Day 1 –
So today was the first working day of the residency. Hangovers all round (a result of last night’s welcome party) aided the group’s camaraderie in a weird way.
There are 10 residents in total, 2 of which are yet to arrive. I have decided in time I will write an individual post about each resident and their respective practices.
Today we were given a brief overview of how the 12 week programme will run. I am very excited about the prospect of visiting some of the multitude of artist studios in Berlin.
Following the inroduction we were asked to produce our first collaborative project, a kind of ice breaker. The aim of the project was to create the ‘perfect curator’. A task verging on the banal but actually extremely fun to be involved in. We were given approximately 4 hours to complete the task and a budget of 40 euros.
We each listed two words that we felt were key attributes of a curator, or what the perfect curator would possess. My suggestions were a spirit level and imperfection/flaws. The former was tongue in cheek but speaks for itself, while the latter is something I believe to be a necessity in all creatives. To be able to embrace ones mistakes is a powerful attribute in my opinion. Some of the other words listed were curiosity, practicality and my personal favourite, cultural magician. We then proceeded to group words which had some sort of connection into four categories.
Another word which stood out was vessel. We all agreed that we saw the role of the curator as being like a vessel, something/someone that channels the ideas of artists into the public realm. Based on this concept, our inital idea was to constructed some sort of water going vessel that would contain objects relating to the listed words and our idea of the ‘perfect curator’.
Confined by our limited budget, that idea developed into something more relative and less literal. Using the body as a vessel we attributed each group of words to a bodily organ and crafted an image not too dissimilar to the boardgame Operation. Developed even further we then decided to cook a meal wherby each dish would represent an organ and its attributed group of words.
The first dish was a selection of breads. These breads represented the whole body. While there are obvious connections to Christian rituals we also saw bread to reflect the words multilingual, bridge, dialogue and negotiation.
The main dish, a curry dish, represented the heart and conveyed the words curious, adventurous, seeker/traveller and cultural magician. Apples were used to represent character and the words osmosis, imperfect/flawed, open and humble. Finally, tea and coffee were served as a representation of the digestive system and the words critical/analitical, rhythm, reliability and practicality. This was also accompanied by the tag line: you don’t want to vomit art, you want to shit it out.
A very enojoyable meal and a very enjoyable first day. I will from now on be referring to myself as a cultural magician.
