A new two-day congregation to study climate propagandas to propagate alternative presents and futures.
At this critical moment, during a time entwined along the nexus of genocide and ecocide, BAK and artist Jonas Staal convene Climate Propagandas Congregation, a two-day gathering with cultural workers, theorists, activists, and organizers to collectively imagine and propagate forms of meaningful collective survival in—and in spite of—the present extinction wars. The congregation brings together research models, ideas, and tools for deliberation in an immersive diorama: a large-scale installation, embodying an ecosystem of collectivity and collaboration that exists across time in collectivist imaginaries and practices of life.
With contributions by: Radha D’Souza; TJ Demos; Urok Shirhan; Nilüfer Koç (Kurdistan National Congress); Sven Lütticken; Jay Jordan and Isabelle Fremeaux (Laboratory for Insurrectionary Imagination); Serda Demir and Iliada Charalambous (True Counterpower) with the Sudanese Refugee Collective, Colored Qollective, Woonopstand, and XR Justice Now; Varsha Gandikota (Progressive International); Paul Goodwin; Jodi Dean; Andrew Curley; Steve Lyons (Not An Alternative); Julie de Lima (National Democratic Front of the Philippines); Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei; Chris Keulemans; Alexandra Martens Serrano; Clara Balaguer; and Jeanne van Heeswijk a.o.
In 1622, the Vatican founded the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide), to propagate the Catholic faith facing the rise of Protestantism in Europe. This constituted the first known propaganda department in history. Now, four hundred years later, we gather a new two-day congregation to study climate propaganda to propagate alternative presents and futures: the Climate Propagandas Congregation at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Climate Propagandas Congregation takes place in a large-scale installation, best described as an “immersive diorama.” The diorama depicts biota of the geological era known as the Ediacaran (635 million years to 541 million years ago), which was a unique non-predatory cooperative ecology consisting of beings that were neither plants nor animals. This “pre-socialist socialist ecology,” in the words of geologist Mark McMenamin, teaches that complex life on earth propagates from a history of fundamental collectivity, not Darwinist competition. In the installation, Ediacaran biota are combined with the faces of historical revolutionaries: the ancestors from whom contemporary radical egalitarian imaginaries have been inherited.
The first day of the gathering looks into different climate propagandas that serve liberal, libertarian, conspiracist, and eco-fascistic interests, and which propagate extinction for the many and profits for the few. On the second day, the congregation focuses on transformative propagandas across socialist, Black, feminist, queer, Indigenous, and internationalist struggles, which propagate the need to change with the climate: to recognize the necessity of dismantling predatory and extractivist systems and of asserting a transformative politics of radical equality, repair, and regeneration.
Climate Propagandas Congregation is based on Jonas Staal’s book Climate Propagandas: Stories of Extinction and Regeneration published by The MIT Press in 2024 in partnership with BAK. The congregation also serves as the concluding event of BAK’s 25 years of practice in its current institutional form. Following the defunding by both the local and national governments in Utrecht and the Netherlands, from January 2025 onwards, BAK will embark on search for new organizational modalities with the series Basecamp for Tactical Imaginaries: Building Cultural Infrastructure Anew, convened with multitude collaborators by artist and BAK’s artistic director Jeanne van Heeswijk.
DAY I: PROPAGATING NECROSPHERES
The first day of the congress looks into different forms of climate propaganda that serve liberal, libertarian, conspiracist and ecofascists interests, and which propagate extinction for the many and profits for the few.
13:00—13:15 hrs
94 Million Years of Collectivism, Video Study
Screening
13:15—13:45 hrs
Welcome and Introduction
Maria Hlavajova and Jonas Staal
13:45—14:10 hrs
Liberal Climate Propaganda (lecture)
Radha D'Souza
14:10—14:35 hrs
Libertarian Climate Propaganda (lecture)
T.J. Demos
14:35—15:00 hrs
[Break & foods]
15:00—15:20 hrs
Eco-Sonic Propagations #1 (intervention)
Urok Shirhan
15:20—15:45 hrs
Against Eco-Fascist Propaganda: Propagating Democratic, Gender
and Ecological Liberation (lecture)
Nilüfer Koç (Kurdistan National Congress)
15:50—16:05 hrs
Conspiracist Climate Propaganda (lecture)
Sven Lütticken
16:05—16:45 hrs
Conversation
D’Souza, Demos, Koç and Lütticken, chaired by Jolle Demmers
16:45—17:15 hrs
[Break & foods]
17:15—17:45 hrs
We Are Nature Propagating Itself, Part I (ritual)
Laboratory for lnsurrectionary Imagination (labofi), Jay Jordan and Isabelle Fremeaux
17:45—19:00 hrs
Counter-Power: Propagating Climate Justice from the Netherlands (assembly)
Serda Demir and lliada Charalambous, initiators of the True Counterpower coalition with the Sudanese Refugee Collective, Colored Qollective, Woonopstand and XR Justice Now, chaired by Jeanne van Heeswijk and Jonas Staal
18:50—19:00 hrs
Closing statement
19:00—20:00 hrs
Collective Dinner
20:00—21:00 hrs
Towards a Communist Climate Propaganda: A Communist Climate Propaganda? The legacy of Professor Jose Maria Sison (lecture and conversation)
Jodi Dean in conversation with Julie de Lima (National Democratic Front of the Philippines)
______________________________________________________________________________________
DAY II: PROPAGATING BIOSPHERES
The second day of the congress focuses on transformative propagandas across socialist, black, feminist, queer, Indigenous and internationalist struggles, which propagate the need to change with the climate: to recognize the need to dismantle predatory and extractivist systems and assert a transformative politics of radical equality, repair and regeneration.
13:00—13:30 hrs
We Are Nature Propagating Itself, Part II (ritual)
Laboratory for lnsurrectionary Imagination (laboffi), Jay Jordan and Isabelle Fremeaux
13:30—13:45 hrs
Welcome and Introduction
Maria Hlavajova and Jonas Staal
13:45—14:10 hrs
Internationalist Climate Propaganda (lecture)
Varsha Gandikota (Progressive International)
14:10—14:35 hrs
Criteria for Black Climate Propaganda: thinking with DuBoi (lecture)
Paul Goodwin
14:35—15:00 hrs
[Break & foods]
15:00—15:15 hrs
Eco-Sonic Propagations #2 (intervention)
Urok Shirhan
15:15—15:40 hrs
Propagating More-Than-Human Comradeship (lecture)
Jodi Dean
15:40—16:30 hrs
Conversation
Gandikota, Dean and Goodwin, chaired by Chris Keulemans
16:30—17:00 hrs
[Break and foods]
17:00—17:20 hrs
Collectivist Ecology: Proletgeology (intervention)
Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei
17:20—17:50 hrs
Collectivist Ecology: Red Natural History (intervention)
Andrew Curley (Dine, Red Natural History Fellow) and (Steve Lyons (Not an Alternative)
17:50—18:40 hrs
Conversation between Van Gerven Oei, Curley and Lyons chaired by Alexandra Martens Serrano and Clara Balaguer
18:40—19:00 hrs
Closing remarks
VISITING INFO
The convention is open to everyone, but it is advised to pre-book your ticket through Eventbrite in order to assure access.
Please scroll down to see the full program.
A ticket for 1 day costs €6, a ticket for both days costs €10. BAK offers without-cost solidarity tickets to enable the participation of those who would otherwise be unable to afford a ticket.
