Language Matters: a symposium on accessible and inclusive communication in art spaces at Stroom, The Hague
A full day of workshops, panels, and art performances celebrated the first culmination of Islands of Kinship’s project ‘Language Matters’. The organisation brings together six art institutions in Europe (situated in Prague, Bratislava, Helsinki, Riga, Bitola/Skopje, and Cologne) with the aim of introducing notions and practices of ‘inclusion, kinship, togetherness, and the ethics, emotions, and processes for a sustainable and fair institutional operation.’
In front of me, I have a greyish cover with big black letters on it. The grey has a dull, dusty quality. The letters read: ‘A Collective Manual for Sustainable and Inclusive Art Institutions’. In the top right corner there is an ideogram composed by two flanked black round shapes that barely meet in the middle, forming the infinity symbol (∞). Their contours are imprecise; they contain, respectively, the capital letters I and K as empty space within the black.
The cover belongs, as you might have grasped, to a book. It is a relatively large book, roughly thirty by thirty-five centimetres. I slide the book on the table and see the spine. Thin lines in different colours indicate the signatures that form the book, and white strokes emerge from the colours. Some strokes compose the same symbol present on the cover, while others spell out ‘Islands of Kinship’ along the length of the spine. I touch it and feel something bumpy – rougher where the sewing thread interrupts the signatures –slightly glossy and sticky from the glue.
Accessibility takes several forms. One is providing visual descriptions of the images or items in question. As the reader of this article, you might not have the book I just described at hand; perhaps you have never seen it. Now, by having access to a description of it, we both know what I am glancing at repeatedly while writing this piece.
The launch of the book A Collective Manual for Sustainable and Inclusive Art Institutions was the focus of a symposium hosted by Stroom in The Hague on 14 June. A full day of workshops, panels, and art performances celebrated the first culmination of Islands of Kinship’s project. The organisation brings together six art institutions in Europe (situated in Prague, Bratislava, Helsinki, Riga, Bitola/Skopje, and Cologne) with the aim of introducing notions and practices of ‘inclusion, kinship, togetherness, and the ethics, emotions, and processes for a sustainable and fair institutional operation.’ Stroom is a partner and supporter of the project, providing the context for hosting the symposium in its space.
The day started slowly with placid chatting and cups of hot coffee. Then a firmer voice interrupted the crowd’s hum: Stroom’s director, Alexandra Landre, introduced the guests and gave the floor to the first panellist: artist, writer, and facilitator Isa Hukka.
Isa guided us to the workshop space, a bright room with large windows overlooking the street and a long painting in tones of soft tones of blue, yellow and pink covering the opposite wall (the painting of Haeven Lee is part of the exhibition Positions: Soft Intimacies currently on view at Stroom). Different seating options were ready for us to choose from for maximum comfort. I grabbed a chair with a semi-rigid back, and sat to listen to Isa’s presentation, ‘Cripping Communication’. The notion of ‘crip’, or ‘a crip’, was historically an insult for differently-abled people. Now, it is being reclaimed by the disability justice movement as a term rooted in the experience and practice of disabled realities. In the lecture-workshop Isa Hukka combined action and theory to help us grasp the concept of accessible communication.
The notion of ‘crip’, or ‘a crip’, was historically an insult for differently-abled people. Now, it is being reclaimed by the disability justice movement as a term rooted in the experience and practice of disabled realities
We were encouraged to move, sit, walk, leave, stay, write, stare, or perform any other action that met our needs during the workshop. This was clearly communicated at the beginning to delineate expectations for the audience. The atmosphere in the room immediately relaxed after we were given this permission. Straight backs laid down, and hunched backs were stretched.
By introducing concepts such as ‘people who are not disabled yet’ and ‘temporarily able,’ Hukka shifts the common perception of disabled bodies. Discussing the role of institutions, Hukka highlighted how they are responsible for setting unmatchable standards of productivity and performativity. These standards make it increasingly difficult for people to be ‘able’ to meet them, leading to more individuals being seen as ‘disabled’ and facing greater inaccessibility. Assumptions play a crucial role in creating inaccessibility. If one assumes instead of checking in with the people around them, their needs will hardly be met. The final encouragement we received from Isa Hukka is: ‘Ask!’ Much inaccessibility exists because of communication issues.
This led us smoothly into the second program of the day: a lecture and practical exercise guided by disabled, queer art historian Paulina Seyfried, titled ‘(In-) Accessibility of Language in the Art Field’. Participants were asked to prepare with a short reading from Paulina on Plain and Easy Language, two forms of more accessible communication. The lecture and exercise focussed on Plain Language, which is defined a language that is ‘clear, concise, organised, and appropriate for the intended audience.’ It involves the use of short sentences, linearity, and avoiding metaphors. Paulina’s intention was to inform about the existence of these accessible forms of communication and advocate for their more extended use in the art field – a field where the language traditionally used is unconsciously addressed to a highly-educated, neurotypical audience.
I will now go back to the book in front of me. The last part of the evening was dedicated to a panel discussion to mark the launch of the publication A Collective Manual for Sustainable and Inclusive Art Institutions. The book represents the culmination of the first part of Island of Kinship’s work to foster more accessibility within art institutions. The panel touched on the themes we discussed during the day: how language, communication, and making different needs seen always go together. The speakers – contributors Paulina Seyfried and Fran Trento, and editors Barbora Ciprová, Nikola Ludlová, and Karina Kottová – represented the different institutions involved and gave insights into the process of collaborating with Island of Kinship to make their workplaces more inclusive and accessible.
Of course, there is not a single way to achieve this. It’s a process, one that should allow for walking back on one’s steps in order to adjust things on the way if necessary. This is why occasions like this conversation are crucial and precious. They celebrate the positive ending of a phase but, more importantly, serve as check-in moments when ideas can be shared and start to resonate with a public broader than their initiators.
For a brief moment, probably out of laziness, I was tempted to write that what I experienced during the whole day was a safe space. Then Isa Hukka’s words echoed in my mind: What if we admit that a safe space is an illusion? What if, instead of setting rules that determine a priori what is safe or not, we could stay open to a space where everything is welcomed and find ways to deal with it together?
The symposium ‘Language Matters; Accessible and Inclusive Communication in Art Spaces’ by Islands of Kinship took place on June 14 at Stroom, The Hague
Beatrice Cera
