What's AltShift 2024 all about?
If you’re one of the rather nosy AltShift followers, you probably already read about our idea of making AltShift 2024 focus on Building Alliances!! Here are some diary-entry styled reflections about the process behind it.
Kunst in der Natur, Gars am Kamp, August 2023.
It’s the second day of the Alt Shift festival. Catarina, who joined the Alt Shift team this year and is newer to degrowth, had before been more involved in anticolonial, abolitionist feminist and migrant solidarity movements. She shares some observations with me: ‘’I feel like the majority of people here are white and academic, do you think this is a reflection of the degrowth movement in general? Also, I feel like a lot of people’s involvement here is very theoretical and not deeply rooted in local struggles or community led initiatives, is that just my perception or do you feel that in degrowth?’’
Zagreb, August 2023
We were sitting on the grass just outside of the social center, enjoying the sun in one of our breaks of the creation of the IDN, on the day before the degrowth conference starts. I ask the group: what are your current (emotional) relations to the degrowth movement? What do you like about the degrowth movement, what annoys you? And why are we making a degrowth festival, and not an art activist queer environmental and social justice festival, for which we would have to, of course, find a catchier name?
Discord, September 2023
Here we go again, after the summer, scattered across Europe. We each sit in front of our screens and would rather not do so, but we showed up for the content meeting. How much of the predominantly white and academic participant mass can be attributed to Alt Shift or to the wider degrowth movement? How can we design Alt Shift as a more accessible space? Whom do we want to bring together at Alt Shift? How can we meaningfully engage with the local surroundings of the festival? How can we create a space in which community led initiatives and collectives or individuals at the forefront of marginalized struggles can come together, share, exchange and learn? What about building alliances as the motto of Alt Shift 2024?
Pesaro, October 2023
The content team presents their Building Alliances idea to the wider team and, again, we have a vivid discussion. Is building alliances not just fancy new slogan for… everything? Is it too high of an ambition, or lacking foundation to be more than mulching people together in a place? Is it a mere marketing strategy? How can we do what we say we want to do?
This is where we left off. We are slowly discussing all these questions and furthering our understanding of how the next edition can look like. Please comment or write to us if you have more questions or reflections to contribute. Happy to hear from you!
In Solidarity,
Lara from the Alt Shift Team