HISTORY

International Coffeeshop was formed in 2006 on an airplane from New York to Zürich. It is an open structure initiative at the intersection of art and politics. Its means so far have been theory, research/contemplation, experiment, neuroscience, sound, voice, practice/production and discourse.

Mission

International Coffeeshop is an emerging artist run initiative dedicated to an open structure collaborations at the intersection of art and politics throughout Europe that strives to encourage civil engagement and awareness by promoting artists' responsibility as knowledge producers, critics, thinkers, and workers. It does so by fostering multidisciplinary collaborations in research, cultural production, and activism.

Presence

International Coffeeshop is an open actionist/research initiative; it has no physical reality outside of its interventionist (go-in-between-and-around)local appearances.

Current Foci:

1. Cultural policies need to be questioned and tested.
2. Globalization must not be accepted as a global way of thinking.
3. Democracy is still not a reality but a vision.

Mind Your Mind

International Coffeeshop’s first goal is to heighten the awareness and sensitivity of “truthful speaking” (Hanna Arendt), the act of decision-based, unprotected positioning in privacy or public, in the street, or in the werkstätten of our times, the coffee shop. Second task is to prove the idea that the non-experienced can be understood.

SUPPORT

International Coffeeshop depends on financial support from generous foundations, co-sponsors and organizational partners worldwide. Each project works with a different constellation of people testing new methods and practices. People interested in launching new initiatives please get in touch with Lillian Fellmann.