👻Ghost Camp👻

Dear,

We are organizing a 3-day camping sessions including workshops and presentations, and would be very happy to have you joining as a guest. With the revival of right-wing and fascist ideologies we wanted to find ways of discussing these mechanisms and find alternative counter strategies and practical ways of defense. Noticing their use of survival camps to enhance communal bonds we wanted to use that same strategy as a counter tactic. Where those camps usually result in an even further exclusive and disconnected community the aim is to provide something starting communal that can, in turn, become inclusive and outwards looking. This project is organized under the umbrella of the Mycological Twist in collaboration with Leslie Kulesh.

The dates of the camp are set from the 5th – 7th of August, with workshops and presentations on the 6th or 7th. Currently we reserved a campsite in Epping forest where we invite around 12 persons to join us for a program with workshops in between moments of foray, cooking and conversations meandering into topics of interest.

The workshops that will be given are:

Wish-pot: engrave a wish on the pot. Fire them on location, in a self-made oven. These pots will be used to eat the rest of the meals from.

Self-made Self-defense. Turn everyday objects and make your own defensive weapons (water bottles, pepper spray, keys, laptop power cords etc.). Basic moves, potentially with the new acquired weapons.

Defense against the Dark-Troll, role-play scenario troubleshooting.

Dark-emoji’s. Scavenging materials and turning them into emoji’s for unknown or missing emotions.

Cost for the food and stay will be covered, except the transport to the campsite. However this is relatively close to the Underground, and from there £7,- for a cab which will be shared with others. If you have a tent that is amazing, otherwise we will try to collectively ask around and see where we can borrow some.

Fragments of this adventure will be displayed in the exhibition ‘Escaping the Digital Unease’ in Kunsthal Langenthal, which focuses on the origin of net optimism and how we can reclaim or find alternative platforms for that to happen. Here, we will display physical remains of the camp alongside items produced such as the pottery. More conceptual and thought materials will be engraved into wooden logs, which will be infected with oyster mushrooms and slowly disintegrate after the exhibition is over.

We really hope you would like to join and participate in this. If so, please confirm via email so we can give a final number to the campsite. After confirmation, more practical information will be send soon.If any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Warm greetings,
Leslie, Eloïse, Anne