Workers’ Retreat
by Social Sensibility R & D Department
PROGRAM:
4:00 pm
Introduction
4:15 pm
Artist Presentation by Social Sensibility R & D Department, Blandine De La Taille (FR), Alessandro Rolandi (IT), Tianji Zhao (CN), and worker participants Antoine Agudze (TG), Gilbert William Honoray (IN/FR), and others.
5:15 pm
Public Discussion - Moderated by Scott William Raby
*Free of admission - everyone is welcome. The primary language is English (along with French, Mandarin, Italian, and Danish). Complimentary snacks and drinks.
f.eks. warmly invites you to Workers’ Retreat - a series of public artistic engagements in Aalborg by the Social Sensibility R & D Department (a.k.a. Social Sensibility).
The project utilizes and subverts the idea of the “workers’ retreat” typically used to boost productivity as a framing device for Social Sensibility to propose and collectively re-imagine future possibilities for socially engaged artistic practices. By activating Aalborg’s unique post-industrial context as a former 19th century manufacturing hub, the local history will facilitate an international, multi-linguistic group of artists and workers from Social Sensibility to come together through different events and reflect on their interrelated positions along with Danish audiences. Through creating different informal transcultural storytelling, leisure, educational moments, and communal interactions across the city, Social Sensibility will (in)directly activate different cultural and economic conversations on art and work - from the often missing perspective of artists and workers themselves.
At its core, Workers’ Retreat seeks to connect different communities and enlarge the dialogue around socially engaged art projects to amplify their resonance, visibility, and transnational networks. As an art project that is also a department inside Bernard Controls factories in China, France, and Italy, Social Sensibility has a unique position to think about artists, workers, and the nature of work in relation to broader socio-cultural discourse. By connecting Social Sensibility’s different experiences they seek to create accessible archives for the general public, in order to give more visibility and relevance to experimental and extra-institutional artistic methodologies. In doing so, new conceptualizations and definitions of the artist as a facilitator, moderator, consultant, and alternative educator within different communities and contexts can emerge.
The Social Sensibility R & D Department began in Beijing in 2010 with an encounter between artist Alessandro Rolandi and Guillaume Bernard (CEO of Bernard Controls Group) and was later joined by artists Tianji Zhao and Blandine de La Taille (in Paris). Social Sensibility is an internal function of Bernard Controls - not an external consultancy - and thus has a unique economic model and ongoing staying presence within the company. Social Sensibility aims to develop artist-run departments within institutions in which the artist becomes a constant creative presence within working life - to act using relationships as a material and artistic practice as a tool to impact their surroundings. Social Sensibility’s research & practice have been developed at factories in Beijing/Daxing, Paris/Gonesse, and recently Milan/Rho. They aim to promote their methodology to other institutions and entities as well as produce artworks, artworks made by artists in collaboration with employees, and artworks made by employees accompanied by the artists who run the department.
f.eks. is generously supported by The Danish Arts Foundation, Ny Carlsbergfondet, 15. Juni Fonden, Den Jyske Kunstfond, Region Nordjylland, and Aalborg Municipality. This project is kindly supported by S.C. Van Fonden and Bernard Controls. Special thanks to Kunsthal Spritten and Huset i Hasserisgade.
For more information:
www.socialsensibility.org
www.f-x.dk
(DK)
Workers’ Retreat
af Social Sensibility R & D Department
Lørdag den 15. april:
Work / Live 干活 - fra Beijing til Aalborg* fra kl. 16 - 18
Husets Café, Huset i Hasserisgade, Hasserisgade 10, 9000 Aalborg
PROGRAM:
Kl 16:0
Introduktion
Kl 16:15
Kunstnerpræsentation af Social Sensibility R&D Department, Blandine De La Taille (FR), Alessandro Rolandi (IT), Tianji Zhao (CN), og medarbejdere Antoine Agudze (TG), Gilbert William Honoray (IN/FR) mfl.
