BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht at EKKO, Utrecht

With and by artist Phil Collins, Tabaria Café, Print for Palestine, and b.ASIC a.CTIVIST k.ITCHEN. All proceeds go to fundraisers for Palestine: Palestine Humanitarian Response and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).

Bring your own fabric (t-shirt, bag, bandana, pillow case) to screen print on!

In light of the escalating humanitarian crisis and ongoing genocide in Gaza, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, and EKKO, Utrecht organize a day of solidarity programs to raise funds for urgent humanitarian aid. This event brings together directly impacted communities and the general audience through art and social action.

In light of the escalating humanitarian crisis and ongoing genocide in Gaza, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, and EKKO, Utrecht organize a day of solidarity programs to raise funds for urgent humanitarian aid. This event brings together directly impacted communities and the general audience through art and social action. The video installation they shoot horses (2004) by Phil Collins, a disco dance marathon filmed with a group of young people in Ramallah during the Second Intifada, is presented in EKKO’s main club space. The audience is invited to take to the floor and join the dancers through the unfolding stages of elation, joy, fatigue, exhaustion, and resilience that speak to the realities of life under the decades-long occupation by the state of Israel.

Against the dehumanization of Palestinian lives and the indignities of militarized capitalist imagination which marks them out as inevitably predestined for violence, suffering, and obliteration, they shoot horses centers dancing as an act of resistance in the face of daily atrocities committed by a settler-colonial power, and as a fragile but inextinguishable anticipation of liberation to come.

The front room of EKKO becomes a space for dialogue and reflection, while Print for Palestine hosts a screen-printing station in the café. Across the ground floor, different initiatives for solidarity with Palestine set up stands to present their campaigns through print materials, items for sale, and informal conversations. Throughout the event, Tabaria Café and b.ASIC a.CTIVIST k.ITCHEN prepare and serve Palestinian-inspired food.

Background: stills from They Shoot Horses by Phil Collins, video, 2014