream of Palestine among Palestinians.
customer aggressively informs me that he accidentally put in his parent’s address and that i need to take the order to his. he messaged me through the app apparently but, with no signal in the building, i can’t see it. using the younger brother’s phone, i type the address into google maps - it’s two and a half miles away.
READthe brink of the platform: riding with deliveroo
How can algorithmic management lead to authoritarian management and precarious jobs?
Plantasy, or “a garden for dreaming” centers around the ideas of togetherness, community building, and the realization of utopias. These kinds of concerns are currently very popular with art spaces as they all vie to create, or at least make the illusion of hospitality, safer spaces, and non-exploitative working conditions. The actualization of these goals seems very simple yet challenging at once because collective work is complicated when an attempt is made to make space for everyone’s needs and desires.
READPlantasy: On the ABCs of TLC
On building communities and making utopias come true through consistent group communication and workable structures.
I am an immigrant in Finland. I have had to move houses three times in the past year, and this small book, published by quince editiones [1], seems to get me: it has an itinerary similar to that of a freelance cultural worker, designed in Mexico, edited in Finland, and printed in Estonia.
READ“A Very Marketable Commodity”
Spyropoulou’s review of “Performing a Lifetime” highlights its confessional and biographical nature, providing practical methods of resistance by exposing the ecologies of identity and trauma.
I am interested in language. I question language. I often feel that naming things too clearly, opening them up as if they were on an operating table, does not speak about the things I am trying to reach, but puts them in certain categories, forced within a certain structure that is not my language. It feels like a violent act.
READCountering Cohesive Narratives: Conversation with Azar Saiyar
Marja Viitahuhta interviews Azar Saiyar on the occasion of her exhibition ‘My Home and Roses’.
House of Fvck is a Drag collective born in 2020 during the Helsinki Pride Week. It was a project for Nuorten Pride to teach young people under 18 to do Drag with makeup, costume and performance; the tutors were Chris Oh! and Betty Fvck.
READNo Shade: Betty Fvck & the House of Betty Fvck
House of Fvck members in a “no shade” interview with Betty Fvck.
A specimen-style diagram on flower assemblage in preparation for ‘rooting’ delves into the topics of how to re-assemble oneself to set roots somewhere. Do we change ourselves and re-assemble our features to be allowed to remain in the garden, or do we tend a small corner in a garden of our own? Often ‘belonging’ is a concept that exists within change. We can belong to many contradictory concepts, not necessarily following a specific blueprint.
READAssembly Plant, 2022
The girl looked up, and her gaze met Marina’s. To her mild surprise, the girl walked toward her. Marina flushed and looked away. It had been a long while since anyone had last talked to her. Her heart pounded in her ears and her palms felt sweaty.
READSanctuary
A short-fiction by Toshiya Kamei.
Music videos typically are used to entertain the public, but the effects of music videos can be much more far-reaching than just entertainment. They originally served the purpose of creating an outlet where artists could generate publicity for their work, broaden their popular appeal, and reach wider audiences with interesting audio-visual content. Over the years, the visual imagery in music videos has increasingly become as significant as the music itself.
READPehmee’s Watchlist: Breaking Stereotypes, One Music Video at a Time
