Lecken_15

It seems to me that rave is just this: a local language without definite articles. There is no such thing as the rave – if that means a category of material, a genre, an approach, or a set of techniques. the rave cannot exist. There's only this and this here and this over there and this right here and us saying simple things in simple sentences as if we were learning to speak again, slowly, adventurously, saying the things that would save us if anything could save us.

So if the rave doesn't exist, what then? Nothing can save us. Because the rave can't step in for politics. Because: "Partying is not political. It's just not." Camilla said this to me, at some Lecken-related event. And yet, here you are. Not in some otherworldly world. Not escaping. Stealing yourself away from life that is stolen from you. Not hiding. Hiding away what is not yours.

Critical rave is one of the things that will help us to get through the next decade. But rave is not political. It has no political goals. It is one of the names for our political desire as it names our political desires. Real politics, like real writing, must happen elsewhere. But we will use some of all that energy, some of all that beauty, which does not go away when we do, which does not leave the party when we are leaving.

And leaving the party we must. One of the most impressive things about the critical rave community are the skills and tricks they, we, have developed to curate our departure from the party. (The only thing that's even more impressive is our skill to trick ourselves into not leaving and getting fucked up again.)

Text by Samir Sellami —
Photo by Souad Herve —
"o r g a n i z e" installation by Lecken w/ inflatable support system from Tools for Action

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