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The Space of Opportunity organizes the winter edition of its artistic seminar series for the third time, with the thematic frame of "pirate care".

One of the deficiencies of contemporary societies is the abandonment of care. While mutual dependence and solidarity are key to the coexistence of humans, states embracing global neo-liberal economics place the responsibility of care on the individual or the immediate family, which may or may not function. Increasingly, the welfare state fails to properly perform its duties in health, education, culture and social care. The gap is partly filled by for-profit organizations, and occasionally NGOs, which leaves many without access to adequate care and services.

“Pirate care” denotes independent, grass-roots, solution-driven projects by NGOs or activists who dare to infringe the law if need be. The term was first applied in a broader sense by a transdisciplinary and transnational research project and network, formed in 2019 for the creation of a common, independent care infrastructure. The project includes initiatives that seek to counter general abortion bans, segregated education or the criminalization of homelessness. States often do not recognize such care practices, or even criminalize and persecute them.

For our part, we consider critical culture as yet another expression of care, which is capable of articulating contemporary problems and questioning the status quo with the aim of restoring and strengthening the capacity for change and action. At the same time, the neo-liberal world order, which disclaims social sensitivity, is another phase of capitalism in which the role of critical culture, and within it, of progressive art, is called into question. They are snubbed while the culture that receives support favours mass entertainment and such institutions that refrain from experimentation.

With this year’s Survival Strategies seminars, we invite you to join us in our attempt at pirate care in culture through the sharing of ideas and the experience of community—inclusive and accepting events that can inspire solidarity in other fields as well. We will be given a helping hand by artists who will propose subjects for the workshops and will host the joint exercises.

1. STEPHANIE WINTER (Vienna)
February 21, 2025. 18.00-19.30
Public presentation by Stephanie Winter on the activity of Salon Hybrid and her aristic practice
February 22, 2025. 10.00-18.00, application required (deadline: February 17, 2025)

Stephanie Winter
SHARING SESSION: Transformative Potentials
This session offers an open and evolving space to explore the themes of transformative potentials through collective dreaming, creative exploration, and communal connection. Designed as a safer, inclusive environment, the workshop invites participants to reflect on societal challenges, care, activism, and togetherness while imagining new ways of being in the world.

The session is inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction which emphasizes the power of storytelling, care, and collaboration in shaping our future. Le Guin’s idea that we collect not only food, but seeds, stories, and perspectives will guide us as we come together to share and imagine. Through this process, we create space for transformative potentials to emerge, allowing for the building of solidarity and resilience in challenging times.

The session is inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s "The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction" which emphasizes the power of storytelling, care, and collaboration in shaping our future. Le Guin’s idea that we collect not only food, but seeds, stories, and perspectives will guide us as we come together to share and imagine. Through this process, we create space for transformative potentials to emerge, allowing for the building of solidarity and resilience in challenging times.

Throughout the day, participants will be invited to engage in different practices that activate both individual and collective potentials. The session will include meditative exercises, sharing session woven into a communal ritual and a constellation mapping.
Meditative exercises will be led by Stephanie Winter, which will help to reflect on our inner landscapes and open pathways for imagination and creativity. In the sharing session participants can contribute something personal related to care, hope, or transformation—a gesture, a song, an object, a thought, or a story. These offerings will be woven into a communal ritual, where acts of giving and receiving deepen our connection with one another and the world around us. Followed by a constellation mapping, which is a practice designed to visualize the links between inner and outer landscapes. This activity will help us reflect on how personal care and communal solidarity intersect, offering new perspectives on how we relate to ourselves, each other, and the world we inhabit.