INFRA4_Administrative Infrastructures. ‘Radical Administration’ with Kate Rich: Second Fellowship Hangar

Image: FoAM

“The institution,” often singled out as the scapegoat that compromises the disruptive capacity of art, finds in its administrative apparatus the most entrenched expression of what is perceived—and often despised—as stagnant, reticent, paralyzing or reactionary. Administrative and juridical departments as well as legal, bureaucratic or management work are usually associated with spaces devoid of creativity, bastions of the status quo where there is no agency, and therefore, no movement or potential.

Since the early 2000s, Kate Rich—who describes herself as an artist, trader, and feral economist—has been challenging this perspective. Through initiatives such as the Radical Administration festival and her Feral MBA (a reimagined business school for artists and others), she argues that these spaces must be intervened upon, reimagined, and approached in radically creative ways. “RADMIN reconsiders the ‘dull’ spaces of administration, managing, trading and maintenance, not as a set of largely hostile impediments, which invade or co-opt arts practice but as sites for critical and creative inquiry, radical histories, experiments, politics, wild imaginaries and meaningful work.” (RADMIN Reader, 2020)

From October 2024 to November 2025, Hangar invites Kate Rich to the center’s second Fellowship which will take the form of a series of meetings called Grey Tuesdays. These meetings will serve two primary purposes: first, to share concrete cases of radical administration presented firsthand by various guests; second, to create frameworks for conversation and build solidarity networks among those working in administration. While other institutional roles and areas often rely on support and complicit networks (whether formal of informal), administrative work tends to be solitary, atomized, and sometimes ungrateful. Grey Tuesdays thus offer an open space for all cultural workers in the field of administration, as well as anyone interested in redefining administrative work.

The invitation to Kate Rich and the proposal for Grey Tuesdays arise from the Operations Room coordinated by TITiPI within the framework of the first Fellowship with Jara Rocha. More broadly, they are framed within Hangar’s InfraMaintenance research thread. The name of these sessions is a nod to Open Thursdays, during which the center has long been open to consultations and advice on methodologies and tools for artistic production. Grey Tuesdays are also conceived as moments to share knowledge, only with a focus on administration this time.

1st Meeting: 
On Radical Administration and Feral Economics: An Introduction. 
By Kate Rich
Friday, October 25, 18:30h
Hangar

The first meeting will explore various experiments, contexts, and projects by Kate Rich. In the first part of the session, Kate will share different examples of administrative, bureaucratic, or legal experimentation in which she has been involved, such as Feral Trade, the Cube Microplex or RADMIN. The second part of the session will open up a space for feedback and group discussion, allowing participants to exchange comments and personal experiences. The goal is to build a community of mutual support over the course of the entire program.

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Kate Rich (AU/UK) is an artist and feral economist, trading in and outside formal institutions for 30+ years. In the 1990s, she was part of the Bureau of Inverse Technology (B.I.T.), an international agency producing an array of critical information products for the Information Age. In 2003 she started Feral Trade, a grocery import-export business and long range economic experiment, using the spare carrying capacity of existing movements to transport coffee, olive oil and other vital goods. Kate is system administrator with the Irational.org art-server collective, satellite agent of the FoAM network of transdisciplinary labs, and land-based member of the Sail Cargo Alliance. She worked for 20 years as bar manager, director, licensee, hire manager, banker, driver and usher at the Cube Microplex, an all-volunteer-run arts co-operative in Bristol UK, and was part of the team that established a Community Land Trust to hold the Cube building and land in service of the community arts in Bristol, in perpetuity. In 2019 Kate co-organised RADMIN, Britain’s first festival of Administration. And in 2020 she established the Feral MBA, a radically reimagined training course in business for artists and others, now up and running as an annual programme at Lakes Entrance, far east Australia. Along with colleagues from FoAM (Croatia), Kate is currently setting up the Institute for Experiments with Business (IBEX), as a lab for investigating new and wild shapes for business and enterprise that could fit other possible worlds. 

Practical Information: 

Place: Hangar
Date: October 25th
Time: 6:30 pm
Free registration via the following form