23 November 2021–9 March 2022 / Casco HQ
Language: English
RSVP necessary
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Our current, seventh series is called Going Viral; or what just happened?
ReadingRoom was interrupted by Covid-19 in March 2020. We are excited to finally return with a new series now, in the fall of 2021. Given the unprecedented circumstances of the global pandemic, this series called Going Viral; or What Just Happened? wants to resist the urge to move forward and ‘past’ things all too quickly. Perhaps ReadingRoom can instead be a space to reflect together on what happened or, more precisely, on what is still happening. Can we think about who or how we are, living in times of Covid-19? Can we think-read-feel together about the experiences of loss and change during the past year-and-a half; about what to do with our diverging efforts of digesting those experiences; with the grief and mourning that might be in place, but has not found much of a place in the ‘returns to normal’ as we see them around us? Can we learn how to speak with each other again and perhaps thereby find ways of collective grieving and working through? Those are the questions on our minds for the seventh series of ReadingRoom, which started off in November 2021.
Session One
Tuesday, 23 November 2021, 17.00–19.00
Our first session was based on Laurent Berlant’s work. We read the “Introduction. Affect in the Present” from Berlant’s Cruel Optimism (2011). Berlant’s text helped us think about affect, public space, optimism and situations of crisis. By engaging with Berlant’s work, we also commemorate the loss of this wonderful thinker.
Session Two
Wednesday, 9 March 2022, 17.00–19.00
Our second session will engage with Douglas Crimp’s piece “Mourning and Militancy” (October, vol 51, 1989). If you are interested in joining, please register by sending an email to info@terracritica.net by February 18.
