What Solidarity Feels Like: Unlearning, Finding Alignment, and Being Uncomfortable

With Cog•nate Collective, Vishal Jugdeo, Patrick Staff, and Elana Mann. Moderated by Mario Ontiveros. 

In today’s episode, the group picks up their conversation and works to define and reframe the idea of the artist. 

This session was recorded back in February 2020. Before COVID-19 had a name, and before the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor sparked a global movement for racial justice. And yet, this conversation addresses the present in so many ways. They discuss what solidarity looks like and the complexities of collaboration. Assessing different levels of need across groups, and understanding the time and work to achieve transformation. They acknowledge that it very well might be necessary to be uncomfortable. 

The stories they share span working with women vendors in a market in Tijuana, collaborating across continents with a trans person in India, partnering with non-artist tech startups, and maintaining and activating criticality towards art institutions while working within them. They talk more about the need to re-imagine art history and to look beyond art institutions to find guidance. 

They also grapple with the need to un-do and un-learn what they were taught in school. This is a key step in the decolonization of the mind, a concept introduced in the first episode by Todd Gray. One take away from this episode is that the future must be built on a foundation of solidarity, that careful collaboration and reciprocity require dialogue and risk. And, importantly, it will take time.
Learn more about the artists and X-TRA at www.X-TRAOnline.org