IOO Ways to Say We is an online platform, a pre-enactment of multiple future visions, a speculative-utopian take on the possibilities of the concept of “We”. Artists, theorists, and activists from around the planet share diverse ways of living together – from the perspective of an imagined future: a map of voices, stories, and opinions that revolve around the idea of a diverse, contradictory, and ambitious “We”, which eventually creates an Archive of the Future.

The project started with the initial questions evolving around recent observations on newly emerging and strengthened “We-“Identities as its starting point:

Who is “We”?
Who says “We” on behalf of whom?
Who has the right to do that?
Who is excluded, and who defines who is heard?

To say “We”, to build a “We”, seems to be a political action. But what is the common ground for this “We”, what are the foundations of the/our “We”-Identities? To say “We” in the name of a will, a community, a cause, has both exclusionary and inclusionary effects. “We” mobilizes and organizes. To say “We” can empower some while demonizing others. Is there a universal “We”? Or is this idea of a “We” rather an illusion, a construct, and it has never been about “We, the people” – including everyone - but always about the differences and particularisms of the various “We”-Identities?

Perhaps there are reasons to distrust any “We”, to call attention to differences and to point out privileges and hierarchies. But there is also the danger of fragmentation: For decades neoliberalism has been separating society into individuals and has undermined collectivity. Is this perhaps the right time to challenge the necessity of a new “We” – a transversal collective will in which a multitude of demands can come together and create new imaginaries for our future?

Artists, theorists, and activists from around the planet were commissioned to share their views, hopes, reflections, utopias from a chosen point of time and place. IOO Ways to Say We – An Archive of the Future holds different takes on the potentials and pitfalls of the idea of “We”. In the coming weeks, the archive will continue to grow.

Curated by Marco Baravalle, Hayat Erdoğan, Florian Malzacher, David Niederer, Nikolai E. Prawdzic & Susanne Traub.

Assistance: Lucia Salomé Gränicher.
Project coordination: Lara Schubert.

Concept by Hayat Erdoğan, Nikolai E. Prawdzic & Florian Malzacher.

Website conception, design and development by Juan Ferrari. Development assitance by Thomas Segura, Design assistance by Pascale Lustenberger.

A co-production of Theater Neumarkt & Goethe-Institut / Performing Architecture in collaboration with Sale Docks & Florian Malzacher.

Contact: kommunikation@theaterneumarkt.ch↗