Werker 2 — A Spoken History of the Young Worker

This issue of Werker Magazine presents images and documents that have been compiled from secondhand bookstores, online booksellers, personal archives, and street markets over the last few years. How can documents, that originate from different geographies and historical contexts, be performed by its readers?

Pre-organized collectives or any engaged visitors are invited to perform an Image Act* using the microphones and scenography provided in the exhibition space. The performances can take any shape but only its sound is recorded.

Transcending the borders of the institution into the local context, the recordings are broadcast in public space. This website will keep on expanding, revealing fragments of the recordings and the locations of broadcast.

Werker 2 — A Spoken History of The Young Worker and Image Act were first presented as an installation in the exhibition Imagineering— (Re)activating the Photographic at Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art as part of Krakow Photomonth 2016. A co-production between the Foundation for Visual Arts, Poland and Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland, as part of SITUATIONS/Proletariats. With generous support of Mondriaan Fund and Manifesta 11 Zürich 2016.

* Image Act takes inspiration from the speech act, a concept in linguistics that explains how words can have qualities that go beyond the information they convey and materially affect our existence. We perform speech acts when we offer apologies, greetings, requests, complaints, invitations, compliments, or refusals. Speech acts can have political intent and even be legally binding, in court or other ceremonial circumstances.

www.werkermagazine.org


Sound Archive

Image Act / Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland

Collaborators: Tobias Grahlke, Helena Nicolao, LGBT Winterthur Wilsch Bar, Halbgefangenschaft Winterthur, Berufsfachschule Winterthur, Graubünden Schule.

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Image Act / Bunkier Sztuki Krakow, Poland

Collaborators: Natalia Ledzinowska, Martina Kielesińska, Nikodem Dybiński, Michał Kiliński, Maksymilian Czarnecki, Tomasz Szewczyk, Łukasz Jakubowski, Krzysztof Korczyński, Katarzyna Ryrych, Tomasz Foltyn.

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