IMPROPER DOSE NO. 2
Activism, Feelings and Art
- Justina Speirokaite - Improper Walls co-founder, curator
The moment we decided to run a non-commercial gallery, the words social, community, awareness, and activism attached themselves like stickers in our bathroom to our curatorial concepts.
It’s a big responsibility one would agree. It’s a restriction one would argue. It’s both and neither, I believe. A curatorial practice can’t be separated from one’s personal beliefs, style of life and actions. When in the supermarket I keep on reminding myself: buy regional - bananas don’t belong here! I take responsibility to reduce my carbon footprint. As a curator I make sure that at least fifty percent of artists we work with are women, same here - I take responsibility to fight inequality. Doing what you believe is right can’t be a restriction, and even so, it should be taken as a counter-hegemonic strategy in responsible contemporary curationism.
In our edition no. 2 of a weekly improper dose we talk about activism, feelings and art.
Although I found lots of “activism” in their artworks, artists we talk with for this edition are avoiding to call themselves activists. As Olivier Hölzl (QUARANTINE ART) said: even today we see more art where the line between artist and activist is blurred. Artists, in his opinion, are quite conservative and stick to certain institutional codes, dressing codes and they also „optimize“ to the art market mechanism. On Day 17 of his video diary, Olivier released a video called “Ethnicity does not cause the virus”.
Artist Maria Meyer (ENVIRONMENTAL ART), who also doesn’t consider herself an activist, notes that the dominant anthropocentric worldview has led us to the brink of environmental catastrophe: “...we always talk of ‘saving the planet’, when what we are ultimately trying to save is ourselves”. Ironically, the planet can take a bigger breath, as we are forced to slow down destroying our natural world (“that could actually save us in the end”).
Nina Kammerer from Studio Terrible (FASHION) talks about the importance of the right choice for materials she works with - “it's important to know how animals are treated, as well as how the material was treated afterward”, the sustainability and working with „Volkshilfeschneiderei“. I see a lot of activism in those patterns.
There is no intent to convince you that the above mentioned artistic practices should be called activism. Rather, they are examples of how artists are “speaking up” (if it sounds more comforting) on important matters that I, as a “responsible” curator, choose to highlight in this edition of improper dose. Nevertheless, I have to agree that there’s a space (blurry and clear) between art, cultural criticism and socio-political activism.
In this edition, we talked with three of our (Improper Walls) advisory board members: Lina Piskernik (ACTIVISM#1), Smaranda Krings (ACTIVISM#2) and Anna Schreilechner (ACTIVISM#3), about how each of us are important active participants in transforming our world, in all times (pandemic or not). An invitation to become an activist? No. An invitation to become a better human being.
And yet, everything starts with yourself. As we are feeling more emotional than usual (my favorite explanation is that we feel as though we are going through the same stages of grief), we asked artists Justas Pranevičius, Andrea Z. Scharf and Markus Tozzer (FEELINGS) to share their artworks influenced by the “strange days” we live in. And if you, as I, believe in artists as society’s truth tellers, you can find reflections of your own emotional being.
In the end, while it is important to stay active and aware of what is important, or at least be aware that a global pandemic is actually happening, as Ūla Šveikauskaitė (ARTIST’S VIEW) says: “try to balance your routines, goals, disciplines and simply doing nothing.” After all, we can’t foresee the future, but we can try to understand the present. So, take a “CHILL PILL” and let your inner rhythm lead you because the best work you can do right now is to help yourself.