TINA – There Is No Alternative Reflexive Editorial Process

TINA – There Is No Alternative is a new publication that builds upon the eponymous exhibition that took place at The Showroom between 5 June–17 July 2019; the first solo commission in the UK by artist Navine G. Dossos. This major new commission took shape as a performative, durational installation combining live painting, a research archive and a series of workshops, talks and events open to the public.

This publication, co-published by The Showroom and Chateau International, takes as a starting point Dossos’ ongoing research into the complex context of the UK government’s development of pre-crime and surveillance policies, in particular Prevent, questioning the politics of representation and the positioning of care that the strategies around those policies generate.

Texts in the book include new essays by Navine G. Dossos, Rob Faure Walker and Lily Hall alongside contributing writers who have engaged in written dialogues, Sadia Habib, Hassan Vawda, Rachel Coldicutt, Tarek Younis, Shezana Hafiz and Azfar Shafi from advocacy organisation CAGE, and William Skeaping from Extinction Rebellion. A text by Alexander Massouras, revised from his exhibition review of There Is No Alternative for Art Monthly in 2019, is also included. The book is designed by Mark Hurrell.

At the core of the project at The Showroom has been the act of questioning what an alternative to Prevent could look like, involving a shared process between Dossos and all those who became collaboratively involved. In this way, the work of the exhibition was a live process of collaborative research, discussion, sharing knowledge and critical thinking between Dossos, The Showroom team, and all those who became a part of the project: a democratic process which this publication now seeks to extend further.

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The Reflexive Editorial process was open from 1 April until 31 May 2021

Over two months, we invited readers of the PDF of TINA, to let us know thoughts and comments, ahead of the book being printed later in the year. This ‘Reflexive Editorial’ was a way for us to share the process and ideas, and for you to let us know what you think. We included these comments as part of the final book. This feedback was invaluable, and we hope it helped all who engaged to feel part of this important moment whilst waiting for the findings of the UK government’s Independent Review of Prevent.

Comments were contributed via this online form or you can email your feedback to [email protected].

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This project forms part of The Showroom's trans-disciplinary programme Radical Citizenship. Projects within this programme engage with socio-political, theoretical and artistic processes for the reinvention of agency and governance in the environment of our contemporary cities.

Radical Citizenship is a cooperative project between The Showroom and Goethe-Institut London within the framework of Echoes of the South Atlantic, a project promoting collaborative art production in Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and South America.