Reading Groups

If I Can’t Dance’s Reading Group started in 2006 and has been taking place monthly ever since. The Reading Group is a gathering of artists, critical thinkers, writers and various other readers from in- and outside the field of contemporary art, who come together at our office on Westerdok to discuss new topics and directions in performance, contemporary art practice and their relation to social and political issues. The Reading Group’s monthly reading material is currently accruing through investigation into the thematic of Event and Duration.

Alongside the Reading Group in Amsterdam, Sister Reading Groups are convened in New York, São Paulo and Toronto. Reading materials and key points of discussion are shared among the four groups, and at the end of each Edition compiled into a published Reader.

Since 2013, If I Can’t Dance has also hosted an Open Reading Group at the start of each Edition, in which an artist is invited to lead a daylong session in a location around Amsterdam. For Edition VI – Event and Duration the invited artists were Denise Ferreira da Silva and Valentina Desideri.