17 Feb 2024
14:30 - 17:30
Book Launch: Stories of Wounds and Wonder
Join us for an afternoon of readings, music and conversations celebrating the launch of Stories of Wounds and Wonder, an experimental children’s book by art researcher, writer, and pedagogue Nuraini Juliastuti. Stories of Wounds and Wonder is the result of a two-year research commission with the Amsterdam based arts organisation If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution.
Register here!
Audiences of different ages welcome.
Stories of Wounds and Wonder narrates cross-species practices of survival across the Indonesian archipelago, centring the perspectives of local animals such as endangered monkeys, cosmopolitan rats, migrant sparrows and fugitive dogs. Written in the form of a play, its six episodes ground the readers in the animals’ struggles and aspirations as they go about their daily lives and face the consequences of postcolonial erasure, ecological destruction and capitalist expansion. Intertwining different registers and modes of reading, the book combines dialogues, songs and drawings, with contextualising essays and an extensive notation.
As a script for intergenerational transmission, Stories of Wounds and Wonder is a tool to be performed together and in multiple ways. On the occasion of the book launch, the script is turned into a radio play performed live by Mercedes Azpilicueta, Astrit Ismaili, Nuraini Juliastuti, and Ratu R. Saraswati. Guided by the adventurous she/rat Puteri, children and adults alike can learn about cross-species solidarity and rebellious movements, but also about disappearing Indigenous cosmologies, and the brave women who wove cloths around the mountains in eco-political resistance.
This special reading is followed by a conversation between Juliastuti and architect, artist, and cultural producer Yazan Khalili. The conversation will touch upon the main themes of the book and their intersection with Khalili’s expansive practice, including anti-colonial knowledge production and community-based infrastructures, intergenerational publishing, drawing as research, and cross-species solidarity.
Taking place alongside a display companion to the book, this afternoon programme is hosted by If I Can’t Dance curator Sara Giannini and artist Reza Afisina, with music selection and groovy intermissions by Cempaka.
Broadcast on Radio Alhara
25 February 2024
13.00–16.00hr, Palestine time (+1 CET)
For all those far away or unable to attend live on the 17th February, the whole programme will be broadcast by Bethlehem-based Radio Alhara on the last day of the display companion.
Read more about the full programme at Framer Framed here.
You can purchase Stories of Wounds and Wonder at Framer Framed or via the If I Can’t Dance webshop
Acknowledgements
Stories of Wounds and Wonder is commissioned by If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution within the frame of Edition IX – Bodies and Technologies (2022-23). Its release closes the Edition IX Finale Programme, which took place between September 2023 and February 2024 across Amsterdam venues. If I Can’t Dance is financially supported by the Mondriaan Fund, AFK, Ammodo and Cultuurfonds.
The launch events are co-presented by If I Can’t Dance and Framer Framed and are generously supported by the project Worlding Public Cultures: The Arts and Social Innovation at the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis (ASCA), University of Amsterdam. Framer Framed is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Amsterdam Fund for the Arts; Municipality of Amsterdam; and VriendenLoterij Fonds.
Book Launch / Ecology / Indonesia / Colonial history /
Exhibitions
Stories of Wounds and Wonder
Presentation of the artistic research & experimental children's book by researcher, writer and pedagogue Nuraini Juliastuti
Agenda
Guided Tour: Stories of Wounds and Wonder
Guided tour with the author of Stories of Wounds and Wonder, Nuraini Juliastuti
Network
Astrit Ismaili
Artist
Reza Afisina
Cempaka aka Marishka Soekarna
Artist
Mercedes Azpilicueta
Artist
Sara Giannini
Curator
Ratu R. Saraswati
Artist and performer
Nuraini Juliastuti
Researcher and writer
