Page 94 - ARTE!Brasileiros #59

ENGLISH VERSION REACTIVATING ATTENTION

When creating an exhibition space like end of the day, a work of art operates only with being a system of exchanges and, therefore, of
this, where it’s about giving another vision attention. And the artist is stealing attention. solidarity, of friendship.
of a society full of wounds that haven’t been So I decided that I wouldn’t work with digital Within the competitive system of contemporary
repaired, that’s where other interstitial spaces art at the biennial because that would be a art, these two ideas are far from being a practice, but
are important, because the spectators have to trap too. You want to criticize this idea, but the fifteen documents through the complex network
build a narrative. you end up presenting the work of someone created by ruangrupa, point out how not only they
you admire. There are artists who work with it, are possible, but they already occur in fact. In fact,
One of the things that draw a lot of attention like mathematician David Chavalarias, Omer the collective itself was expanded, welcoming five
is the interdisciplinary participation within Fast and Zach Blas, who talk about digital new members from four cities: Kassel, Amsterdam,
the show… surveillance, but there are also works from Jerusalem and Møn (Denmark).
I think Jean Lassègue, a philosopher friend, the past, which are telling the same story. Thus, the Fridericianum museum, documents ‘
told me that he knew a mathematician, David So it’s probably very important for us to be first headquarters , in 1955, was transformed into
Chavalarias, who had done a project analyzing connected with the physicality of art. Because Fridskul , a school space, which is inhabited by
82,000 Twitter accounts between Macron’s it is a field of creation, produced by humanity, 11 collectives, including Gudskul , from Jakarta,
two elections. I found Chavalarias and told which leaves much more space for the observer Indonesia. It is composed of three collectives,
him that what I found interesting about his than computer surveillance. including ruangrupa itself, and is aimed at
work was that it was showing the vulnerability When you are looking at a work of art, even consolidating creative and intellectual resources,
of people’s opinions today. Well, you in Brazil for a second, you are learning. It is active, not in a critical sense of formal education.
know that, with the election of Bolsonaro. passive. The work is not extracting anything The entire right side of the Fridericianum’s ground
According to Chavalarias, Gabriel Taub said, from us. floor is occupied by Gudskul , with a part being
at the end of the 19th century, that the charisma For me, it’s extremely important to accessible to visitors to see how the workshops work,
and magnetism that a politician can exert over understand that if I care about the present, and another part restricted to just 40 people who
groups reaches a maximum of 500 people. The I actually care about attention. I invite a participate in the project and live in the museum,
process of influencing public opinion belongs reappropriation of attention. I invite all people sleeping and eating there too, to the dismay of
to the subjects, among themselves. And what who go to an exhibition to just be alive and some Kassel citizens.
algorithmic governance is doing today is scaling present, and not to Instagram their lives,
that up, which is technically possible. thinking they are consuming something, but the World of babies
On WhatsApp, on Twitter, groups interact they are not. They are just feeding the machine. Also on the ground floor of Fridericianum, but on
in communities that are very closed echo The speed at which Instagram is manipulated the left side, is the project by Brazilian artist Graziela
chambers, fascists without them knowing, is based on our trust. Everything is trust. Kunsch, Public Daycare (public daycare) and is a
where people go to hear what they want to So I think we have to go back to space as great example of the complexity of lumbung.in the
hear, isolated. In this sense, for me, what seems a common ground, where we really meet, a context of documenta fifteen. It is a large space

