Published in Vis: Nordic Journal for Artistic Research, Issue 10, Circulating Practices. This issue presents six expositions, and a recorded conversation, that in their own way are discussing and challenging the circular, as a practice and method, as a model of collaboration, as a theme and as a symbol.
Massaging The Asylum System is a year-long collaboration between refugee justice centre Trampoline House (DK) and neurodiverse collective Project Art Works (UK). The project was initiated by Carlota Mir and Sara Alberani in the context of documenta fifteen and funded with common resources from the lumbung Collective Pot.
Together, we set out to explore how migrant and neurodivergent communities are affected by social systems of care and control, and we sought ways to massage the asylum system – yes, massage, like a real massage – so that it could become softer and more humane. Bringing together the vision and artistic tools from both organisations, our work became a temporary coalition of dissident bodies.
As a lumbung practice, harvest refers to artistic recordings of discussions and meetings. Harvested by co-curator Carlota Mir, the map revisits the ecosystem of the project and its traces: informal encounters, public conversations, art installations, and two workshop series in Copenhagen and Kassel, reflecting a multitude of voices from artists, collective members, facilitators, activists, publics, and the lumbung community.
Arranged chronologically alongside notes and personal reflections, the circles take readers through the collaboration process, while the islands point at the underlying tensions that inform the work. The map also connects this harvest with a twin issue on the project featuring poems and letters, published with Trampoline House magazine visAvis and Lumbung books.
To see the interactive publication, please click on the link
With support from the Danish Arts Foundation and the Italian Council. Publication design: Laura Migueláñez and Orestis Nikolaidis. Thanks to lumbung inter-lokal, Trampoline House and Project Art Works communities for their generosity and the knowledge shared, which has made this harvest possible.
