Response*able drawing on Show: first ideas, rough phantasies & many more questions
We would like to explore the possibilities of democracy on a visual level in the form of community-based curating. The exhibition project is coined by the idea to critically interrogate.
Kaj Osteroth and Sarah Hegenbart theoretical approaches to democracy on a visual level, such as „Demokratie im Präsens“(Lorey), “Demokratie als Zumutung“ (Heidenreich), Demokratie als Lotterie (Buchstein). We conceive of our curatorial concept as fluid and in motion, as it will thrive on input from a diversity of communities we plan to collaborate with.
Our curatorial concept responds to questions, such as: Is democracy really representing everyone? Are there as many concepts of democracy as there are human beings? Is democracy only a Western concept and only imposed on the Global South? What are other forms of political organisation?
As it is inherent to the operation of democracy that it is constantly questioned and re-thought (Rebentisch), we consider response*able drawing as one step towards the utopian ideal of democratic participation, representation and exhibition-making. How can the practice of drawing pave the way towards more equality in processes of participation? Is drawing inclusive or trapped in academic convictions about the medium as such? Does drawing have to be decolonised before being employed as democratic strategy? And to what extent is a concept of democracy still convincing given that it is so closely interrelated to controversial Enlightenment thinking? Can we work towards a transcultural form of democracy which also references Indigenous forms of political organisation such as the kgotla?
Starting in April 2023 and continuing throughout the year, we will conduct a number of workshops with art students, communities with limited exposure to the arts and people keen to experiment in this field. Key point for these encounters is the notion of democracy. As indicated we have many references, open questions and undefined desires with regard to democracy as, on the one hand, a political system, which some believe being at stake these days, and, on the other hand, as a way of processing togetherness and strategies for equal community-building.
Inspired by Oreet Ashery’s Workshop ‘Bad company’ at the NGBK in 2015, we would like to invite the participants to enter into a dialogue and a process of visual experimentation within a collaborative space dedicated to developing a series of text- and image-based works. The workshops will be based on the initial contributions of the participants, who are asked to select a text or an image created by themselves or others in order to describe their associations with the phrase ‘Demokratie als Zumutung’ (‘democracy as imposition’). This provides the starting point for processes of visual reflexion based on guided tasks and free movements.
Considering the potential of artists’ picture books, they could function as an attractive and accessible presentation format for the output of these workshops. Working with the visual material as a source, comparable to Martha Wilson’s famous sourcebook, will allow the participants to contribute further to it later on, e.g. by adding second layers of reflexions, corrections or censorship to the compilation.