Last year BAK, basis voor actuele kunst in Utrecht received the bad news that it will not receive any government subsidies from 2025 onwards, neither from the municipality nor from the state. The organization is now at the beginning of a new phase that begins with a six-month period of thinking and planning.
Artist Jeanne van Heeswijk recently joined the organization as artistic director. Under the name Basecamp for Tactical Imaginaries it is organizing a series of meetings and conversations between January and June 2025 to reflect on the direction for organization within overlapping crises: political, social, economic, climate. The conversations will focus on the types of infrastructure most necessary and useful for sustaining artistic and cultural practices emerging from current urgencies.
"The frightening demise of the promise of democracy and the rise of anti-democratic, authoritarian, right-wing politics in the Netherlands and globally requires cultural formations that cultivate thinking, imagining and acting; these approaches must prioritize equality and restoration to counter and reinvent the status quo. Recognizing the need for cultural spaces to function as sites for intimacy, critique, inquiry and possibility, the meetings focus on tactical imagination and collective practices that offer both tranquility and a place from which to act."
The goal of the program is to confront the wanton demise of critical organizations. To achieve this, it invites Basecamp for Tactical Imaginaries trusted commons composed of cultural workers and thinkers, students, grassroot organizations, activists and other social actors to debate and shape an arts institution capable of addressing current and future political challenges.
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