Changemaking comes from creativity - artists, writers and creative people of all kinds are frequently on the forefront of waves of change, pioneering new ideas and providing the storytelling essential to build mass support for important narratives. They illuminate ideas and crises, they inspire people to engage and act, and they document and empower often unseen/unheard people and landscapes. At the same time, art/culture is the natural battleground for these narratives to possess, the stronghold of resistance - when Just Stop Oil activists threw soup at the glass covering a Van Gogh painting (without causing any damage whatsoever to the artwork), they stated clearly that human creativity, the production of beauty by humans, is incompatible with the destructive profiteering of the oil industry, and indeed any unsustainable or ecologically exploitative human practice.

Over five small-group videocall sessions, and with a heavy focus on discussion and collective action, we will explore the ideas, work and practices of four artists/collectives making big steps forward with activism in culture: the Guerrilla Girls , the Center for Political Beauty , Abdul Abdullah , and the A22 Network .

The Center for Political Beauty embodies a radical form of humanism. It is an assault troop that establishes moral beauty, political poetry, and human magnanimity. The Center fuses the power of fantasy with the power of history, operating upon the fundamental conviction that the legacy of the Holocaust is rendered void by political apathy, the rejection of refugees, and cowardice. The CPB shapes political resistance in the 21st century - resistance is an art that needs to hurt, irritate, and unsettle. They experiment with the laws of reality and fill the space previously occupied by public intellectuals: the moral conscience.

The CPB will run two sessions as part of this workshop:



The Guerrilla Girls are a collective of anonymous artist activists known for their bold use of disruptive headlines, striking visuals, and compelling statistics to expose gender bias, ethnic bias, and corruption in art, film, politics, and popular culture. Their work champions intersectional feminism and advocates for human rights for all, challenging mainstream narratives by unveiling hidden stories, overlooked issues, and systemic injustice.

With a global reach, the Guerrilla Girls have executed hundreds of high-impact projects, including street posters, banners, public actions, books, and videos. Their interventions and exhibitions in prominent art museums are particularly impactful, often criticizing these institutions directly on their own walls for discriminatory practices. One notable project included a stealth projection on the façade of the Whitney Museum, addressing income inequality and the influence of the super-wealthy in the art world.

Their retrospectives and traveling exhibitions have drawn significant attention, with thousands of visitors attending (17,000 people turned up on January 31, 2024, at the Tate Modern). The group's latest book, "Guerrilla Girls: The Art of Behaving Badly", which compiles hundreds of their projects from 1985 to the present, hit the best-of-year lists in both The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times.

The Guerrilla Girls have exhibited at renowned venues worldwide, including the São Paulo Museum of Art, Venice Biennale, Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Museum of Military History in Dresden, Art Basel Hong Kong, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Toi o T?maki Museum in New Zealand, and the National Museum of World Writing in Korea, among many others. In Fall 2025, the Getty Research Center in Los Angeles will present an exhibition commemorating their 40-year history.

During their session, one of the founders of the Guearilla Girls will present images of some of their projects, and talk about how the Guerrilla Girls craft political art that has the power to change peoples' minds. There will be time for questions, discussion, and presenting/discussing your own projects.

Next up in the schedule, we get an opportunity to talk with Australian multi-disciplinary artist Abdul Abdullah. As a self-described 'outsider amongst outsiders', his practice is primarily concerned with the experience of the 'other' and is particularly interested in the disjuncture between perception/projection of identity and the reality of lived experience. Identifying as a Muslim whose formative years were in-part defined by the 'Global war on terror' and having both Malay/Indonesian and convict/settler Australian heritage, Abdullah occupies a precarious space in the political discourse that puts him at odds with popular definitions. In his artist talk and discussion, he will talk about his motivations and how his practice has adapted and responded to shifting political contexts, and how he has found himself a flashpoint for political maneuvering beyond the typical bounds of arts discourse.

In our penultimate session, we'll meet with two people from the A22 Network - people who trained and worked as designers, but who have given up that work to go all in on resistance. They'll talk about how they use creativity, art and shock to make things happen, encouraging you to give up your individual practice and work collectively for our survival. The A22 Network is the umbrella organisation joining the dots between international groups such as Just Stop Oil (UK), Letzte Generation (Germany), Aterstall Vatmarker (Sweden), Last Generation (Canada) and many more highly effective activist collectives. With protest laws tightening around the world, and many of the members of these organisations currently serving unjustly extended prison sentences, the work of A22 Network is more important than ever - this is a great opportunity to learn how to transform your creative practice to collective action.

Finally, we'll close the workshop with CPB's second session (see above).



WHERE AND WHEN?

This is an online course, but it involves realtime sessions and contact time with your tutor - it's not a "download these videos and watch them at your leisure" type of thing - it's a real workshop with live lectures, individual tuition, assignments and feedback sessions. We've tried to make this remote session as close as possible to the experience of an onsite workshop at CAMP. The course starts on 03/12/2024 and ends on 17/12/2024. The schedule for sessions is as follows (all times are CET):

• Session 1 - Center for Political Beauty: 03/12/2024, 19:00 - 22:00 CET
• Session 2 - Guerrilla Girls: 05/12/2024, 19:00 - 20:30 CET
• Session 3 - Abdul Abdullah: 07/12/2024, 11:00 - 13:00 CET
• Session 4 - A22 Network: 08/12/2024, 19:00 - 22:00 CET
• Session 5 - Center for Political Beauty: 17/12/2024, 19:00 - 22:00 CET

HOW TO BOOK

To book your place on the course, click the button in the green section above. You won't pay anything right now - we'll send you a booking confirmation email with everything you need to know next. Your place is reserved without payment for three days.

You'll find a payment link in the booking confirmation email - follow the link to make a payment (either in full, or the first payment of a 2 month payment plan). In the latter case, a monthly payment plan will be put in place, so your card will be charged 1/2 of the fee today, and 1/2 each month (on the same day) for an additional 1 months. All card payments are handled by Stripe, and are extremely secure. We don't store any card data ourselves - all of this is handled securely off-site by Stripe. If you have a discount or grant code, you will be able to add it when you follow the payment link in your confirmation email.

Once you've made a payment, you'll receive another email containing your receipt, links to resources, contact information and access to our group chat to discuss the workshop with other participants.