BETRAYING UTOPIA / SLIME UTOPIA
Introduction part I and II
"I am not real, I am just like you".
A utopia is a suspended locale, a space without time, extracted out of the mud of life.
In this canonical, western version, it is a suspicious object of desire - dis-incarnated;
bodies are designed, pacified, idealized. It is an island where time is suspended,
therefore transformation is excluded.
What happens when we re-introduce time, when we betray Utopia’s intentions?
To unlearn what “Utopia” could be/become, Jassem Hindi uses historical, conceptual and
speculative strategies. This audio narrative consists of two parts, and it is a soft introduction
to a wider research on “Betraying” utopia, and on “Slimy” utopia. He looks at utopia as a political
practice that is not about projection (waiting patiently for the future) in a linear, progressive
timeline (what is possible according to what we know) - our strategy is to fragment utopia into
smaller pieces and disseminate those fragments in our present practices.
In art, Utopia is not ‘yet to come’, it is a now: a poem written in times of war is direct access
to utopia, a pharmakon in times of hardship - this is the effectiveness of utopia, its potential
for immanence, for betraying the dis-incarnated, idealist version.
This work is dedicated to the loving memory of Alina Popa
First two episodes produced by https://www.futurematter.institute/
Part 1. Betraying Utopia
The first part is about how betrayal can be used as a tool to corrupt, to shred utopia, about how time haunts utopia, and the difference between chimeras and monsters.
The first part is about how betrayal can be used as a tool to corrupt, to shred utopia, about how time haunts utopia, and the difference between chimeras and monsters.
FutureMatter · Future Matter # 3.2 - Jassem Hindi : Slimy Utopia
Image by @viktortimo
Part 2. Slimy Utopia
The second part is about what happens when we have shredded utopia to pieces. I will evoke what kind of politics of hospitality are implied in a slimy utopia.
The second part is about what happens when we have shredded utopia to pieces. I will evoke what kind of politics of hospitality are implied in a slimy utopia.
I aspect poetry and monsters towards a political practice, a political practice of magic which says: ‘’I am not real, I am just like you’’.
Image by @viktortimo