I don´t always carry a camera with me and I wish I could… I´ve always dreamed of owning a small spy camera that helps me capture those images that for some reason become meaningful to me. With such a camera one could always be on the right place, at the right time. I wish I had one of these in Berlin so I could take pictures of the free sofas I often see on the street, those pieces of furniture that are put outside so someone else can take and reuse[1]. We see them out on the street, sofas and other furniture to give away, some have a piece of paper that say something like: "bitte mitnehmen, GESCHENK". translates: "please take away, GIFT" . They’re there and ready to continue being useful for someone else. Those things fascinate me, because they´re a poetic representation of a profound idea that doesn´t speak about the object itself, but represents the creation of systems that work for a bigger crowd than just ourselves.
These are the kind of small ideas that make big sense because they are proactive and functional, the´re proposals for better systems that the ones established, and it works because the proposals are created by the people involved in communities and take focus on real needs. Health. Food. Shelter. Work. Education. Transportation… These are things are part of systems that as communities, we share a need for, systems that sometimes work for better and sometimes for worst.
In Berlin, an activist family of three composed by Raphael Fellner, his wife Nieves Palmer and their child Ana Lucia have been living without money over two years to make a statement that hopefully interest people on reflecting about living in a consumerism society[2], they are also part of a foodsharing network[3]. How do they live without money? Well, by using an acient tool: Exchange. Trading goods and services for work, for example.
In some European countries people can receive child care support, unemployment insurance, pension, healthcare, etc. and if so, you can live of the taxes you payed while you did engage a formal job or live of other people´s taxes (Not every country returns these bennefits to their tax paying citizens). I do think that making a statement: “Reflecting on other possibilities” is important and can be thought of on a wider perspective. I´m glad someone is brave enough to do something like a money strike even if it sounds idealistic. Although it´s clear you can´t live entirely without money, specially in a first world country like Germany, this activist family is still making a strong and necessary statement by carrying on this action.
It’s a fact that we need things but we don´t need so many things as we consume.
A foodsharing network like the one Fellner and his family are a part of, is a great idea put into action that if people start joining this kind of networks, it could bennefit make a large group of people. Networks are there to work for us, and internet makes conexions easier. Those same free sofas I mentioned before, are not always put out on the street, they can also be found on sharing networks, they become part of cyberlandscapes of recycled objects.
Sometimes artists and activist walk on a fine line in which their work process is very similar, but labels are not important for them because they´re always busy working, it´s their work that is important. It carries on an objective. People making collective work are empowering, call it art, activism, or anything else.
In her book ““Poéticas de la producción artística a principios de siglo. XXI. Distracción, desobediencia, precariedad e invertebrados. ” [4](Translates: Poetics of the artistic production of the XXI Century. Distraction, desobedience, precariety and invertebrates) Dr. Loreto Alonso defines four categories of the poetics in the artistic production of the XXI Century: Distraction, desobedience, precariety and invertebrates. In our times, both collective groups and activists seem to fit well in these new poetics, that´s why people can relate more to this kind of expresions than to the ones that have a more individual focus.
People are desobedient, and so they form new systems or sub-systems. People live in a precarious society, and so they create new ways of expressing that need little money. People become a part of metamorphisis- like change in which you can´t notice if artists are activists or viceversa. People are distracted and so they don´t notice art work infiltrations in everyday life.
During my residence in Berlin, the art work that has interested me the most is the one carried by the KUNSTrePUBLIK e.V. a non profit organization and art collective group[5], which created the ZKU resindecy space(Zentrum fuer Kunst und Urbanistik / Center for Art and Urbanistics). ZKU is a residency for artists, scholars and practitioners [6]. It all started with five artists working separatey in rented studios at the same building, where they faced the uncertinty of being kicked out and constantly having to find other places to work. That went on for several years until they partly decided to collectively work on a plan which after a long process led to them running the ZKU space, based on a longterm lease plus ownership of the building.
In 2006, these five artists appropriated the land of Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum.[7] Since then, they work collaboratively in organising, curating, producing, researching to create community-based projects. The group also travels to other countries in order to participate in projects and to give workshops that approach subversive methods like the ones they apply in their on works.
Based on a concept involving a local and international crowd, the group was able to convince municipalities to share a longterm contract, which involves owning and reconstructing the building.
Since 2006 The Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum has hold more than 30 artistic projects, and the ZKU residency program has been a self-sustained project.
It is a place full of historical ‘baggage’, just as many places Berin have.
[1] Collective archive of “Free sofa” pictures submited by difrent people on Flickr: http://www.flickriver.com/groups/sofafree/pool/
[2] http://shine.yahoo.com/financially-fit/family-lives-without-money--by-choice--and-thrives--190436599.html
[3] http://www.foodsharing.de/
[4] Book in spanish: http://editorialuaemex.org/poeticas.htm
Nahomi Ximénez
2013
Artículo realizado durante la residencia curatorial en: Node Center for Curatorial Studies, en Berlín.
