What meaning can be given to a square metre of seemingly random sand? How do we make something as invisible as the underlying economic structures of a city’s soil visible?
Hosting Soil is an interactive performance about speculation and hierarchy, about land and labour, and about invisible structures that exist nonetheless. The artists invite us to make these structures tangible again and to create the space to touch them, relate to and question them.
The performances take place in South Amsterdam because this district of the city has seen the fastest rise in property values in the last six years. The area has both a monumental residential district and a growing commercial ‘centre’ in which building sites and skyscrapers mark this part of the city.
Artists Franziska Goralski, Elise Ehry and Kitty Maria invite you to pick up the shovel and cocreate an unconventional construction site, and so question the structures of a city ruled by money.
Interview
How would you describe yourself as an artists?
I work research-based and usually start from concepts or what I call ‘thought figures’. I put them into matter or something that is tangible and that can be experienced. When I studied fine arts I had teachers who focused more on the process instead of the object or end result. I am more interested in participatory art works, or collective and engaged situations such as conversations or performances.
Why do you have this focus?
Because they may lead to transforming something. In this capitalist society people are often passive and in their rigid ways, acting like they don’t have the ability to change or to do something different. In my work I try to create spaces for alternatives to not putting the ego first. I believe that if people are invited to say something or are enabled to have some sort of experience, they are motivated.
What is Hosting Soil about?
Hosting Soil is about the value of soil and the absurdities of speculation on soil. Giving soil a price is a manifestation of human hierarchy because it makes it unavailable to many, especially in Amsterdam. Hosting Soil literally swaps soil from one place to another, giving ‘a physical image’ to the price dynamics of a market, making it possible for people to relate to it – and act. We do all this on a ‘construction site’ where we together make the rules.
Interview with Franziska Goralski
Biography
Kitty Maria (1992, Ottersum) en Elise Ehry (1990, Munchouse) zijn een Nederlands-Frans performancekunstduo dat verharde, sociaal geconstrueerde vrouwelijke rollen onderzoekt. Sinds november 2014 treden ze op als werkloze stewardessen, die hun zelfgemaakte uniformen dragen terwijl ze permanent buiten dienst zijn. Ze hebben clear skies and empty spaces gehost in het Palais de Tokyo (Parijs), Het Nieuwe Instituut (Rotterdam) en Macao (Milaan). In 2020 kregen ze de Stimuleringsprijs voor hun openbare kunstwerkvoorstel ‘A Contract for Fountains’.
Franziska Goralski (1992, Radebeul) is een kunstenaar die thuis is in de queer en feministische gemeenschap, geïnteresseerd in collectiviteit, alternatieve manieren van leven en leren, en het maken van plekken voor ondervertegenwoordigde aspecten van het leven. FG’s benadering richt zich op het creëren van relaties en het geven van impulsen die potenties kunnen voeden en activiteit kunnen initiëren. In relatie zijn of in een hoe dan ook gevormde relatie volgt een andere logica dan de kapitalistische. Met haar kunst streeft FG naar collectieve en moedige manieren om de maatschappij vanuit verschillende invalshoeken te heroverwegen en opnieuw vorm te geven
Documentation
