Contested Desires: Constructive Dialogues
25.01–28.02.2025
14 February 2025
10:00 – 1700h
WAITING WARS | Research Workshop Session by Maria Luigia Gioffre
As part of Contested Desires - Creative Europe, artist-scholar Maria Luigia Gioffre has been selected for a residency in the Netherlands, hosted by H401, Creative Court and Kunstfort Vijfhuizen (NL).
Her workshop is inspired by the idea of soldiers waiting for the unknown. It consists of two parts: a discussion on how we prepare for possible catastrophe—whether environmental collapse or the consequences of capitalism—and an active theatrical exercise translating these reflections into performance. Objects, such as Kunstfort’s field beds, may serve as symbolic elements in the staging.
A small group of volunteer participants is invited to reflect on contemporary echoes of wartime anticipation. In a judgment-free space of care, the workshop explores urgent existential concerns, both personal and collective, linked to the failures of Western capitalism and the unfolding global environmental crisis.
Using art as a tool for world-making and affective writing as an aesthetic practice, participants will navigate speculative imaginaries that touch on themes of displacement, vanishing, homelessness, rising sea levels, and life-threatening environmental conditions. The process aims to reimagine possible futures and interrogate how we define war in today’s context.
Set at Kunstfort, a UNESCO World Heritage site, this dialogue connects historical wartime structures with present fears, fostering new interpretations of conflict, survival, and resilience in an era of profound global uncertainty.
