Author: Gisela Mackenroth

Earthcare Fieldcast: Episode 12

This is an episode that features two German struggles for access to land: the ABL (Association of Peasant Farmers in Germany) and Ackersyndikat (Field Syndicate – a platform for collective farm ownership and operation). Tune in to listen to Anne (ABL) and Jost (Ackersyndikat), and follow their campaigns and work.

READ MORE Earthcare Fieldcast: Episode 12

Earthcare Fieldcast: Episode 11

This episode celebrates 10+ years of domestic workers organizing and campaigning in Spain, where congress finally approved legislation that grants domestic workers equal rights to other workers. Listen to the stories of Territorio Doméstico and Mujeres Unidas entre Tierras, two powerful collectives that have not just campaigned, but developed an incredible toolbox of mutual support, care, networking, migrant solidarity and celebration.

READ MORE Earthcare Fieldcast: Episode 11

Ups and downs of culture and values

During ongoing protests in 2014 that escalated in a burning governance building for the first time I took part in interdisciplinary collaborations among different artistic disciplines mostly in public spaces. Thereby I experienced how art can be a tool for expressing resistance and solidarity while recipients are not a middle-class audience who pay tickets, actually this time the gaining ones of the artistic contribution have been  the very people who have been  addressed in the art piece itself, in this example: the unpaid workers which protested on the streets in front of the parliament in Sarajevo BiH 2014.

READ MORE Ups and downs of culture and values

The World of Colleureuses

A Marseille, les premiers collages ont incité un groupe d’ami.es à créer leur propre mouvement de collage en septembre 2019 sur le principe de l’intersectionnalité. Nous sommes un collectif sans chef.fe et sans hiérarchie. Lorsque l’un.e de nous a une idée de phrase, on la propose au collectif qui la valide ou non.
L’intérêt de ce moyen d’action se trouve aussi dans la large audience qu’il peut toucher. La rue étant un lieu public, nos messages sont vus par des gens de classes sociales, de genres et d’âges différents ; ils peuvent atteindre tout le monde. De la femme victime de violence qui y trouve du soutien au vieux monsieur retraité qui ne comprend rien au féminisme et que notre message va peut-être faire réfléchir, nous nous trouvons face à toutes sortes de réactions.

READ MORE The World of Colleureuses

Global Scream! Polish Protest Art in Berlin

During the communist era in Poland, art was part of the socialist party’s propaganda and free art was censored. However, artists created politically engaged art, openly provoking or hiding ‘politically incorrect’ content between the lines. The political role of art is very much needed again today. As an artist, I have always addressed political, social and religious themes in my work. Since I have become involved in activism, I am practically still doing the same thing – engaged art, only that it is shown on the street, seen by crowds and not by a narrow circle of people interested in art. As an artist, I see this as a challenge to myself and my work, to seek a definition of art.

READ MORE Global Scream! Polish Protest Art in Berlin

Earthcare Fieldcast: Episode 9

Fossil gas is an urgent example of the tension between social and climate issues. While climate scientists point out the use of methane gas must be phased out, millions of people are suffering from rising gas prices. How does Russia’s war on Ukraine and Germany’s suspension of the NordStream 2 pipeline from Russia change this terrain? And is it possible to transition away from gas without an explosion in energy poverty – or a planned decrease in energy use?

READ MORE Earthcare Fieldcast: Episode 9

Transfers: Öffentliches Erforschen der Stadt mit den Münchner Kammerspielen

What is the City? Was macht unsere Stadt aus? Wer bestimmt die kommenden Entwicklungen? Welche Handlungsspielräume bleiben uns? Diese Fragen untersuchen die Münchner Kammerspiele gemeinsam mit Künstler*innen und Akteur*innen des kulturellen und gesellschaften Lebens im Rahmen mehrer Forschungsresidenzen. Gisela Mackenroth hat die hieraus entstandene Performance “Mimetic Bodies in Public Space” aus soziologischer Perspektive kommentiert. Mit Bezügen auf philosophische, künstlerische und ethnographische Ausrichtungen der Stadtforschung arbeitet sie heraus, wie die Performance zu konkreten Formen öffentlichen und kollektiven Forschens in der Stadt anregt. Der Text ist hier online verfügbar.

READ MORE Transfers: Öffentliches Erforschen der Stadt mit den Münchner Kammerspielen

Video documentation of the discussion: Feminist cross-movement alliances

During the discussion on May 24, 2022 we were gathering different local and translocal experiences with cross-movement alliances driven by queer-feminist initiatives.First, the activists from Bulgaria, Spain, Switzerland and France were bringing in reports on queer-feminist interventions in social struggles within their local contexts. We were talking about queer-feminist protest against neoliberal reforms of social services, as well as queer-feminist initiatives for social housing and opposition against nationalist, right wing politics. Second, we were getting to know the transnational feminist network “Essential Autonomous Struggles Transnational” (EAST). We were learning more about EAST’s queer-feminist approach to connect social struggles of migrants, care workers, women and LGBTQI-communities on a transnational level.

READ MORE Video documentation of the discussion: Feminist cross-movement alliances

Episode 9: Ending Europe’s Gas Addiction

ple of the tension between social and climate issues. While climate scientists point out the use of methane gas must be phased out, millions of people are suffering from rising gas prices. How does Russia’s war on Ukraine and Germany’s suspension of the NordStream 2 pipeline from Russia change this terrain? And is it possible to transition away from gas without an explosion in energy poverty – or a planned decrease in energy use?

READ MORE Episode 9: Ending Europe’s Gas Addiction