Organising Hope

video, 12:01″ DVD

In today’s society, the mechanisms of exploitation are so powerful that the realistically achievable opportunities and visions of a different social and work organization, both in practical and ideological terms, are difficult even to imagine. Organisinig Hope is a 4-channel video installation that presents various interventions in work self-organization: Minipogon (Belgrade, Serbia) – explores alternative methods of production, cooperative relationships, self-management and develops the concept of equity with an economic foothold. It is a production plant for making objects from recycled plastic works through inclusion of marginal social groups and as a ‘resources’ uses the rejected and by-products of a modern capitalist society.; The Calafou (Valbona, Catalunya) is an off-spring of the Cooperativa Integral Catalana, an autonomous alternative economic formation uniting hundreds of people for conducting economic exchanges and reciprocal actions and using its own currency. The factory and its apartments are being collectively acquired meaning that their residents receive a-right-to-use rather than certifications of private property.; Lets (Ostende, Belgium) is a local community oriented model of time-banking based on reciprocal service exchange that uses units of time as currency. The unit of currency is always valued at an hour’s worth of any person’s labor without matter what kind of work. Communities use this as a tool to forge stronger intra-community connections.; ERREKALEOR BIZARIK (Vitoria, Basque) is a large squat occupied by over 150 adults, mostly students located on 25 acres of land. Occupation of the building was a direct response to the obvious attempt to boost real estate speculation in a city with 15,000 empty homes, and the impossibility of paying rent in an increasingly expensive market.

The purpose of this video is to present existing and realistically viable alternatives to the dominant system of social, political, economic and cultural exchange. The video works are mounted in a way that encourages a sense of hope in the viewer and aims at encouragement.

The project was made with the exceptional contributions of all 4 organizations both in video and direct collaboration on video work and as a product of post-production collaboration at the Summit Art of Organising Hope in Ghent, in 2018. and 2019.

Chapter 1:

Chapter 2:

Chapter 3:

Chapter 4:

Production: Victoria DeLuxe, Ghent, Belgium, 2019.

Idea and realisation: Danilo Prnjat

Contributors: Dominique Willaert, Alexander Matkovic, Saide Jamal, Sara Vilardo, Sara Vertongen, Maria Lucia Cruz and many others.

Editing: Alessandro Cozzutto, Danilo Prnjat

Text: Danilo Prnjat