Dedicated to critical cultural production at the intersection of art and activism.

The same rebel cyclists who swarmed COP15 and lived to tell the tale in Groundswell’s journal are bringing their postcapitalist utopian strategies to Hamburg.

The Lab of ii prepares for COP15

The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination‘s (Lab of ii) FLOOD< FLOW> SWARM will include: a pedal powered cinema performance, bike swarm trainings for experimental and aspiring cyclists, and a distributed sound swarm on the final day, intervening in the city with a mass of bike-mounted sound systems conducted by DIY radio waves.

The Lab of ii reports:

All events are free just like life should be lived > > >
FLOW: Come help pedal-power our utopian road movie, a fictional documentary based on a 7 months journey through a post-capitalist Europe of liberated zones. The world premiere of the film part of our bookfilm project Paths Through Utopias. Free popcorn for all !

August 20th & 21st – 19:00
SWARM: Bring a bike (and FM radio) and get involved in our preparations for the final intervention, Sunday’s cycle sonic adventure across the city, FLOOD. Based on our Bike Bloc trainings in civil disobedience used in Copenhagen during the UN climate summit you can practice the art of flowing like water, swarming like bees and being in a bike gang.

Sunday August 22nd – 19:00
FLOOD: The Grand Finale. Bring a bike, an FM radio and the desire for collective adventure, invite your friends and rebel cyclists, the more the merrier…

Go forth and swarm!

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UPDATE: RebelArt has posted pictures of Voina preparing the action, and is reporting that 3,500 cockroaches were released in the courtroom. One of Voina’s websites has more, including some of the ones below.

The court’s decision in the much-discussed Forbidden Art exhibit was handed down earlier this week, with fines for the defendant curators Yury Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeyev, for inciting religious hatred.  The radical artists collective Voina was on hand for the verdict.

In addition to grabbing headlines by painting a giant penis on the St. Petersberg bridge recently, in 2009, Voina disrupted the Taganskiy District court during the hearing of the Forbidden Art case with a one-song punk concert, performing as the punk collective Cock In the Ass.  The song they chose was All cops are bastards from the new album PLEN, a Russian acronym for “Fuck the Police Those Motherfucking Bosses.”  Watch in the video below.

As judge Svetlana Aleksandrova announced the verdict, stating that “the artwork at ‘Forbidden Art’ is very gross and very offensive for viewers and humiliates their sense of human dignity,” Voina released thousands of cockroaches into the courtroom before being detained.

3,500 roaches hit the courtroom floor

Voina’s Pytor Verzilov being detained (Image credit: Denis Sinyakov / Reuters in The Moscow Times)

The curators have vowed to appeal.

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BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill has taken center stage internationally, and the disaster has brought to the fore questions about the connection between cultural organizations and their sponsors.  The Tate celebrated 20 years of BP sponsorship [PDF] last week, as one of many London-based institutions accepting money from big oil.  The artist/activist group Liberate Tate intervened, staging an oil spill inside the party and outside, at the gallery’s entrance, as documented in the video below.

Liberate Tate made headlines, and was joined by many outspoken allies in an open letter published in the Guardian condemning BP’s sponsorship of the Tate.  Among the signatories are many recognizable names, including art world luminaries, well-known artists/activists we’ve covered, or friends of Groundswell.

The organizers show no sign of slowing.  We’ll continue to follow the action; regular updates are also available from Liberate Tate’s Twitter account.

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Add Art has released a new version of their Firefox plugin. Upgrade now and catch The Panthers Showed Unity, Then The House Was Divided by Shani Peters

It’s Raining Social Practice | Smack Mellon brings a survey exhibit, Condensations of the Social, with the suggestion that social practice, more than any other, can change how we live. [Provisions]

Keep it Movement | The United States Social Forum is in full swing, with many not-to-be-missed events.  We’re not in town, but if you are, dig the New World from Below book party for some friendly faces. [USSF]

Time to Upgrade | Eyebeam, Not An Alternative, and Upgrade!NY are busy with Re:Group: Beyond Models of Consensus, which starts with participation as a dominant, even coercive paradigm, and examines it in art, activism, urbanism, technology, and more. [Upgrade]

Tips Appreciated | The HONK! Festival’s annual benefit happens Friday, with RiotFolk artist Evan Greer, the Second Line Social Aid & Pleasure Society, and more of Boston’s wonderfully weird. [HONK!]

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Emily Larned’s Stock Project

More Repression | NYC cops and Federal agents raided the headquarters of the fourth annual Anarchist Film Fest. [Infoshop]

Reason to Celebrate | Our friends at Red Sun Press celebrate 35 years with a retrospective show this May.  Here’s the video (Facebook required) for those who can’t make it to Boston. [Red Sun Press]

Notes from Underground | Boston’s local zine library celebrates its reopening this weekend with some lovely friends.  Come say hello! [Papercut Zine Library]

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