Laboratory of Doing Nothing

Ready to open the doors to the public

Learning and unlearning doing nothing from microorganisms, plants and silk worms

The Laboratory of Doing Nothing is an artistic investigation on our tired working society, the hell of overproduction and our urgent need to slow down with the intention to put some light into a dark future. The laboratory is an everlasting field of experimentation, a never ending art project on continous learning in forms of workshops, seminars, actions, instalations, internet art, drawings and all kinds of possible material expressions. These outcomes are based on the collaborative thinking process of all participants with the artist. The results of a long term workshop were shared with open public during 72 hours at the exhibition hall Il Salotto at the Blueproject Foundation.The express workshop during an intense afternoon was published in a publication. The seminar is to be continued in 2018 with Pol Capdevila at EINA and the Laboratory held at ESC medienkunstcenter in Graz was cancelled due to strong conflicts emerging during the workshop about doing nothing.

At continuation the so far 4 experiences are explained in detail:

Day1

Ojos sin Tiempo by Kai Corvus

La Vaga by María Alcaide

Doing Nothing by David Macho

Dar cita ininterrumpidamente by Patricia Fernandez Antón

Deriva intencional by Caro Selo

Possis by Antonio R. Montesinos

Mesa de Montaje by Maite Redondo

Tell me about nothing by Christina Schultz

Fermentation by Christina Schultz

Carta Cairos by Mano Campos

Weltmaschine by Laura Benítez

SleepDisorder by Daniel Armengol Altayó

Tu vida sin Internet by Patricio Riviera

Le Flaneur by Mar Merino

Amarres by Judit Murlans

Estar by Juliana Guerrero

Nigra Sum

All pictures by Antonio R. Montesinos and Christina Schultz

The most extensive and elaborated version of the workshop was made in colaboration with Hangar, artistic center in Barcelona, the Blueproject Foundation and The GoodGood with Mar Merino. During almost two months the 15 participants, who subscribed through an open call with limited reserves, met every week to reflect on the four mayor pilars of the project: The concept of Work, The concept of Time, The concept of Play and The Concept of Not Doing.

While most of the sessions were held as reading and discussion sessions at Hangar in private, the session on Time hosted Pol Capdevila, professor of artistic research and humanities as a special guest and was held in the geological Museum of Barcelona. The concept of Play also had a special format, it was a fusion with a workshop held paralelly at Hangar “The Ideal Game” with Constanza Mendoza and the collective, we both form part of “LPL”, Laboratoy of Ludic Thinking and was a game in itself. Through the interactive Game of Kin elaborated within the collective, we imagined speculative futures of eco-unproductivity based on an apocalyptic scenery (now) guided by the marvellous thinker and eco-feminist Donna Haraway.

The workshop opened the doors to it’s thinktank to the public durin three sleep-over days and nights at the Blueproject Foundation and converted the space itself in an ongoing visitable experimentation space.

You can download the complete program of the three days and it’s participants HERE.

Day I of the workshop

Day II of the workshop

Day III of the workshop

Day IV of the workshop

A three day master seminar at EINA postgraduate school of arts and design introduced the concept of doing nothing to a class of about ten alumni and was composed of theoretical and practical exercices and thinking processes. The pupils elaborated individual and collective proposals on doing nothing as a possible form of resistance, some of them taking material form at Barra del Ferro, artspace of EINA in Barcelona.

At Pergine, Italy at the festival of “A Manual for Work and Happiness” the laboratory opened its doors in an express workshop of an intense afternoon. In spite of it’s density the 10 participants came to extraordinary results and we made a a small internal presentation of improvised instalations.

At ESC_Kunstzentrum, Graz, Austria where I was invited to hold the workshop with six also invited persons by the organization. The workshop was structured in two intensive separate parts: Two weeks for sessions in June and one in September for possible shares of the results. The workshop ended harshly. It was ended by the coordination due to serious problems with the issue of doing nothing and it was not possible to find a common ground on the idea. Anyway a lot of material was generated by many participants that still rests in form of archive and waits for its moment. Doing nothing pour excellence.

Tools