QUICK LINKS:
LOCATION
SEASONS
COSTS
FUNDING
ACCOMMODATION
ACCOUNTABILITY PRACTICE
ACCESS INFORMATION
COVID SITUATION
APPLICATION
LOCATION
The study will take place in the artist, activist, and research residency MASSIA, where FO.R.E.ST Conspirators will live together with the opportunity to rehearse, practice, and embody generated knowledges. MASSIA is situated in a former elementary school in the village of Massiaru in Estonia, close to the Latvian border and the Baltic Sea, neighboring forests, farm land, nature reserves, bogs, and coastal marshes. Enfolded within the study is the entanglement with the site.
To get an impression of the place, please visit www.massia.ee.
Both MASSIA as well as FO.R.E.ST are based on self-organisation and a desire for spaces outside institutional markets.
SEASONS
Adjusting to capacities FO.R.E.ST will constellate once per year for 4 weeks (a season).
Next Season will be in Spring 2024 around the same period (exact dates tbc) – applications are welcome throughout the year.
FO.R.E.ST invokes a learning community that grows over time. The seasons dynamically inform one another and aim to respond to Conspirators’ desires that emerge from collective study and practice.
FO.R.E.ST is carried by the wish to increase its self-organisational aspect. The more people conspire with FO.R.E.ST over time, the more it creates the possibility to, both, reduce the cost, and to curate study and practice that is most relevant to Conspirators.
We acknowledge that the envisioned format excludes many who are embedded in relations and structures that don’t allow for spending 4 weeks at a time in MASSIA. We will learn over time if and how FO.R.E.ST can find ways to become more accessible.
COSTS
FO.R.E.ST is an autonomous initiative and not carried by external funding.
This year, FO.R.E.ST tests a sliding scale model, inspired by the model devised for the workshop “We Will Dance With Mountains” with Bayo Akomolafe, where scales are intended “to reflect not only the incredible disparity in economic conditions between different parts of the world” but also, in this context, attempting to account for and make possible more sustainable financial retribution for those who work towards making FO.R.E.ST happen (Complotters and Co-Conspirators).
As a Conspirator, you are asked to provide this financial contribution. As you decide what amount to pay, we ask that you not only consider your present-day financial situation governed by current income but also factors including:
• Historical discrimination faced by your peoples • Your financial wealth (Do you have retirement savings?) • Your access to income and financial wealth, both current and anticipated (How easily could you earn more income compared to other people in your country and in the world? Do you expect to receive an inheritance? Are there any disabilities affecting your capacity to earn money?) • People counting on your financial livelihood including dependents and community members • The socio-economic conditions of your locale (Relative to other places in your country and in the world. How likely are you to have access to paid work through your connections?).
We trust you would make your decision and consider where your personal condition and situation locate you in this range, and that you make your decision accordingly.
Supported Conspirator – 300 euro
For people with lower access to wealth in the global context, with limited recourse to funds based on passport holding and other privileges, people from the Global Majority who’ve been systematically disadvantaged or are Poor/Working class.
Participating Conspirator – 500 euro
For people with lower to middle access to wealth in the global context, with some recourse to funds based on passport holding and other privileges, and who’ve been disadvantaged or are living precariously in the Global North.
Supporting/Pay-it-forward Conspirator – 900 euro
For people with medium to high access to wealth in the global context. As a general rule of thumb: Middle class and Upper/Owning class people; anyone with investments or retirement savings, anyone who expects an inheritance.
The sliding scale model is not a 3 option only model. You can decide to pay any amount between 300-900 euros, acknowledging that there is a range of financial stability, conditions and possible access to funds in a given time. When applying for funding (travel and other), we suggest you always apply for the highest end of the scale.
Given the self-organising and financial model of FO.R.E.ST, this sliding scale relies on at least a small number of pay-it-forward contributions to make possible multiple lower scale options. We can only guarantee two Supported Conspirator places initially, but this can be revised if multiple Pay-it-forward Conspirator fees are paid.
When you register your interest to become Conspirator, please indicate in your email the amount of contribution you can pay.
