Podiumsdiskussion: Forms of Kinship – Liquid Dependencies
With Aneta Rostkowska (CCA Temporary Gallery, Cologne), Kris Dittel (independent curator), Aiwen Yin (ReUnion Network / Liquid Dependencies)
Moderator: Mi You
Kinship relations are often thought of as relations of (ancestral) filiation, alliance, love and care, however, they also entail ownership, rights and obligations. Historically, social practices around kinship have variously strengthened or hindered the advance of capitalism. The nuclear family, legally coded and socially performed, is also a relation of production and reproduces capitalism’s inherent structures of domination. From the angle of a radical care, which both encompasses self-care and a relational, if not a collective practice, kinship can be reconfigured to include allyship and protectorship. We will pair our reflections with artistic imaginaries and enactments, such as from the Live-Action Role Playing game Liquid Dependencies. Students from the University of Kassel and Kunsthochschule Kassel will enact the Liquid Dependencies game during the day, a life simulation and a generative social experiment that takes peer-to-peer caring relationships as the cornerstone for a commons-oriented, caring society.
Liquid Dependencies is developed by the multidisciplinary collective 'Liquid Dependencies Theory' (Yin Aiwen, Mengyang Zhao and Yiren Zhao)
The event is also part of Temporary Gallery’s study group On Kinship. This series of gatherings aims to think collectively about the way we form relations in and with the world, outside of the nuclear family structure. The meetings take place monthly, online. Each session is led by an invited guest, including artists, thinkers, poets, activists.