Urban Rhizomes is a workshop exploring the ambivalence of the natural world and social movements. Through an examination of certain trees and plants that contain both productive and destructive elements, we question political tendencies that reduce discourse to good/bad dichotomies. We can learn from and utilize natural forces in order to build the world we want to live in today without waiting for the collapse-in-progress to arrive in full force.

If the popular uprisings of 2011 have taught us anything, it is that revolutions do not occur as singular events – with the toppling of a tyrant or the capture of state power – but are complex long-term processes that play out over multiple years or even decades. They involve not just the removal of a government, but also the systemic transformation of political and social institutions, cultural norms and values, human consciousness and collective action. Such revolutions are, by their very nature, social and collaborative processes. In this presentation, I will look back at the uprisings of 2011-12 from the perspective of ‘networked resistance’, analysing how and why – in this time of crisis – the world is suddenly faced with the emergence of decentralized, leaderless protest movements from Tunis to Toronto. Providing a panoramic overview of the ongoing global revolutionary wave, I will not only show how all these uprisings emanate from the same source (a defunct world capitalist system), but also how their similar revolutionary tactics might be an indication of the world that awaits us. I will tell my story along the line of videos and songs of the movement. My final video will be a special address by the Greek resistance hero Manolis Glezos to the Spanish movement, to be premiered at OVNI.

A discussion with Patrick Watkins and the group Rebond pour la Commune, which was created as a result of the participants’ experience in the production of Peter Watkins’ La Commune. The gathering between Rebond and local groups from Barcelona will revolve around the film and its reading and experiences in the current context.

A discussion with Patrick Watkins and the group Rebond pour la Commune, which was created as a result of the participants’ experience in the production of Peter Watkins’ La Commune. The gathering between Rebond and local groups from Barcelona will revolve around the film and its reading and experiences in the current context.

In the tumultuous Arab social context of 2011, the Net emerged as one of most crucial tools for spreading information about the popular uprisings in different countries in the region. A year later, if we want to go back and follow the trail of those revolts, we simply type keywords into a search engine and we are faced with millions of possibilities. But beyond this initial avalanche of results, what kind of information can we glean from this noisy, slippery magma? A thematic workshop based on a documentary path through the apparent world of the information "freedom" that the Internet puts within our reach.