Storefront Fellowship—On the Ground’s Margins: How is free convivial space built?

The objective of this workshop is to explore how free convivial space is produced, sustained and shared in New York City through examining everyday objects that make these spaces possible.

The session will gather Woodbine and Interference Archive—two local collectives that have been operating on the margins of the capitalist-consumerist world, building autonomous communities that that share a space, ideas, art, tools, skills and knowledge in their local contexts and beyond—to participate in a public conversation at Storefront of Art and Architecture.

Organized by Andrea Molina and Tianyu Yang, the workshop takes the format of an ephemeral show followed by an object-triggered conversation. The collectives will bring into Storefront various documents, ephemera and everyday objects that, functioning outside their market value, weave together the foundational infrastructures and human relationships that enable the emergence of free spaces. These materials act as props that unpack the stories, political realities, and future imaginaries of the convivial forms of practice that emerge in their spaces. During the session, the public will be offered the opportunity to engage with, circulate, and interrogate these objects as a form of intimate exchange and collective learning. By bringing this selection of objects into Storefront, we hope a new collaborative scene of free space emerges at the gallery—one that combines qualities of Woodbine and Interference Archive together with the collective involvement of Storefront’s community.

Woodbine is a volunteer-run collective based in Ridgewood, Queens since the early 2010s. Initially founded as an informal space to share radical, political ideas among friends -today, Woodbine has turned into a community magnet with a very active weekly programming which range from a food pantry, a library, reading groups, community dinners, and an editorial practice. This October, Woodbine published the second issue of their journal, The Reservoir: Communion with Autonomedia, featuring new texts by Kazembe Balagun, Elizabeth Povinelli, Geert Lovink, Kristin Ross, Experimental Jetset, and Marcello Tarì, as well as a previously unpublished interview with Félix Guattari.

Interference Archive is a volunteer-run open-stacks archive in Park Slope, Brooklyn since 2011. As an open stack archive, IA actively collects printed-materials that explore the relationship between cultural production and social movements. The materials collected are free for anyone to browse. The Archive also publishes pamphlets and holds public programs, including exhibitions, workshops and screenings, all of which encourages critical and creative engagement with the rich history of social movements. The most recent event, “What is Political Education,” explores how archival materials of political movement can be integrated into different teaching contexts.