The Woke Award

The Woke Award

The Woke Award

I am proud to announce that IMPAKT has done some shopping in the HIMMELSBACH subversive ideas catalog and chose to develop Idea 135, The Woke Award, with me during IMPAKT Festival 2024: DEAL WITH IT.

Idea 135, ‘The Woke Award’

Idea 135: The Woke Award A playful disruption of the woke debate

The Woke Award is a subversive prize that reflects on our hyper-aware times, the limits of activism, and the complexity of contemporary moral dynamics. In collaboration with IMPAKT Festival 2024: DEAL WITH IT, this award was developed as a playful yet critical intervention in the increasingly polarized debate on woke culture, political correctness, and ideological rigidity.

Is woke the new political correctness?

The central question behind the Woke Award: is woke a necessary awakening or morality in overdrive? With this in mind, we organized an award ceremony on November 2, 2024, where public nominations, expert insights, and performance elements clashed in an unfiltered, dadaistic spectacle.

With a panel of experts, including Stefan Ruitenbeek, Maarten Doorman, and Jeanette Chedda, moderated by Cecile van Bruggen, we explored the tensions between activism, ideological purity, and the unintended consequences of the woke movement.

The nominations were open to the public: anyone could nominate an individual, organization, or concept they considered to be ‘woker than woke’. This resulted in a diverse shortlist of names and terms.

An evening of absurdity and confrontation

I’ve never attended a more disruptive event than the Woke Award. The only thing that comes somewhat close are descriptions of Dada performances at Cabaret Voltaire. Every five seconds brought a completely unexpected twist—hidden moments in corners that shouldn’t be mentioned or can’t see the light of day, actors stealing the show, and the promise of arguments that could last a hundred years over who was the most impactful, who originated what, and who deserved the spotlight.

 

Impakt festival panel woke award van himmelsbach

KIRAC’s nomination and the victory of ‘sustainability’
Philosopher Maarten Doorman nominated KIRAC, the controversial art criticism collective, arguing that woke thinking is just as binary as the anti-woke stance it opposes. However, the audience opted for a less ambivalent winner: the term ‘sustainability’, nominated by community artist Klaar van der Lippe as a critique of the emptiness and façade-thinking surrounding the concept.

A theft or the perfect metaphor?
Just as the evening seemed to have found a clear winner, anarchy erupted—a group of red-clad women stormed the stage and stole the award. Was this a planned improvisation? A symbolic act? A parody of the endless projection of enemies?

The answer to these questions remains as ambivalent as the award itself. Like any good artwork, the Woke Award resists easy explanation, continuing to provoke, irritate, and invite discussion.

The first edition of the Woke Award proved that today’s debates on activism and ideology are in desperate need of oxygen—and that humor and disruption remain powerful tools in shaping public discourse.

Want to relive the chaos? Here’s your chance –>LINK<–. But fair warning: it’s discomforting.

 

Woke Award 2.0

OTHER PROJECTS

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