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A Symposium on Disability Justice and Collective Action as Self-Care
18 November 2023 15:00 – 21:00
Caring Space at Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst
Limmatstrasse 270
CH-8005 Zurich
The symposium “The Politics of (Self) Care” takes place on the occasion of the exhibition Interdependencies: Perspectives on Care and Resilience at Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst. It addresses how social injustice and problems that exist in most of our societies can be made visible through art.
A great awareness in the politics of care has emerged against the backdrop of the global pandemic, but also in the wake of global protest movements that have drawn attention to structural forms of oppression in social systems and called for intersectional perspectives. The increasing recognition of disability and chronic illness in the arts has led to a long-overdue response to ableism in the art world and to the exploration of concepts of accessibility and disability justice. There is also cause for concern that these issues will quickly fade from the spotlight as the neoliberal machinery turns its attention to new topics once the pandemic becomes less of a priority for those privileged to ignore it.
While self-care is sometimes criticized as part of the capitalist wellness industry, disability justice thinkers remind us that it has a very different meaning from that perspective. The act of caring can thus become a critique of systems of domination and exploitation. The symposium points to the structural problems of health care in various societies that contribute more to the exclusion of those affected than to their inclusion. Similar effects also occur at the social level and in coexistence, as people can be excluded by ethical actions. In contrast, the symposium presents approaches that create connections between affected people, such as “care webs” that build their structures of care for themselves and their community. These are activist structures and communities that advocate for their rights. Based on these considerations, the symposium explores how established narratives can be addressed and rewritten through acts of care.
