2016
Two-channel video installation

meer teilen: share more Artists: Cristian Alarcon Ismodes, Lima / Bildstein | Glatz, Matthias und Philippe, Vienna, Kreuzlingen / Gonzalo Fernandez, Trujillo, Lima / Esneider Gamboa, Bogota / Tea Hatadi, Zagreb / Sylvia Jaimes, Bogota / Carlos Leon-Xjimenez, Madrid, Lima / Christians Luna, Lima / Petra Mrša, Zagreb, Rijeka / Bojan Mucko, Zagreb / Reto R. Müller, Stein am Rhein / Eliana Otta, Lima / Fernando Pertuz, Bogota / Steffenschöni, Karl Steffen und Heidi Schöni, Schmidshof / Mirjam Wanner, Frauenfeld

meer teilen: share more has been developed by 15 artists from Columbia, Peru, Croatia and Switzerland and has been curated by Harm Lux. The artists formed four international and intercultural groups, each made up of members of each country. Beginning in 2015, ideas were first exchanged within these groups via skype, in July and August 2016, the participants finally met in Zagreb, later in Frauenfeld to live and work together for the course of almost four weeks. Throughout the whole project, communication proved to be the central but also the most complicated tool to establish a sense of community.

Already the title of the project meer teilen: share more alludes to its multilayered and multifaceted quality and its ultimate utopian component. During the project the artists generated their own strategies in pursuing the topic of share more and developed methods and ideas that went beyond the mere act of art making. By working and living together as a group for almost four weeks, the daily procedures became the ideal testing ground for the concept of share more. By questioning the basic principles of living and working together, by scrutinizing democratic processes, by testing the limits of artistic collaborations and consensus, the project rather turned into a social experiment. The constructions now shown in the Shedhalle are temporary “markers” of that ongoing process.

Katja Baumhoff and Rebekka Ray

Museum of contemporary art Zagreb

Eisenwerk kultur 

Program

 Petra Mrša, Eliana Otta and Karl Steffen; Common possibilities 

Petra Mrsa, Eliana Otta, and Karl Steffen led interviews with members and representatives of various non-profit syndicates, and together with their interview partners they visited various public places. They discussed controversial aspects of public space, such as the future use of abandoned industrial settings, the shortage of adequate accommodation for larger families, or the various problems caused by the constant and extensive flow of traffic through city centers.
As it turned out, responsible, future-minded, and conscientious use of public space is closely linked to people, who can identify and relate to the public space
that surrounds them and who have the possibility to get engaged, to influence, and to actively shape their direct environment.

…

For this project, we used the old Andic culture – the sumac kawsay – as reference, named as “Buen vivir” by the first colonialists, and
tried to understand the qualities for today through an artistic exchange. In this culture they had other ideas about the concept of “materiality” than we know. The willingness to help, interpersonal exchange, and sharing were seen as “the material,” which in turn should be in balance with “the spiritual,” which means a respectful
dealing with “mother earth”.
This was a long process, one which began already January 2014 on regional-urban level in Bogota and Lima, to get picked up by the Croatian and Swiss colleagues a year later, to come July / August 2016 to his concretization. End January 2016 split the big artist-group (16 artists, 4 cities/regions) in 4 smaller groups (always an artist from COL-CH-HR-PE), this to stimulate the international Skype -exchange, here, of course, not coming out without many language misunderstandings, at the
same time characterized the Skype phase also as a “key” towards each other. Person which do not know each other try to find a project! They brought in the first ideas, respectively discussed what they consider important and they already tried to imagine where they like to work on when they are together a few months
later.
During the Skype process decided the artists to concentrate on following topics: one group focused “Plurality by Language”, another one “Water / Earth” a third “Urban-research”, to pick it up and work it out during the physical project time. Due to the mostly different views on the “Urban” one of the 4 groups did not succeed in concentrating the forces before the beginning of the project, respectively they did not succeed to the end, but this group would like to start now already the preparations for a next South America project (December 2016).
At the European project start, first a week Zagreb and then 23 days Frauenfeld / Thurgau, the members had to open accordingly and to name which direction they want to work as small group (4 small groups). This resulted in a further development of the themes already prepared in the groups (and during the Skype phase). Due to the many group meetings, both in large and small groups, and through workshops and communal cooking, grew a being together, which strengthened the listening to each other an the collaboration.
To my person! During the actual project period, I wanted to act as a curator-spectator, wanted to follow / observe how the project
evolves, asking the artists to make full use of the freedom of their work. Therefore, I have stayed out to much (and this for reasons that had nothing to do with the project). It was the first time in my curatorial carrier that I got out, and that’s enough for me, I do not think it makes sense to do this again.
Each of us has his thoughts on a project, is looking for a working model and tries to achieve the set goals. Most of us are accustomed to develop their own work. This project, however, characterized by co-operation and willingness to help, and achieved the latter both qualities well. Perhaps not only the “action on the spot” played an
essential role, but also to slowly approach each other!
In any case, if groups want to work together again after an extended first working period (regional work, Skype phase, project concretization), then something has gone “well”!

Harm Lux, curator

 

Common possibilities_Urban farm

Gordana Dragičević, Parkticipacija

Parkticipacija is an association for urban permaculture. They promote: sustainable local systems of food production and distribution (such as urban gardens and group of solidarity exchange); responsible management of resources related to the production, supply and disposal of food leftovers (such as composting and preventing throwing food leftovers); sustainable practices of good economy; citizens’ self-organization and social transition towards sustainable and resistant communities.

Common possibilities_Spatial policy 

Iva Marčetić, Pravo na grad

Pravo na grad (Right to the City Zagreb) is an organisation engaged in advocacy and public campaigning against the economic overexploitation of spatial resources, corruption of public governance for the benefit of private interests, and the disenfranchisement of citizens in spatial planning processes in the city of Zagreb and Croatia. The initiative was established as a collaboration between civil society organizations working in the fields of culture and youth, and later formalised as NGO.

Common possibilities_Old city queers

Dominko Blažević

Architecture critic, translator and copywriter. In 2012 he became the chief editor of the online magazine The man and the space  which reflects upon topics in the field of architecture, urban planning, culture of habitation, aesthetics of space, cultural heritage and its protection, design, fine arts and applied arts in Croatia and abroad.