Reproduction

About

The four-day programme offers a space for practical experiments and questions departing from this analysis of everyday life under capitalism.

The term ‘social reproduction’ gained traction in feminist thinking during the 1970s, challenging the gendered distribution of reproductive work that replenish the labour force, yet remain largely unseen, unacknowledged and unpaid. Now, social reproduction theory is more expansive and incorporates the provision of necessities such as food, housing and healthcare, and the production of social values through art, culture, and education.

Taking Petra Bauer and SCOT-PEP’s new film Workers! as a starting point, REPRODUCTION will launch on International Sex-Workers Day with a public screening of Les Prostituées De Lyon Parlent in Filmhouse Cinema, Edinburgh. During the week, participants will expand on themes central to Workers! – debates on work and (social) reproduction, the role of artistic practice and film in political struggles, and the complex politics of working with or representing others.

Initial questions for the school are: What role can film and artistic practice play in political processes? How can we reinterpret 'the personal is political' in light of social reproduction and our contemporary conditions? And how does this mantra connect with ‘nothing about us without us’ frequently used in the sex-worker rights movement? How does art and cultural practice sustain, question or obstruct the reproduction of society as we know it? What tools can be taken form social reproduction theory?

Contributors include: artist and filmmaker Petra Bauer, artist and researcher James Bell, curator and art historian Kirsten Lloyd, art historian Victoria Horne, artist Shona MacNaughton, poet and trans/queer activist Nat Raha, art historian Catherine Spencer, writer and activist Molly Smith, and SCOT-PEP. Collective's Summer School takes place annually and builds a temporary space for critical dialogue, practical experiments and the fostering of open networks.

Tickets for REPRODUCTION include your ticket to attend the screening of  Les Prostituées De Lyon Parlent in Filmhouse Cinema, Edinburgh on Sunday 2 June at 3.30pm.