(Anne Elizabeth Moore is an author, editor, artist, teacher, and Groundswell guest blogger. She divides her time between Chicago and Cambodia, where she teaches young women the art of self-publishing.)
I’ve been talking to the artist Sarah Lewison about some time she spent living in Berlin lately. In honor of the 20 year fall of the Wall today, I specifically asked her what she remembered about the East.
Some how, I don’t remember how, I met a few girls from the east who invited me to visit them in East Berlin. Likely, they were a connection through someone in the West—family members who introduced us, because I was curious to go east. At that time it was very cumbersome for an American to cross. I had to pay 5 marks to cross over at Checkpoint Charlie. I remember going with the two girls to a gigantic restaurant for “tea”. there were carts rolling around with really opulent cakes. It felt like we were in a movie, in the 50s. The girls I was visiting were quite hip, had good english and expressed the thought that the most oppressive part about living in the DDR was the fact they could not travel freely and with that, the separation of families.
The comic above is from an outdoor installation of comics currently at the site of the future Berlin Wall Memorial, an engaging public art installation called Da War Mal Was. Comics? Outside? For real? It’s pretty great. This image details the “Westernization” of East Berlin, a process quickly embraced by giant soda manufacturers. (On that subject, I wrote a piece this morning on 20 years of Berlin Wall sales in the US, which might lend some interesting fodder for discussion about how resistance to capitalism gets sold anyway.)
(Anne Elizabeth Moore is an author, editor, artist, teacher, and Groundswell guest blogger. She divides her time between Chicago and Cambodia, where she teaches young women the art of self-publishing.)
Perhaps by accident, Groundswell has invited someone who thinks obsessively about text and vocabulary and dialogue and communication to contribute to its mostly visual pages. One who, moreover, feels that what is missing from our society at large and the immediate network of artists and activists Groundswell is among, is space for analysis. Those of us who work toward transformative justice are fully, daily, frustratingly aware that this is work rooted in dialogue. And Paolo Freire in Pedagogy of the Oppressed reminds us that “the essence of dialogue itself” is “the word.” Emphasis his.
So: I make language-based work to contribute to a vocabulary of change. You can find some here, in German, Khmer, English, Spanish, and Arabic. For the next few weeks, I will make some here on this blog, with you.
Then, after that, I will return to Cambodia, where I conduct ongoing work with young women — doing what? Oh, the same exact thing: participating in a dialogue about social justice and human rights, although this one in the weird mixture of English and the Cambodian language called Khmenglish. It’s a project I’ve come to call The Advantage and Disadvantage of Zine, because we have so far focused on zine- and bookmaking. Incarnations of this project have appeared in Chicago, New York, LA, Southern Illinois, Providence, and South Texas.
Social change happens through dialogue, and dialogue occurs in shared language and over shared experiences. But sometimes, there are pictures, sure.
(Artist and Groundswell guest blogger Chris Kennedy makes projects for the land and for situated communities. His ongoing projects include Artiscycle, Groups and Spaces, and the Institute for Applied Aesthetics.)
Justseeds comes to Portland for a show called Opposable Thumb at SEA Change Gallery.
Justseeds is an artists’ collective that runs a webstore, a blog, and produces individual and collective work about political issues and for social movements. Two Justseeds shows open on Nov 5th! Come to SEA Change to see the show “Opposable Thumb” a show about the effects of the human hand, and stop by Reading Frenzy to see the show “Charting our Course” a show about Education, Literacy and Books.
SEA Change is a gallery and community event space in Portland, Oregon.
(Artist and Groundswell guest blogger Chris Kennedy makes projects for the land and for situated communities. His ongoing projects include Artiscycle, Groups and Spaces, and the Institute for Applied Aesthetics.)
SPACES hosts Art Work: A National Conversation About Art, Labor, and Politics, produced by Temporary Services, an independent, Chicago-based collective comprised of Brett Bloom, Salem Collo-Julin and Marc Fischer. Art Work is a newspaper and website that uses SPACES as its distribution hub. It consists of writings from artists, activists and academics on the topic of working amidst depressed economies and how that impacts artistic process, compensation and artistic property. The newspaper will be distributed throughout the United States and Puerto Rico
The independently published, 40-page paper (printed at The Plain Dealer press) features the writings of Julia Bryan-Wilson, author of Art Workers: Radical Practice in the Vietnam Era (2009) and Work Ethic (2003); Holland Cotter, New York Times Art Critic and 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner for criticism; Kristen Cox, Tim Kerr and Nance Klehm, editors for The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest; Julie Deamer, founding director of Outpost for Contemporary Art (L.A.); Harrell Fletcher, visual artist; Futurefarmers, a collective design studio that supports art projects, artists in residencies and research interests; Robin Hewlett, artist/activist; Justseeds: Visual Resistance Artists’ Cooperative; Nicolas Lampert, interdisciplinary artist; Lize Mogel, interdisciplinary artist ; and Dan S. Wang, as well as other influential essayists to be announced. More Information
SPACES, Cleveland, OH, November 20 – January 15, 2010
(Artist and Groundswell guest blogger Chris Kennedy makes projects for the land and for situated communities. His ongoing projects include Artiscycle, Groups and Spaces, and the Institute for Applied Aesthetics.)
Hmm…so many institutes, schools and research-based projects as of late! A recent project called the Institute for Aesthetic Research by Daniel Lichtman and David Baumflek is holding some events at Exit Art in New York this month and next. Sounds like some good discussions and exchanges will come from this….but I can’t help but wonder – what if anything comes from these projects if they are temporary or event-based….how can we move beyond art as an event-economy in many ways – can the idea of this “Institute” be something long term and meaningful for an actual situated community – can that community be found in NYC? Cultural production outside of the realm of neoliberalism…what does that mean? Still good stuff though…
From Exit Art: As part of America for Sale, artists Daniel Lichtman and David Baumflek will host The Institute for Aesthetic Research (IAR) – a program of public events, talks and discussions focused on Art, Economics and Institutional Critique. They will attempt to translate the traditional role of the “think tank” into the sphere of cultural production and visual art. As the traditional think tank situates itself between the academy, special interests and government, the IAR will consider how to place itself critically within the circuits of distribution and legitimization of aesthetic objects and ideas. The IAR will itself be an experiment in the dynamics of cultural-political discourse. These five weekly meetings will culminate in a collectively-produced publication that explores the possibilities of cultural production in contestation, or outside the realm of Neoliberalism. (Image: University of Trash)
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