Radical Optimism and Envisioning Possibilities
Before the world experienced the COVID-19 global lockdown, I sat down to speak with Berlin-based cultural worker and artist Mikala Haldig Dal about her current art practice, Radical Optimism. Her work has spanned topics from ISIS to the current Berlin housing crisis.
We met in the year 2099 on her Utopian Bus Tour, set in 2019. Through her guided performance spanning visits to locations being gentrified or contested, conversations with activists and residents, and augmented reality monuments for the future, Mikala shared ideas for how a future that prioritized people, species and the planet might be organized differently.
This is something art can do, open our imaginations to a different set of possibilities.
During this time, of both health and systems crisis, if you are reading this post, most likely you are safe in your home. Those of us keeping inside for the sake of our neighbors and loved ones, we have time to reflect and imagine the worst or to think of how our future can be redirected for good.
Unfortunately, neoliberal capitalist policymakers in the United States, have had their visions outlined since the 1970s and have used each crisis as an opportunity to implement more of their plan to tear down regulations that are in the way of corporate profit-making.
For those unfamiliar with neoliberal ideology, it is a special flavor of capitalism that believes the only role of any government should be for protection including the police (protecting private property inside the state) and military (protecting state borders and state economic interests).
The term liberal might lead you to think of progressive ideals, but the term ‘liberal’ here goes back to the 1700s and those opposed to colonial rule. Neoliberalism has more in common with libertarianism.
They believe that corporations know best and do best for all concerned. Those humans that fall through the cracks, are either a necessary part of the economic equation and part of “natural unemployment” (the belief that the economy needs a minimum percentage of people unemployed to be available for hire), or they aren’t working hard enough.
Mikala’s Utopian Bus Tour is critical of the current economic policies including policies around housing that allow investors to purchase property with the purpose of selling it to make a profit.
The project highlights the neoliberal mindset of profit over everything while looking at new alternatives to the current system of ownership.
This season I am talking to artists about their first solo show. Mikala’s first show, Who’s Afraid, was less of an optimistic look at the world. Here, she looked at the imagery of ISIS videos and explored their links to iconoclasm and political role play.
While different on the surface, Mikala approaches her work embodies a deep examination of current global political struggles and echo a call for social justice.
We talked about this and many more topics in the current episode of the podcast, This Beautiful Shot is Not an Accident. You can find a link on the podcast website here.
Thinking deeply, reflecting, and dreaming forward are something we all can do a bit more of in these times of forced isolation.
Check out the episode and let us know your dream.