How materiality resonates politically?
The discussion around the worker’s sheds installation
Participants: Arne Hendriks, Inês Moreira, Aneta Szyłak, Leire Vergara
Five sheds from the Gdańsk Shipyard from the inspiration of the artist Grzegorz Klaman are put on tour to form Solidarność Camp
in 5 European cities. Made decades ago by the shipbuilders they were meant to provide some private space within the harsh conditions
associated with outdoor labour in heavy industry. Today, no longer in use and rescued from the scrapyard they are being seen
as examples of vernacular architecture. The status of the random objects is transformed into an art installation. The questions we
would like to raise are: How the meaning of the object is changed according to its location? What does it mean for us to discover
them in the center of Madrid? How their materiality influences our thinking about the visual, the vernacular, the somatic, the audible
and the performative? How this gesture reframes what we think about the city and how the contrast between the sheds and their
temporary surrounding triggers our thinking about the status of the found and vernacular? How the sheds can sound politically to us,
whilst thinking about the control over heavy industry by European regulations? These questions and more are to be addressed to four
speakers invited to take part in the talk: Arne Hendriks, co-curator of upcoming Alternativa in Gdańsk, Inês Moreira, architect,
researcher and curator based in Portugal, Leire Vergara, an independent curator based in Bilbao and Aneta Szyłak, Director
of Wyspa Institute of Art in Gdansk.
www.mataderomadrid.org/ficha/1009/solidarno%C5%9B%C4%87-camp.html
petitcabanon.org 