for the exhibition Gastarbeiter 2.0 – Arbeit means Rad, nGbK (neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst), Berlin, 2024.
- installation
- gatherings
- artist publication
“The exhibition recontextualizes the term Gastarbeiter (literally “guest worker”) at the intersection of the experience of migration, the precarious position of cultural workers, and the urge to deconstruct contemporary relations of class and production from a postcolonial perspective.” (from the curatorial text)
This iteration of looking for Adrian Lister continues to respond to the specifics of the context, from the thematic framework, through the specifics of the exhibition space of nGbK, to the personal and anecdotal related to the fact that the artist has moved to Berlin and is currently learning German.
Arbeitsraum/Ausstellung (workroom/exhibition) refers to a room at nGbK, marked as such on the floor plan and whose specificity further influenced the formation of the setting.
The main question that guided the installation was: What is a space that is (or is not) a workroom and an exhibition space at the same time, and what kind of sociality does it imply?
- The room opens on one side with windows to the outside, and on the other side to the offices. The curtains in this space encourage thinking about the transparency of the exhibition practice and the work performance.
- On the curtains are photographs representing germanisms, words that originate from the German language, adopted in the Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian-Montenegrin language. These words mostly refer to tools and professions, but also to elements from fashion and beautification, the recurring duality of workroom/exhibition.
- One of these words is šljaka – a word that is a loanword from the German word die Schlacke – for slag, remains of burnt coal, and which in Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian-Montenegrin language got the meaning: work or job.
Several examples of this material are also displayed on the carpet. - Short sentences, in the form of a statement, notes from earlier gatherings and collective readings from the project Who is Adrian Lister? are printed on the pillows.
- The plants were borrowed from the nGbK office, where they were kept for the following exhibition in which they will be the main protagonists.
- On the curtain in the middle part of the space, which hung from the highest part of the ceiling, the work What an artist has to do besides making an artwork, an internet search that lists since 2014 what an artist has to do. The list and search were made in English, Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian-Montenegrin and in German (to the extent that the artist can understand this language).
To come back to the leading question: What is a space that is (or is not) a workroom and an exhibition space at the same time, and what kind of sociality does it imply?
What is between the workroom and exhibition can be defined as a study room – a studio practice, where something is studied (studio comes from the word study after all), which implies a kind of sociality. Having this in mind, visitors were invited to join events in the Arbeitsraum/Ausstellung on two occasions.
“This is a hangout invitation, a possible work session, or a study situation about living in/through translations and how this movement can create different forms of being and doing.
The gathering will start with a short guidance through the installation, after which we continue thinking as a group. Adrijana will share references, tools, and practices that were generated throughout the years she kept asking Who is Adrian Lister?, hoping to instigate a collective exchange.”
