European Schools of Care

ongoing

With the “European Schools of Care” (ESC) project we initiate a revisioning and reinvention of the Ancient Greek schools of care that – in the founding times of European democracy in Ancient Greece – were meant to reflect upon and develop social practices of care and living the good life. However, these schools used to be exclusive male gatherings that did not consider major parts of society, among them women, children and people who were enslaved. The ESC project reinvents the ancient version of this idea as an inclusive queer/feminist and intersectional future practice/space between arts, activism, education & care work that addresses itself to different marginalised groups and minorities, among them people with disabilities, people of colour, migrant people, queer people, et al. The ESC project thus works on the large societal task of social inclusion; however, it understands social inclusion as an artistic, performative practice – and vice versa! It thus evokes and reimagines the ancient model, in which democratic assemblies, theatrical productions & philosophical schools of care belonged inseparably together, in a contemporary format. The ESC project is a small-scale project of 3 partners&countries – Inter Alia (Athens, Greece), Performat Foundation (Warsaw, Poland) & kainkollektiv (Bochum/Berlin, Germany) – that implements the schools of care in different g/local versions in each country and interconnects them in a joint, transnational enterprise of all partners. From community-building+alternative forms of education in a small town in Poland over eco feminist + environmental initiatives in Greece to a performative three-days women’s theatre festival celebrating the art of assembly in Germany, the ESC project orchestrates in multiple practices, methods, workshops & meetings the inclusion and (re)invention of a future Europe for ALL– a common, yet manifolded vision that will eventually be published in a practical handbook as Europe’s new CONSTITUTION OF CARE.