Second Hand Information

Second Hand Academy relies fully on the practical experience. The main goal is to give second life to old goods, materials, tools and techniques. But this is a reflexive academy as well. Offering seminars and other creative methods for a closer (second) look on the contradictory way we are influenced, inspired, and sometimes manipulated, by the past.

The French historian Francois Hartog says that we live in a time, where the future is missing, and because we are not sure about what will happen next, we stay in a long endless present. The Belorussian writer Svetlana Alexievich (author of the book “Second Hand Time” and 2015 Nobel-prize Winner for Literature) wrote that “second hand time is our diagnosis, we do not go forward, in front of us is our past”.

Workshops on different topics are offered every year since 2015 when “Second hand” was the main topic of GOATMILK festival of memories.