PRINCE CLAUS MOBILE LABS

Co-curated in collaboration with our Impact Awardees, the Mobile Labs respond to the necessities of their specific community, serving needs on the ground while enabling knowledge to be collaboratively shared through lectures, workshops, discussions, and field trips. Each Mobile Lab adapts itself to local thematic developments, serving as a responsive measure to specific opportunities and needs on the ground.  

Mobile Labs feature our Impact Awardees, alongside our Seed and Mentorship Awardees, as well as changemakers from the Fund's Network, local artists and cultural practitioners, catalyzing global, dynamic and long-lasting connections. 

Justice stands as a cornerstone of our societies' core values. Nevertheless, it frequently occurs that when individuals pursue justice within a framework built upon classism, racism, capitalism, and the patriarchy, it becomes ingrained as a system of punitive measures, with disproportionately severe repercussions for those hailing from marginalized backgrounds. Following their release from incarceration, many individuals find themselves without access to essential support networks or safe environments. Furthermore, the prison system, as a lived concept, can subtly infiltrate our collective consciousness, permeating our daily behaviors and actions.

This prompts the question: is it possible to imagine a world without prisons? Can we map how prisons have become embodied in each one of us? How do we create spaces of resistance to the “micro-punitivisms” that inhabit us?

Our Mobile Lab in Argentina takes us to Buenos Aires, where writer, poet, editor, and 2022 Impact Awardee, María Medrano, and prison abolition collective, YoNoFui, co-curate a dynamic programme together with the Prince Claus Fund: cultural visits, workshops, performances, and a public parliament session. The 2023 Mobile Lab Argentina’s programme reflects on how we can rethink the ways we connect to each other, with a focus on female-identifying and LGBTQIA+ prisoners and ex-prisoners. An objective of the Lab is to discuss the ways in which prisons can be transformed into productive and nurturing environments, creating opportunities for people outside of prison and sparking a discourse on the possibilities of change. 

Joining the Mobile Lab as participants are 2021 Seed Awardees Rubén Elías Barrios Rodríguez, Julia Cohen Ribeiro, Bruno Almada Comas, and 2022 Seed Awardees LUANDA, Lina Lasso, David Amado, and Alexis Villanueva Niebles. The Lab will also feature critically acclaimed artistic director, Keng Sen Ong; writer and lesbian queer activist, val flores; queer activist and art history professor, Nicolas Cuello; sociologist and essayist, María Pía López; fashion designer and 2020 Prince Claus Laureate, Diamantina Arcoíris, and others. 

The public programme of Mobile Lab Argentina is free but requires registration. To RSVP, fill in the registration form below.