Acid Communism Re-Print Session

2024
Part of Marie-Louise Curatorial Residency
Time Window Rotterdam

Acid Communism is the name of an unfinished introduction to the last book that Mark Fisher has left before his death. Within the text Fisher ventures to look for hope of contemporary political change and reflects on the counterculture of the 1960’s. Against the common leftist criticism of the counterculture, Fisher believed that it has managed to form a collective subject through different methods of consciousness-raising and democratise metaphysical questions which exposed reality as susceptible to change and that the rise of neoliberalism in the ‘80s should be understood as “counter-exorcism of the spectre of a world which could be free“.

During Marie-Louis Curatorial Residency, which has explored the theme of “radical mindfulness” and the work of London Radical Mindfulness group, I have hosted a lecture on Fisher’s intellectual journey from Capitalist Realism to Acid Communism as well as worked on turning the text of Acid Communism into a zine.  The zine combined the original text of Fisher with my notes and design by Jan Wojda. It was printed as an A2 format, which allowed for the text to be used both as a poster and a booklet. Participants of the event were invited to involve with the text in the form that suits them (take it home as a poster, fold it into a zine, spend time discussing the text with other participants). In the end the zine-making corner with Acid Communism has created an informal space for conversations, chit-chat and exchanging reflections about the text.