Breakdown of costs / Financial transparency on spending
For FO.R.E.ST to reach its basic economic possibility a minimum of 500 euro/Conspirator needs to be paid. Out of this sum, 420 euro covers the cost for stay, and only 80 euro go towards travel for invited Co-Conspirators and for covering materials.
Co-Conspirators and Complotters don’t receive a fee. If more Supporting Conspirators contribute, then FO.R.E.ST will allocate the extra funds in the following order: 1. to those who depend on Supported Conspiracy and 2. towards paying Complotters and Co-Conspirators a small fee.
On signing up for a season, we will ask you to pay half of the total cost for participation. Should you have to cancel, FO.R.E.ST will keep this sum which will enable the running of the season with a smaller budget.
FUNDING
Efforts to source funding are in process. If you need an invitation letter to access funding, please be in touch. Likewise, if you have ideas or opportunities to support FO.R.E.ST’s pursuit of funding, we would love to hear from you.
ACCOMMODATION
MASSIA offers 14 single/double/triple bedrooms. Depending on the spatial needs determined by the number of residents, sometimes bedrooms will need to be shared. MASSIA will be continuing to be open for residents. To make it possible for many, we ask you for flexibility and openness to shifting room occupation, if necessary. This will be negotiated among Conspirators and MASSIA residents and take everyone’s needs into account.
You can make yourself familiar with the particularities of the space and facilities on www.massia.ee. For a visual impression, have a look here.
ACCOUNTABILITY PRACTICE
As FO.R.E.ST seasons will hold intensity in terms of sharing time and space, we want to be extra attuned to the varying needs and capacities Co-/Conspirators + Complotters bring to the space. We want to avoid assuming ableist, classist, ageist, racist, cis heterosexist normativity and bring anti-oppressive analysis into the way we live and learn together. We will regularly make space to discuss and negotiate this collectively.
FO.R.E.ST takes place in MASSIA, a space which aims to encourage all sorts of differences in resources, capacities, interests, backgrounds and knowledge. To avoid policing and hierarchical structures, MASSIA tries to create safety and care from within – this is an ongoing practice to be carried by all – and is guided by four principles:
Don’t leave traces
Clean behind you in order to leave every square centimeter, that is not your private room, all the time available for everybody when you are not using it. Traces are unwanted or uninvited marks (material or immaterial) left in the space or in others.
Make it possible for others
Think of this as an opportunity to open up space(s) by showing a rehearsal or a movie, giving a lecture, starting a discussion, cleaning a corridor, or helping somebody.
The do-er decides
But not alone! Things are decided by the ones who do, more than the ones who talk. However, the opportunity to do is not without limits and action should be taken in consultation with others.
Mind asymmetries
MASSIA is made of asymmetries. People come from different places, inhabit different bodies, have different experiences, are situated differently in power structures and have different boundaries. Take this into account, challenge your own position and let it be challenged, while respecting other people’s boundaries.
Think those principles as interrelated.
MASSIA aspires to be a space where intersectional, anti-racist, and feminist analysis inform practice. Sexism, racism, classism, LGBTQ+phobia, ableism, ageism and any other form of discrimination or aggression are not tolerated. MASSIA fosters a practice of collective accountability and considers it everybody’s responsibility.
ACCESS INFORMATION
FO.R.E.ST and MASSIA are self-organised initiatives (no subsidies), we can’t meet all needs – but we want to try meeting as many as possible, together. Please get in touch to discuss access needs and possibilities.
Unfortunately the building is not barrier-free and doesn’t meet accessibility standards. There are no ramps and no elevator. To enter the building one needs to climb 6 steps, followed by 3cm high thresholds on the floor which are part of the door frames. On the ground floor are bedrooms, studios, the theater hall, toilets and a shower. The functional rooms are too small for wheelchairs. The kitchens are located on the upper floor. To get to the 1st floor one needs to climb two flights of stairs.
COVID SITUATION
Please don’t travel if you have symptoms. The village of Massiaru is populated by few humans – it’s our responsibility to prevent the virus from spreading here.
APPLICATION
If you would like to conspire, please write us an email and share about yourself, how these descriptions resonate with you, what you would like to bring to the situation, and anything else you feel relevant.
We will organise video calls with people who signal their interest, during which we can give more context and get a sense for one another.
Please get in touch if you have questions.