Kl 17:15
Faciliteret samtale - Modereret af Scott William Raby
*Gratis adgang - alle er velkomne. Primære sprog er Engelsk (sammen med Fransk, Mandarin, Italiensk og Dansk). Vi serverer snacks og drinks.
f.eks. inviterer til Workers’ Retreat - en serie offentlige kunstneriske events i Aalborg af Social Sensibility R&D Department (alias Social Sensibility).
Projektet benytter og søger at undergrave ideen om en "udflugt for medarbejdere", der typisk har til formål at øge arbejdernes produktivitet, som en konceptuel rammesætning for Social Sensibility til at fremsætte og kollektivt at genfortolke mulighederne for den socialt engagerede kunstneriske praksis. Ved at aktivere Aalborgs unikke postindustrielle kontekst, som tidligere knudepunkt for industriel produktion i det 19. århundrede og gennem lokal historie, vil Social Sensibility, der består af en international flersproget gruppe af kunstnere og medarbejdere, sammen med et Dansk publikum reflektere over deres indbyrdes forbundne positioner gennem forskellige events. Ved at skabe forskellige uformelle transkulturelle fortællinger, fritidsaktiviteter, læringsforløb og fælles interaktioner på tværs af byen, vil Social Sensibility (in)direkte aktivere forskelligartede kulturelle og økonomiske samtaler omkring kunst og arbejde - fra kunstneres og medarbejdernes eget (ofte oversete) perspektiv.
Kernen i Workers’ Retreat er at skabe forbindelse mellem forskellige samfundslag og perspektivere dialogen omkring socialt engagerede kunstprojekter for at forstærke deres resonans, synlighed og det transnationale netværks muligheder. Som kunstprojekt, der også fungerer som sin egen afdeling ved Bernard Controls fabrikker i Kina, Frankrig og Italien, har Social Sensibility en unik position til at nytænke kunstneren, arbejderen og arbejdets rolle i forhold til den bredere sociokulturelle diskurs. Ved at benytte Social Sensibility’s erfaringer inden for dette, vil de skabe en tilgængelig arkivering for en offentlighed, der giver mere synlighed og relevans til eksperimentelle og ekstra-institutionelle kunstneriske metoder. Derved kan der opstå nye konceptualiseringer og definitioner af kunstneren som facilitator, moderator, konsulent og alternativ underviser inden for fællesskaber og kontekstualisering.
Social Sensibility R&D Department blev stiftet i Beijing i 2010 i forlængelse af et møde mellem kunstneren Alessandro Rolandi og Guillaume Bernard (CEO for Bernard Controls Group), som senere fik selskab af kunstnerne Tianji Zhao og Blandine de La Taille (i Paris). Social Sensibility er en intern funktion af Bernard Controls - altså ikke et eksternt konsulentfirma - hvilke giver dem en unik økonomisk position og en kontinuerlig tilstedeværelse i virksomheden. Social Sensibilitys mål er at skabe kunstnerdrevne afdelinger i institutioner, hvor kunstneren er en kreativ konstant i arbejdslivet, der påvirker omgivelserne ved at agere relationelt i forhold til sit kunstneriske materiale og praksis. Social Sensibilitys forskning og praksis blev udviklet på fabrikker i Beijing/Daxing, Paris/Gonesse og senest Milano/Rho. De ønsker at promovere deres metodologi til andre institutioner og sektorer samt at producere kunstværker, der er lavet af kunstnere i samarbejde med medarbejdere, og kunstværker lavet af medarbejdere ledsaget af de kunstnere, der driver afdelingerne.
f.eks. er støttet af Statens Kunstfond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, 15. Juni Fonden, Den Jyske Kunstfond, Region Nordjylland og Aalborg Kommune. Dette projekt er venligt støttet af S.C. Van Fonden og Bernard Controls. Særlig tak til Kunsthal Spritten og Huset i Hasserisgade