-by Barbora Horská (Curator/Editor-in-chief of Improper Dose)

Around this time last year, Dr. Ayesha Khan published an article about decolonizing hope that had a profound effect on me. In the text entitled “How do we keep hope alive in our movements?”, Khan discusses the contradictions of hope but mainly the difference between the hopefulness of a freedom fighter and the hopelessness caused by individualism and colonial values in the West. Carefully steering away from exoticizing or glamorizing Palestinian resilience, which is “a necessity borne out of atrocities that are unimaginable to most of us,”[1] the author speaks of how the need for immediate results leads many of the liberal activists down the path of despair. Only two days after UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese reiterated the same notion during her public talk at the University of Vienna[2] by inviting the audience to zoom out of the immediate reality and draw inspiration from historical context, such as the working-class origins of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement in fight against South African apartheid, Syrian people overthrew Bashar al-Assad’s regime after decades of civil war and suffering under his dictatorship. Would this be possible if the people on the ground lost the ability to envision a different reality?

Both Khan and Albanese highlight community as the crucial element for any successful resistance movement. Holding space for grief and mutual aid is necessary if we are to maintain hope and use it as fuel to keep showing up. While here in Vienna we exist in intersectionally different realities—collectively from those in occupied lands as well as individually amongst each other—we are, nonetheless, all affected by the horrors inflicted on Palestinians, people in Sudan, Congo, Syria, Iran, Uyghurs in China, Ukrainians, Armenians in Artsakh and the list goes on, via our shared humanity and the complicity of the government and the capitalist system under which we live. It is our duty to resist—within our individual capacities—the normalization of genocides, ethnic cleansing, environmental destruction and white supremacy regardless of its location.

Personally speaking, the community around Improper Walls has been a source of strength, allowing me not to lose my mind, especially over the past two years, and co-create a safe space for authentic expression regardless of political correctness. I owe this possibility to the vision of its founders and the relentless efforts of everyone who joined the team over the past ten years of our existence and in equal part to everyone participating in and supporting our projects—who must have been doing so with the hope that it all makes sense.

Now, the Improper Dose was born out of the desire to stay connected with and support our community when we had to close our doors due to lockdown restrictions; I hope for the magazine to continue responding to the current events with intention and consideration of the political context within which our cultural programming is being conceived, and the artists we collaborate with have to function. This edition is therefore dedicated mainly to institutional critique, as, returning to Albanese’s lecture—challenging the impunity of “authorities” is the first step to challenging the system.

Until next time!

[1] Ayesha Khan, PhD, “How do we keep hope alive in our movements?”, Substack, 2023. Online access: https://wokescientist.substack.com/p/how-do-we-keep-hope-alive-in-our

[2] Public Talk: “Israel’s War: Genocide as Colonial Erasure” with Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. University of Vienna, December 6, 2024.

IMPROPER DOSE NO. 1/2024