The book derives from Collectively, an international forum with 80 participants on the art of thinking, working and living together, organized at Konstnärsnämnden in Stockholm, 24-26 May 2019. The contribution of texts in this publication is a polyphony of the participants’ different voices, perspectives and reflections.

If art collectives, and the various forms of collective practice in the field of culture, are often understood in opposition to the artist as individual genius, echoing non-hierarchical forms of organizations and alternative ways of living, today this form is not necessarily a synonym of subversion or emancipation. Parallel to recent developments of network technologies, many collective methods and values have been assimilated by engineering, management, marketing, and by most contemporary political ideologies. It becomes necessary to inquire into how collective practices can foster better social understandings, encourage new forms of solidarity and improve living conditions for everyone.

The forum was conceived as a self-organized sharing space: the relations between participants were developed through various scores, instructions and protocols proposed to be tested together. During the day, workshops were also led by the participants in the studios and spaces of Iaspis. Each day ended with a dinner and evening of performances, screenings and talks. Collectively created an environment to test, share, learn and unlearn different forms of knowledge and life tactics, a space to present unforeseen associations between a diversity of contemporary practices and to speculate on the hopes they generated.