IF I CAN’T DANCE, I DON’T WANT TO BE PART OF YOUR REVOLUTION
At If I Can’t Dance, we have been lucky to be able to disconnect for a few weeks. We hope you also had a chance to rest and spend some meaningful time with loved ones this summer.
The fall will be rich with events, including the relaunch of our Open Rehearsal programme with a new open call, the return of Tidal Gatherings, and the second part of Anchan/Anna Daučíková and Christina Della Giustina's commission. But first things first. Here’s an overview of what you can expect in the upcoming weeks.
We hope to see you soon at If I Can’t Dance!
Nicoline van Harskamp
Prosodia
Performance
28 August 2026
18:00 & 20:30
On August 28, we are hosting Nicoline van Harskamp's new performance Prosodia, part of the 2026 International Association of Word and Image Studies triennial conference Word, Image and Social Dynamics. The performance looks at the genealogy of synthetic speech and artificial language through the lens of acting and story-telling. The performance will be staged twice at 18:00 and 20:30.
Image: Prosodia, staged at the Athens Epidaurus Festival 2026 with Sofia Kokkali, Angeliki Papoulia, Lidwij Mahler and Evi Seitanidou (video still).
[ID: A dark theatre space viewed from the top of the audience riser. In the centre of the space, a spotlight is set on five bare stage parts. An actress in a short blue dress, and braided hair stands on the left, looking over her shoulder. An actress in a short white dress sits on the edge of the stage, her legs dangling above the theatre floor, looking down. She holds a computer mouse in her hand. Opposite the actresses, in the bottom right of the image, a woman in a traditional white vest, seated on a wooden café-style chair, looks down at her instrument as she plays the lyra and bow]
Tom K Kemp
Pernilla Manjula Philip
Crisis Acres
Screening & discussion
16 September
19:00–21:00
Our ongoing investigations into health-care, access, and medical histories continue on September 16 with a screening of Crisis Acres (2025) by Tom K Kemp, followed by a discussion between Kemp and artist Pernilla Manjula Philip. Simulating a day in an imaginary NHS hospital, the film integrates role-playing, improvisation and filmmaking to expose the breaking points in the world’s largest healthcare system. In the after-talk the film will be approached from the perspective of chronic illness and DIY medical tools and hacks, as entry points stemming from Philip's practice.
[ID: Two people sit behind a desk in a workspace. The person on the left is gesturing in an explanatory way to a drawing on a large piece of paper that the person on the right is holding up so that it can properly be seen. The drawing is of one big body in which many, many smaller bodies figure as its different organs. The heart is identified as the patient, while other figures dispersed throughout the drawing include doctor, occupational therapist, IT, medical student, paramedic, etc. Under the large body is written ‘Hospital’. The subtitles to this still image from Tom K Kemp’s film Crisis Acres reads ‘and then you’ve got all the support staff’.]
Milena Bonilla
Ferals and Ruderals:
History through the Cracks
Final workshop
19 September 2026
14:30–17:30
A few days before the Fall Equinox, we gather for the final workshop in the Ferals and Ruderals series with artist and pedagogue Milena Bonilla. For a year, Bonilla has been guiding us through the plant life growing spontaneously on the WG-terrein. Together we have been paying attention to the information, memory and knowledge emerging from the ground, while revisiting the many sedimented histories of our site. More details will follow in a couple of weeks. For now: save the date!
We also want to signal that on September 5 2026, Milena Bonilla will open her solo show Notes on Soils, Light and Gravity at Ellen de Bruijne Gallery in Amsterdam. The exhibition gathers a constellation of recent and new works, including works that emerged from the research conducted at the WG-terrein with If I Can't Dance. In the exhibition Bonilla traces the social, political, ecological, and economic sediments of historical sites and events by foregrounding the vegetal both as a mnemonic companion and as an epistemic subject in itself.
Image: Field of grass at the WG-terrein, Ferals and Ruderals #3, 17 July 2026, ph: Anik Fournier
[ID: Photograph of a rather large paved area, from which a portion of a red sports court is visible. Grass growing spontaneously through the cracks and between the tiles of the ground forms a field of lines and circles, almost like Morse code. The area is enclosed by plants and bushes, beyond which parts of a historic Amsterdam brick building with white window frames can be seen.]
Rossella Biscotti
Aaron Schuster
The Trial
Conversation & reading
25 September 2026
18:00–20:00
Presented in collaboration with the Rijksakademie, this event celebrates Rossella Biscotti's decade-long project The Trial, which has now been published as a book. The Trial centres on the landmark “April 7th” trial, held in 1983-84 in Rome against members of the Italian leftist movement Autonomia Operaia.
In a conversation with philosopher Aaron Schuster, Rossella Biscotti elaborates on the significance of this historical event, and its resonance in the present, considering her engagement with political history, collective memory, and the performative nature of justice. The conversation is interwoven with videos from the project and is followed by a collective reading of the trial transcripts.
Image: Spread from The Trial, Rossella Biscotti, with texts by Rossella Biscotti,Daniel Blanga Gubbay, Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, Giovanna Zapperi, Milan: Mousse Publishing, 2025
[ID: PDF spread, the left page shows an installation shot with a concrete sculpture on the ground, resembling a cut-out staircase laying horizontally rather than proceding vertically. On the wall, there are two red monochrome prints in different hues, one is darker than the other. The right page features the first page of an essay by author Giovanna Zapperi titled "In the Bunker of History: Places, Voices and Materials in Rossella Biscotti's The Trial". From the lay-out an opening quote and foot-notes on the right margins stand out.]
