15 February 2025, 15:00–18:00 / Casco HQ
Order the book(s) online via our bookshop
We are thrilled to announce the publication of Unlearning Routines of the Impossible, a new book co-authored by artist and long-term Casco Art Institute collaborator Annette Krauss. The book features contributions from the Feminist Search Tools working group, Yolande Zola Zoli van der Heide, Nancy Jouwe, KUNCI Study Forum & Collective, and Ferdiansyah Thajib. Published by Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons and Minor Compositions/Autonomedia, and co-edited by Krauss and Janine Armin, it continues our exploration of unlearning practices within (and beyond) art institutions.
The book begins with the question: What are the struggles, entanglements, and joys of practicing unlearning in predominantly Western contexts? It responds to this question through revisiting the artistic research projects Sites for Unlearning, (co-) initiated by the artist. The sites are experimental gatherings where the aim is to collaboratively unlearn dominant forms of thinking and doing, and the affective production of impossibilities within institutions in order to intervene in social injustices. The publication weaves together artistic projects, invited essays, collective conversations, and scenes, creating a scaffolding—a support structure—for practicing unlearning.
To mark the launch of Unlearning Routines of the Impossible, we invite you to join us at Casco on Saturday, February 15, 2025, from 15:00 to 18:00. The afternoon starts with an introduction by Annette Krauss and the Casco team, followed by a conversation with Nancy Jouwe, Nuraini Juliastuti from KUNCI Study Forum & Collective, and members of the Feminist Search Tools working group about the practical experiments on unlearning explored in the book and their wider implications. We also dive into questions harvested during the reading group for Unlearning Routines of the Impossible. The event concludes with a festive gathering to honor this long-awaited project.
Additional program details are announced in early January. Beyond the launch at our office gallery, a series of book launches is set to take place in the Netherlands, Vienna, and other locations. Stay tuned for more updates.
As the sister publication to Unlearning Exercises: Art Organizations as Sites for Unlearning (2018), first published by the independent publisher Valiz, Unlearning Routines of the Impossible builds on and expands the original themes and research. It critically examines the normative structures of educational, institutional, and everyday practices, challenging and dismantling the taken-for-granted truths that underpin them. To emphasize this connection, we are also pleased to announce the republishing of Unlearning Exercises in a newly designed edition by Rosen Eveleigh, coinciding with the launch.
Copies of both sister publications are available for purchase at the launch. You can order the books online as well.
Minor Compositions is a series of interventions and provocations drawing from autonomous politics, avant-garde aesthetics, and the revolutions of everyday life. Minor Compositions is an imprint of Autonomedia.
This book has further been made possible with the support of Mondriaan Fonds, the public fund for visual art and cultural heritage, Amsterdam, and also the postdoctoral grant for Annette Krauss financed by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): 495 (2017–23).
