Ingrid Vranken

After completing my masters in Theatre Studies at the University of Antwerp and Freie Universität Berlin, I worked as a dramaturg and producer. Rethinking collaborations and the ethics of artistic production has been a red thread throughout my work. As a past core member of Bâtard Festival (a volunteer run festival focussing on emerging artists) we experimented with radically open ways of co-creating the festival with the selected artists. Inviting them to radically reshape the program, and the budget. During 5 years I put my shoulders under the organisation SPIN, a self-organised artist-run platform in Brussels.

SPIN experiments with organisational models that allow ‘collective autonomy’ – a collectivity that is there to support the autonomous artistic visions of each of the members. We experimented with redistribution of finances and labour between the members. Besides the artistic works of the 3 core artists, SPIN organised a series of curatorial events called SPIN-off, where often a broader issue affecting the work of artists was addressed in a playful way. (f.e. work, productivity, quantification, lazyness, …) As the central coordinator I was deeply involved with every aspect of developing the organisation, the individual artistic trajectories and the SPIN-off activities. During that same period I was part of the coordinating team of the environmental justice organisation Climate Express.

Both in my work for SPIN and in my engagement with Climate Express, I started to run up at the limits of my desire to practice what we preach. This lead me to stop those activities and go to study again. I am currently in my last months at DAStheatre, in the profile expanded curation – where I am investigating the possibilities of biomimicry and plant-organisation as an attitude for arts organisations. I have become a core member of FoAM.