The project ran for a second semester at the end of 2023, with an open call for a second edition resulting in over 20 contributors. Unfortunately, due to personal and structural problems, and the political atmosphere of fear that had permenated the university at the time, the second edition has never been published yet.

Instagram: @decolonial.archive.lab

Here was the text to the second open call:

For our SECOND edition we’re seeking printable works that explore themes of complicity, collaboration, and the cacophony & deconstruction of knowledges. We want to move beyond tired notions of “solidarity” and “allyship” and delve into the complexities of being Accomplices.

What do you want to share while the present is burning to the ground?

We are especially interested in contributions from our “marginalized” co-conspirators, siblings and comrades, especially from LGBTIAQ+, people with disability conditions, and those with experience(s) of asylum, exile, migration, racism + anti-Jewish + anti-Muslim racism, classism, and all folks whose intersections and struggles are not even seen by the majority and other minorities.

We welcome old and new works, in any language!
For text contributions: Maximum ca. 6000 characters. For visual contributions: maximum 2x A4 pages, will be printed in colour, at least 300 dpi.

SUBMIT UNTIL: 8 January 2024 to decolonial.archive.lab@gmail.com

ANONYMOUS CONTRIBUTIONS WELCOME

Feedback end of January
Publishing beginning of March

Sneak peeks to the first edition:

Andres Felipe Uribe Cardenaz

Maia Kleinknecht

Read the 1st Edition:

https://archive.org/details/garuk-garuk-edition-01

The Decolonial Archive Lab is a combo student initiative / theory seminar I started in April 2023 in collaboration with lecturer Juana Awad. And also in collaboration with students from different faculties and semesters who participated.

The goal was to create a collective zine platform as a space to collectively exchange and speak up, from those whose voices and participation are often excluded, silenced, or forgotten by such institutions. The form of a school decolonial zine or newspaper is also to gain platform power in an institution that gives so little space for such discussions, and often these voices are put into Isolation from one another.

Throughout the semester we read and exchanged on theory, books and films from Ngugi wa Thiong’o, María Lugones, Sinthujan Varatharajah, Cheryl Dunye, Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, Silvia Rivera Cuisicanqui among others, and we also organized (and paid, though a small amount) lecture events and workshops with Global South artists and activists: María Belen from Trans Memory Archive (Argentina), Otty Widasari from Forum Lenteng (Indonesia), Sujatro Ghosh, Calcuttan artist based in Berlin.

We also held an internal writing retreat in November 2023.

We held an open call for any printable content in any language from any part of the world. The first edition contained 26 contributors and we were preparing the second version to be published in February, which unfortunately did not get published, despite many lovely contributions, due to matters related to the political atmosphere, and personal and health situations of the seminar participants.

“Garuk Garuk” in Indonesian means to scratch-scratch, because we acknowledge that such structures such as imperialism and capitalism are beyond the individual and perhaps beyond our lifetimes, and we may only collectively scratch upon its surface in our contribution to dismantle such structures. To move away from Individualism and Heroism, to recognize the rippling form of a publication.

Contributors to the first edition: Aram Alsaed, Luan Caja, Andres Felipe Uribe Cardenas, Helina Celebi, Alanna Dongowski, Bilge Emiroglu, Bar Esh, Sofia Mariaca Ewel, Bimal Fabbri, Alba Hiedras, Kyra Hogenboom, Mariam Ibrahim, Salim Jawaied, Maia Kleinknecht, Melissa Kurt, Yunhwa Lim, Hami Mehr, Ozzy Nauli, Isaac Remiel, Yewon Seo, Raras Umaratih, Phila Weber, Umi & Azhar, YBBM, Maya Zaheer