During the pandemic, my practice started being anchored in a physical object with a theoretical backbone - or what most sane folks would call a library. I named it “The Art Workers Library”. This became the theory repository and constant source of inspiration for my practice. It was a necessity at the time, locked indoors, unable to properly socialize and needing to ground myself. Ever since then I return to “The Art Workers Library” again and again. I use it as material for my work, and I supplement it constantly with new “chapters”.
Initially, the library contained volumes on labour theory - no big surprise there given my practice! -, then it got an addition of books on motherhood (to touch on reproductive labour during my residency at Hotel Maria Kapel which I shared with my mother), and it incorporated image making (just as I started a new course of study entitled Photography and Society), and touched on love (reproductive labour by another name), as well as protest (for climate, for justice) and the Palestine question (following the student encampments that I was a part of).
The library originates in my pandemic isolation, and it had several iterations already:
Two large-scale wall prints, opposite one another exhibited as "Producing one another" @Frappant e.V. in Hamburg, during "But I have my Gossips, everyone, one foot further I will not go", a collaborative group show on the many meanings of gossip and their friendship, alongside: Art Goss, Belia Brückner, Merle Dammhayn, Franziska Liza König, Nadine Lohof, Cristina Rüesch.
Silvia Federici‘s study of the etymological transformation of the term gossip served as the starting point for the exhibition concept of "But I have my gossips, everyone, one foot further I will not go". In it’s original sense, ›gossip‹ identified those women who were close to each other and carried out their daily work together. The formerly positive connotation of this term was mixed with a pejorative disdain only in the course of the 16th century. Federici traced this development historically and examined it’s evolution phenomenologically in the context of proto-capitalist processes. In the course of increasing primitive accumulation, the place of women* was increasingly situated in marriage. The motivation for this enclosure layed in the impounding of the specifically female* ability to reproduce. Thus, the succession of constantly renewed generations of workers was guaranteed. Through their work, the invited positions – all flinta-identifying - created visibility for the networks at work in the art field and the (historical) vehemence of fraternizations. They exposed power relations and deconstructed their narratives. They also conceived alternative forms of collaborative creation based on solidarity that defied the pejorative imposed.
During Friday, 23rd of July, 2021, 7pm the installation of the work took place. The installation itself functioned as an illustration of women carrying out their daily work together. If someone were to need to frame this theoretically, they would include a reference to Silvia Federici’s notion of Tätigkeitsgemeinschaften. In real life the framing happens naturally - community is built by sharing tasks, by anticipating the other’s movements, by communicating beyond language, intuiting the other’s needs, in time.
Two large-scale prints exhibited as part of the exhibition "Protect your Heart at Work", alongside a library on labour.
Together with curators Antje Ehmann, Luis Feduchi and Kristin Wenzel, the Goethe-Institut and the Foundation9 are pleased to present a two-part exhibition at the BRD Scena 9 Residence, which artistically addresses the social dimensions of work. Organized with Apparatus 22, Matei Bejenaru, Harun Farocki, Anna Jermolaewa, Tamás Kaszás, Alina Lupu, The Bureau of Melodramatic Research.
In the "Labor in a Single Shot" , Antje Ehmann and Luis Feduchi will exhibit memorable films made in Bucharest, Berlin and Warsaw. These were carried out in workshops on the subject of work, which have as a starting point the work of Harun Farocki. The special character of the films results from the cinematic challenge of recording the scenes in a single frame, without cuts.
In the exhibition "Protect Your Heart At Work" , curator and artist Kristin Wenzel invites visitors to reflect on the individual and his modern professional life. It challenges us to question existing ways of thinking about work through performances and installations. Due to the proximity of the common space, both sides of this exhibition manage to enter into a dialogue with each other and to embody an integrative vision on the process and character of the work and its socio-political dimensions.
One large scale print exhibited as part of the exhibition "Out of Office This isn’t working for us", alongside a library on refusal.
Our schedules are packed. We define ourselves by our work. And we are constantly exhausted. The excesses of today’s technology-driven work culture are familiar to everyone – efficiency has become the norm and permanent availability a given. From 10 February till 30 April 2023, the IMPAKT Exhibition Out of Office presents a collection of artistic responses that reveal, rethink and reject the constant drive towards exploitative productivity. How can we carve out space to catch our breath?
Technological advances didn’t create a future that frees humans from labour after all. Instead we see management algorithms optimising labour efficiency without concern for the people who do the work. We see apps and platforms pushing us to become the ‘best’ (read: most productive) version of ourselves. In our current neoliberal society, we’re constantly either working or thinking about work, or else feeling guilty about not working. The title Out of Office will be familiar from those auto-reply emails informing us of the sender’s non-availability, but it can also be read as a reference to how work follows us wherever we go. The pandemic accentuated existing problems on the labour market, and opened the eyes of many. People started to reconsider their priorities in life and work and new terms like ‘the great resignation’ and ‘quiet quitting’ are now common.
The artists in the exhibition reflect on their own position and current conditions in the workplace. They question standard practices and explore the subversive potential of conventions such as the auto-reply, the CV and the eight-hour workday. Jobs requires us to perform – in the sense of successfully carrying out desired tasks but also in the sense of acting. Building on this inherent performativity of the roles we take up at work, Out of Office explores actions for critique and resistance. In the modern workplace context, doing nothing, not showing up, or gestures of mutual support become acts of resistance against a system in which profit, efficiency, and optimisation are central. How to extend such resistance to foster collective action and solidarity?
With artworks by: Noa Marthe Prins, Alina Lupu, Sam Meech, Adrian Melis, Mario Santamaría, Tytus Szabelski, Pilvi Takala, Total Refusal, 996.icu
Curator: Marijn Bril
Exhibition design: Zalán Szakács