A project that brings together international artists, theorists, and writers who in their work examine the interdependence of artistic production and social class. Every form, including the artistic, is ground for the negotiation of class relations. A formal language always surpasses the formal: it can be read in relation to privilege and economic contexts that can inscribe and ultimately permeate materials, thematic concerns, and modes of (re-)presentation.
The complex structures and substantial rise of social inequalities—particularly visible in light of the current pandemic—have given the concept of class a wide range of connotations. In sociological terms, class can be understood as the ascription of individuals to specific social groupings, which are characterized by objective elements such as income. Beyond the pure economics, the concept also has symbolic significance. When speaking of class today, it is usually in reference to its historically white and predominantly male constitution. But what has become apparent is that categories of “race” and “gender” are deeply inherent to concepts of class. In fact, these aspects are the determining elements of class relations.
VARIOUS OTHERS 2020 Kunstverein Muenchen Annette Wehrmann aus der Serie Blumensprengungen 22 1991 95 Courtesy Ort des Gegen e.V. und VG Bild Kunst Bonn 3
What forms do artistic practices assume, and what do they tell us about the conditions of their production? The works on view are characterized by a consciousness of how background, socialization, education, and artistic practice are inevitably entangled. They hence allow for a consideration of these categories in relation to the actual lived realities of their producers. However, given the distinctions that do exist, why does contemporary art, in many cases, continue to be presented against the backdrop of supposed “class homogeneity;” remaining complicit in the reproduction and masking of existing conditions which it often claims to overcome. The term “class” is strikingly absent in discourses that assert political relevance and critical potential. When it does become the subject, the economic disparities and inequalities are too often clumsily reproduced in the same context. The title Not Working addresses the often glorified precarity inherent to the notion of artists as social figures, and the cliché that economic regulations do not apply to their form of work. Moreover, the title outlines the dysfunctional system, which is built on the fundamental precarization of most of its producers.
VARIOUS OTHERS 2020 Kunstverein Muenchen Josef Kramhoeller Ohne Titel Fingerabdruck22 1995 courtesy Kienzle Art Foundation Berlin 2
Exhibition with Adrian Paci, Angharad Williams, Annette Wehrmann, Gili Tal, Guillaume Maraud, Josef Kramhöller, Laura Ziegler and Stephan Janitzky, Lise Soskolne, Matt Hilvers, Stephen Willats
Film program with Agnès Varda, Ayo Akingbade, Barbara Kopple, Berwick St Collective, Laura Poitras and Linda Goode Bryant, Max Göran; Lucrecia Martel selected by Nadja Abt; and films selected by Simon Lässig
Accompanying program with Cana Bilir-Meier and Gürsoy Doğtaş, Periods of Non-Productivity, Ramaya Tegegne, Tirdad Zolghadr
Publication with contributions by Annette Wehrmann, Dung Tien Thi Phuong, Josef Kramhöller, Laura Ziegler and Stephan Janitzky, Leander Scholz, Lise Soskolne, Mahan Moalemi, Marina Vishmidt and Melanie Gilligan, Steven Warwick
PROGRAM
September 12, 9pm
Screening I
Films selected by Simon Lässig
September 22, 9pm
Screening II
Harlan County, USA by Barbara Kopple
September 23, 7pm
Lecture
Tirdad Zolghadr
October 4, 5pm
Play
Der Palast ist nicht ganz dicht – A tragic music and puppet play
October 6, 9pm
Screening III
Nightcleaners by Berwick St Collective
October 13, 7pm
Reading and Conversation
Cana Bilir-Meier and Gürsoy Doğtaş
October 18, 12–6pm
Reading and Presentation
Periods of Non-Productivity. A Reader as Performance and Education
October 20, 9pm
Screening IV
Les glaneurs et la glaneuse by Agnès Varda
October 31, 12–6pm
Workshop
with Ramaya Tegegne
November 3, 9pm
Screening V
filming dad’s ass while he’s chopping logs with his chainsaw by Max Göran
November 5, 7pm
Lecture
NewFutures
November 17, 9pm
Screening VI
La Ciénaga by Lucrecia Martel, selected and presented by Nadja Abt
November 21, 9pm
Screening VII
STREET 66 by Ayo Akingbade &
Flag Wars by Linda Goode Bryant and Laura Poitras
Cover image: VARIOUS OTHERS 2020 / Kunstverein München © Matt Hilvers, „free form, celebration of the body][psychic change]", 2009-19, Videostill 10 Einkanal-Videos, courtesy of the artist
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