The Possibility of Planetarity
Summer School 25
7th Transdisciplinary Summer School at West Den Haag
18.08.2025 — 22.08.2025

‘Planetarity will travel from animism to the post-rationalist science, from the subaltern to the elite’- GC Spivak

Instructors:
Rehema Chachage (TZ), Avishek Ganguly (IN), Yala Kisukidi (BE), Naya de Souza (BR) and Baruch Gottlieb (CA/DE)

Applications + info:
chloe@westdenhaag.nl

The summer school is open to artists, theorists, and others of all ages from 18-75 who are interested in developing their practices in a radically transdisciplinary framework, working through their own bodily sensibilities and their social imbrications in an environment of mutual respect and support. This school is convened by Baruch Gottlieb.

Feet on the ground, tongues in the air!
Inspired by Spivak’s uncompromising, implacable, revolutionary dissection of the legacy of European colonialism, in our 7th international Summer School we will make time to stay with the trouble in our best intentions. Through story-telling exercises with installation artist Rehema Chachage, french and afrikana philosophy with Yala Kisukidi, the sharp and daring comedy and performance art of Naya de Souza and the epistemic performance of Avishek Ganguly, our school develops methods of bodied thinking where critical and challenging discussions and thinking are processed through movement, voice and action.

As Donna Harraway puts it – ‘non-innocently’ – we will take a week together in a program which holds the space for us to listen to the worlds ringing and working through us, developing our existing modes of engagement and experimenting with new ones, alone and with others. Applying techniques from the arts, political and cultural theory, literature, philosophy, ecofeminism and activism, the school aims to help ground projects concerned with social justice in a rich historical context and material consciousness of where we are right now.

Nobody said it would be easy. The current reactionary backlash against feminism, non-Europeans, against gender non-conforming people is a testament to the great success these groups have achieved since 1945. So much conservative patriarchy has been de-normalized and a queer, diverse, polytemporal and an-anthropocentric understanding of the world has become self-evident. We all have lived it. The revolution has happened and is happening and today’s reaction is the inertia of the old system writhing and resisting the new reality. This is not to say that the reaction does not invoke violence, cruelty and tragedy. This is the violence, cruelty and tragedy which always undergirded the Humanist project, now winding back from the margins into the mainstream.

Western ‘progress’ always came through the suppression of others. The wealth of Europe was, and largely still is, extracted from living human beings is far off places they dominate. Naturally, as we try to overcome the legacy of colonialism in Europe in the ethics of universal justice, the whole edifice of Europe, its society, culture and economy will shake and teeter. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak teaches us that the legacy of colonialism is something we will not overcome for generations, we must be patient and see any victories as fraught with setbacks as we must persist. Unlike any other thinker, Spivak inhabits coloniality through the entwined experiences of colonizer and colonized, treating both experiences as essential to our efforts to overcome its traumas and emancipate our deepest held desires. ‘Every success is also a failure!' Spivak warns us to be exceedingly patient in what we may claim is only benevolence.

Spivak proposes a post-colonial 'planetarity' which is opposed to a colonial and imperialist 'globalization.' and demands that we should 'imagine' this planetarity 'again and again.' But what is a planetary consciousness expected to do? How could this planetarity ever be anything so different from that planet on which it is imagined?

Inspired by Spivak’s uncompromising, implacable, revolutionary dissection of the legacy of European colonialism, in our 7th international Summer School we will make time to stay with the trouble in our best intentions. Through story-telling exercises with installation artist Rehema Chachage, french and afrikana philosophy with Yala Kisukidi, the sharp and daring comedy and performance art of Naya de Souza and the epistemic performance of Avishek Ganguly, our school develops methods of bodied thinking where critical and challenging discussions and thinking are processed through movement, voice and action.

As Donna Harraway puts it – 'non-innocently' – we will take a week together in a program which holds the space for us to listen to the worlds ringing and working through us, developing our existing modes of engagement and experimenting with new ones, alone and with others. Applying techniques from the arts, political and cultural theory, literature, philosophy, ecofeminism and activism, the school aims to help ground projects concerned with social justice in a rich historical context and material consciousness of where we are right now.

‘This is preparation for a patient and provisional and forever deferred arrival into the performative of the other, in order not to transcode but to draw a response.'
GC Spivak 'Death of a Discipline'

The school provides a safer space, along with encouragement and attention, to support participants in taking a step forward in their practice. We convene a diverse group of instructors from various backgrounds and disciplines to offer input and lead activities. Some sessions will focus more on theory, observation, and discussion, while others may involve movement, vocalization, drawing, or group work. We develop and apply methodologies for exploring embodied thinking, where critique and analysis are not limited to judging from an abstract outside but are practiced through complicity and involvement.

Participants should expect to engage in discussions and activities in an environment which encourages experimentation, trial & error, listening and mutual support.

The Summer School takes place on location at West Den Haag in the former US Embassy in the center of The Hague. The Summer School is convened by Baruch Gottlieb.

References: Gayatri Spivak, WEB Du Bois, Sara Ahmed, Maria Mies, bell hooks, Claudia Jones, Silvia Federici, Joy James, Amia Srinivasan, Frantz Fanon, Edouard Glissant

Keywords: coloniality, trauma, performance, comedy, philosophy, patriarchy, imperialism, worlding, activism, narrative, poetry, voice, body, movement, art, aesthetics

The West Summer School 2025 is limited to 25 participants. There is a participant fee of € 250,- incl. lunches (student € 150,-). The program will be held in English. We will gather in the garden and auditorium at West in The Hague.

To apply, please e-mail Chloë van Diepen: chloe@westdenhaag.nl before July 1st with a short motivation letter. If successful, you will receive a confirmation within the week. The Summer School is for participants only. For more info about the application process email:chloe@westdenhaag.nl