Exile Retreat: A Politics of Anti-concentrationism
Application Form ︎ Due March 15
This is an international call for participation, open to any individual over 25 years, of any gender or background, who is experiencing exile. For the purpose of the call the term ‘exile’ is not considered broadly: metaphorically or poetically. This call is intended for individuals who are barred from returning due to border partitions, war, occupation, colonial settlements, fear of political persecution or other circumstances that make their place of affinity uninhabitable or unreturnable for the time being.
The retreat is a preliminary attempt in creating space for the convening of exile persons across borders, languages and histories with a shared interest in antifascism. It involves three sessions on Zoom, open to a larger group of participants, and an in-person, week-long convening in April 2023. Applicants may indicate their interest in participation in either the online or in-person convenings through the application form. Through a brief interview process, a small number of participants will be selected to convene for a week long retreat in rural France. The retreat will include everyday activities such as cooking, cleaning, playing board games, workshops, discussions and reading.
All participants will receive a small honorarium for their participation in the online sessions, which will be held in English.
Travel, accommodation, food and transportation will be provided for the in-person convening. Although the convening is open to all applicants, due to budgetary limitations, travel support may only be provided for within Europe. Participants will agree to being filmed and recorded during the in-person convening. However they have the option to remain anonymous for safety and security reasons or due to personal preference. Participants are welcomed to use pseudonyms or acronyms and it is not required for their faces to be recorded.
The retreat is intended as a space of short-term communal living, learning, experimentation and discussion among shared experiences of exile. It is intended as a space of being together without the pressure to perform any specific roles. The retreat is a space to think through the connections between exile and antifascism, and the potentials of imagining exile as an institution for a transnational politics of anti-concentrationism.
Exile Retreat is part of artist Gelare Khoshgozaran’s project ُTo Be the Author of One’s Own Travels.
Gelare Khoshgozaran is an artist, filmmaker and writer whose work engages with the legacies of imperial violence. She uses film and video to explore narratives of belonging outside of the geographies and temporalities that have both unsettled our sense of home, and make our places of affinity uninhabitable. Gelare has exhibited internationally and is an editor at MARCH: a journal of art and strategy.