Alongside the performance program, FAROUT offers eight days of meetings, workshops, conversations, lunches, and dinners exploring convivialism as a pragmatic approach, accompanying and at times challenging political theory.
We have chosen to practice convivialism as the next step in creating a shared space, filling it with collective decision-making, generosity, and mutualism.
In recent years, many communities and social groups have experimented with and developed alternative forms of kinship outside of prevailing power structures, cultivating pleasure, nourishment, and memory. In this context, the table and kitchen—understood as workshops—become spaces for radical care, for experimenting with alternative economies, and for sharing time for rest and work.
A multiform table, designed by Lemonot, will sit at the heart of the festival as a living space where production and the sharing of knowledge come together. It will serve as an opportunity for informal learning, political reflection, geographical memory, and the processing of both pain and small joys, alongside artists, philosophers, researchers, designers, and cooks.
This space was created to promote the idea of cultural and artistic institutions returning to prefigurative practices. What cultural platforms need is not simply a showcase, but a commitment to nurturing the conditions in which organizational processes—like those developed by movements and certain communities in protected contexts—can spread over time and space to become everyday practices.
In contrast to hyper-connected and hyper-mercantile society, the pursuit of new (yet old) ways of living—where needs are minimized to ensure self-sustainability—represents a new, marginal alternative for living well. However, while reducing our needs may sound appealing, it is only a partial solution. Movements such as minimalism or survivalism contribute to denying the need for community and accepting society’s inability to find collective answers to contemporary challenges. Although these challenges—commonly identified as climate change and the crisis of capitalism—are widely recognized, agreeing on the actions needed to address them often seems utopian. Working together requires not only acknowledging common ground but also respecting individual differences. If community is viewed merely as a necessity, conflict is likely to prevail. But if community is seen as a desire, then desire can prevail over conflict, and the search for collective solutions beyond discord becomes possible. In this sense, common ground is not enough; a convivial ground may offer a solution.
The design, shape, and proportions of the table allow for different possibilities and qualities of gathering, thus creating different meanings. However, the table—the line—often struggles to accommodate larger groups, forming smaller discussion circles based on seating. In this case, another spatial typology—the circle—designed specifically for the assembly of the entire community, is required. In many projects, because aggregation is a fundamental need, another convivial space is introduced: the agora, a round theater where the community can gather.
A space for representation, discourse, play, or performance, the table becomes an invitation where the festival community meets with local residents or participants.
DISCOVER THE SCHOOL OF CONVIVIALITY↗ AT FAROUT LIVE ARTS FESTIVAL 2024: THE CONVIVIAL LABORATORY↗