Summer University is an annual gathering for experimental, cross-disciplinary learning, a zone of autonomy to produce knowledge, together, in the open. All are invited to attend and to contribute to any part of the programme.
Like PAF itself, Summer University is organised and sustained by a changing body of artists, activists, scholars and practitioners. Each year, some new and some familiar faces reproduce the heterogenous three-week body that is summer university.
Each evening, the following day's program will be written up on the chalkboard. There are a number of things scheduled each day and at any one time, but there is always space left open for unsolicited interventions, impromptu conventions and other forms of enthusiasm.
In addition to this program, the SU team has curated a series of weekly screenings in collaboration with the KADIST art organization. Featuring films from KADIST's collection, the three screenings will punctuate the SU curriculum to offer an echo for this year’s programme.
Like all bodies, summer university needs to eat. With the building at capacity, communal mealtimes tend to be set by the intersecting temporalities of the kitchen and our own metabolisms. Beyond this basic observance, the structure of a university day remains open to interpretation.
You can choose to stay for 4 days or 28 days, or anything in between, to pack your itinerary with events or simply relax in the garden with the chickens and play pétanque.
Sundays will be off.
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Whilst many things are flexible at summer university, some things are not. These include expressions of racism, misogyny, homo/transphobia, classism, ableism, body shaming and ageism. Simultaneously, we acknowledge that these systems structure and permeate lived realities all over the world, and as such, live within us as well. We are committed to a process of recognizing and dismantling them within ourselves and others, while also holding compassion for learning and making mistakes.
What was written by the larger PAF community holds for SU as well: “PAF is made of asymmetries. People come from different places, inhabit different bodies, have different experiences, are situated differently in power structures and have different boundaries. Take this into account, challenge your own position and let it be challenged, while respecting other people’s boundaries."
Initiated and run by artists, theoreticians, and practitioners themselves, PAF is an 18-year-old experiment in collectivity and emergent organisation. Neither a production-house, performance venue, nor a formal research centre, it is a platform for those who want to expand the possibilities of their practice, and the conditions of their work.
PAF inhabits an old convent of 3000 m2 dating back to 1820. It is surrounded by several gardens: the front garden, the inner courtyard, and the orchard (with old apple, pear, and nut trees). PAF offers over 50 private and shared bedrooms containing a single or double bed, a sink with hot water, a desk, a chair, and a cupboard. There are 6 large practice based studios, 2 music rooms with various instruments and music equipment, a large dance space, 2 libraries, a media space, a meditation and yoga studio, and many other multi-purpose spaces.
As an institution, PAF continues to develop on the basis of what each person brings through their engagement. PAF is maintained daily by the people who are on site. Together we practice a performative exception from regimes of private property, in which temporary relations of use and enjoyment entail a reciprocal sense of obligation to others and to things.
Over time, this form of self-organisation has coalesced into four living rules which provide a practical framework for interpreting our relation to the space, its inhabitants, and its environs. They are:
- Don't leave traces
Clean behind you in order to leave every square centimeter, that is not your private room, all the time available for everybody when you are not using it. Traces are unwanted or uninvited marks (material or immaterial) left in the space or in others.
- Make it possible for others
Think of this as an opportunity to open up space(s) by showing a rehearsal or a movie, giving a lecture, starting a discussion, cleaning a corridor, or helping somebody.
- The do-er decides
But not alone! Things are decided by the ones who do, more than the ones who talk. However, the opportunity to do is not without limits and action should be taken in consideration with others.
- Mind asymmetries
PAF is made of asymmetries. People come from different places, inhabit different bodies, have different experiences, are situated differently in power structures and have different boundaries. Take this into account, challenge your own position and let it be challenged, while respecting other people’s boundaries.
Read this for more information about PAF, its practices and practicalities.
Travel
How to get to PAF
PAF webpage
pa-f.net
