Various sessions, Spring 2026, dates below / Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons, Lange Nieuwstraat 7, Utrecht
Doors open 17:30
Reading and discussion time 18:00–20:30
This Spring we are organizing communal reading and learning sessions that engage with Casco Art Institute’s library and kiosk. These sessions are part of our library activations, aiming to make people more familiar with the zines, books, journals, and other materials in our collection. Stay tuned for more upcoming activities.
We provide (vegan) dinner and printouts of the reading materials, so please sign up by sending an email to nuria@casco.art. If you want to bring your own digital/reading device and prefer to have the PDF, please let us know so we could share it with you.
#1 Learning about Palestinian History for Israeli Apartheid Week
25 March 2026
With thousands of “ceasefire” violations, ongoing illegal occupation, the siege on Gaza, and mass killings continuing in Palestine, we follow the BDS Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) callout (21–28 March 2026) to talk once again about the systemic injustices lived by Palestinians.
These pressures do not end with this week, nor do the realities of apartheid and genocide in Palestine. This session therefore focuses on Palestinian history, settler colonialism, and apartheid by drawing from different contexts, including Algeria, South Africa, and the U.S. Inspired by the first IAW event 21 years ago at the University of Toronto, we learn about how the Palestinian liberation struggle is connected with other peoples fighting against oppression.
Some of the books we study with during the session are:
I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti
The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine – A History of Settler Colonial Conquest and Resistance by Rashid Khalidi
Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States by Audra Simpson
Pamphlets from Learning Palestine:
Vietnam, Algeria, Palestine: Passing on the torch of the anti-colonial struggle by Hamza Hamouchene
Palestine, Settler Colonialism & the Mushaa’ by Noura Alkhalili
#2 Discussing Theory and Practice
14 May 2026
This session is a continuation of our previous event for Israeli Apartheid Week and focuses on reflecting on and learning how to take action and strengthen solidarity beyond simply accumulating knowledge. Rather, it asks how we move toward practice. By drawing from different scholars and books that discuss how theory can be a source of healing, yet at the same time a tool for deradicalization, the aim of this session is to foster collective discussion and learn from one another. Conversations on non-extractive care and world-traveling serve as central points of discussion.
Some of the books we study with during the session are:
White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race by Gloria Wekker
Pilgrimages/Perenigrajes: Theorizing Coalition Against Multiple Oppressions by María Lugones.
Feminism if for Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks
#3 Finding Representation in Books
27 May 2026
The third Spring reading is part of our exhibition program move not for reason but love! This time, the session draws from different books on (anti-)Blackness, fatness, and self-love. The books are all nested in the fourth room of the exhibition, Ama Josephine Budge’s A Voyeur at the Keyhole.
The sections of the books chosen for this session, accompanied by writings of the artist herself, bring forth discussions on (in)securities, representation, and the need for radical care and community. Discussions center frustrations and expectations, and the role on literature in finding representation and answers on internal thoughts.
Some of the books that inform and echo Ama’s work that we engage with are:
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun L. Harrison
The Body is not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor
Climate Justice Code: For Artists, art workers, and arts organizations situated in the Global North
Rehearsing Hospitalities: Companion 3
#4 Whose Land(scape)?
9 June 2026
This reading session centers our new publication Walking_The Vacuum Landscape. Drawing from concepts such as land(scape) and resistance against empire, the session includes excerpts from selected books, zines, and other materials to connect lived experiences and struggles across different localities.
The chosen texts vary from ethnographic work to poetry and (written) conversations, all reflecting on land exploitation, colonization, and expropriation. The title of this session reflects discussions on ownership, land grabbing, and Indigenous sovereignty: who gets to (re)claim land? What about embodied practices and resisting occupation? Conversations regarding temporality and land/social movements are used to better understand the texts and collectively learn from everyone’s input and knowledge.
Some of the books we study with during the session are:
A Drop of Grief by Haneen Alisawi
Walking_The Vacuum Landscape by Lo Yuen Ming, ChunYao Lin, and Anitha Silvia. Edited by Yee Ting Lau
The Age of Olive Trees by Haia Mohammed
Women in the Zapatista Movement, by Hilary Klein, in Until the Rulers Obey: Voices from Latin American Social Movement
A Landscape of War: Ecologies of Resistance and Survival in South Lebanon, by Murira Khayyat