important in the idea of interstitial spaces for space where a person is emotionally touched divided into two parts: one of them, the day care
the spectator and with the spectator is, for by a work. Getting angry at a work, for example. center itself, open daily and free of charge from 10 am
example, what I said to David Chavalarias when It means you are alive. You are not passive, to 5 pm, where mothers, fathers and other caregivers
I met him: the main thing would be how to show disabled by a governance that tries to extract can take children up to three years old – through
this work to the public. How to make it possible. from you. the back door of the museum – and experience with
For me this is fundamental, and I believe it them the pedagogical approach of the Hungarian
is the work of the curator, not just the artist. DEMOCRACY AND REPARATION DOCUMENTA pediatrician Emmi Pikler (1902-1984), who inspired
The job is to show the public how we become [pages 26 to 33] the project. The other section, accessible to visitors
anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, homophobic, all day, features photographs by the Hungarian
transphobic, without realizing it, with a kind KASSEL BECOMES A Marian Reismann (1911-1991), who for decades
of rage, when we are manipulated by data that documented the daily life of the Pikler Institute
circulates at the speed of light. BARN OF EXCHANGES in Budapest, and a video of the artist showing the
documenta fifteen, with more than 1,500 “free motor development” or “self-initiated” from
In your opinion, what is one of the biggest artists occupying 39 spaces in the German his own daughter. From 17:00, all spaces are open
dangers we are facing? city, prioritizes solidarity and coexistence for visitation.
The real danger is the data collection that is as practices in the field of art. Pikler demonstrated that bonded babies are able
transforming us. First, we have to understand to play freely, without adult guidance, and that free
what would be the thing that this techno-liberal by Fabio cypriaNo play coincides with free bodily movement, each baby
capitalism most wants, what are the future in its own time. “It is common for adults to anticipate
markets that capitalism is exploring and, from “Make friends and friends, not art!”, the motor positions of babies – sitting them up,
there, develop strategies of struggle. In short, defends the ruangrupa collective, right at the putting them up, helping them to walk – hoping
what is this neocolonialism? It is neocolonialism introduction of the documenta fifteen guide, for that, as soon as possible, babies will become part of
that is collecting data by a simple process which they respond as artistic direction. The the ‘adult world’. What if we invert this relationship,
that is to get attention: when your attention provocation is far from being a catchphrase. The coming down to the ground, making it possible for
is on, algorithmic governability is collecting entire concept of this show is aimed at creating babies to fully live their first years of life, or the ‘baby
information. spaces for meetings and exchanges, based on a world’? My contribution to Fridskul was to create a
Yesterday, I saw an artist saying that he wide network of artists and collectives. The website space where, more than teaching babies, we adults
hates the word surveillance. So I said it wasn’t lists 72 groups, but as each one works with dozens can learn from them”, explains Kunsch.
actually surveillance, but that’s how [American of collaborators, it is estimated that around 1,500 To design the prepared environment, she worked
writer] Shoshana Zuboff talks about it in her people will participate in this edition of the show. with Elke Avenarius, director of a local day care
book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. In this sense, it is difficult not to notice the energy center and a civil engineer by training. The furniture
It’s about extracting data, which actually that emanates from the 39 places where the show was all designed to ensure the growing autonomy
constitutes this attention market, this attention is spread out in Kassel, Germany, some receiving of babies. The collaboration in architecture was
economy, and makes it extremely powerful. only a large panel, while others occupy several so intense that Elke became a co-author of the
But the process of extracting data at these floors of former vacant factories. In many of them, project. For years, Kunsch’s practice has been
big companies, like Facebook and Google, is the artists themselves live during the 100 days of based on collaboration, but in the context of the
only the most visible part of this extraction the documenta, which opens on June 18. documents fifteen , it multiplies in several layers,
of data, which is then sold. What we produce Created in 2000, ruangrupa is an Indonesian from respect for women who were already working
constantly, every day, this is behavior that is collective that has been developing participatory with early childhood education and photography in
salable in this attention market. We are the proposals. Among them is the lumbung , which in the 1940s, to building networks in the city of Kassel,
guinea pigs of this attention economy. How the rural area of the country is the granary where the as in the partnership with Avenarius.

could we fight this? The artists, the art lovers, surplus of the rice harvest is stored, in a community This, in fact, is the mobilizing energy of the show,
those who believe in it? way. Thus, if there is a need in the future, anyone which begins before the exhibition itself, and will
I turned to the studies of Marshall McLuhan, in the community can use part of this reserve. In continue in the future, when the furniture will be
who once said something very important: at the the field of art, to put it simply, lumbung ends up transferred to Casa do Povo, in São Paulo, an entity
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