Who do we make art for?
about the Project Market Groseria
Because this project was all in english and I would like all the people involved to understand - I would do my post in english, and not even in a deepl translation, but in my truely “how I speak, not the best english”, so please don’t judge me for mistakes in grammar.
After I started to do performance art, my goal in art was always to create community spaces. While I tried to create community spaces, I was trying to find out how community itself works. I was into house projects and ethnographic studies, school and childrens projects.
But in the last years I lost the focus on creating communicative spaces, I lost myself in theoretical thinking about what makes our world a community. It was connected to the fact, that I did less performance and more fine arts, I was working alone, not in teams.
And then I got a call of the artist Malik Meyer:
There is a shop in Stolec, which is a village in Poland next to the german border. The shop is closed for many years, and I want to revive this shop for a month with many different projects. So please come too.
And of course, I went. But I couldn’t come for the whole month, so arrived there around two weeks before the project ended.
The idea was simple. Its an anticapitalistic space for arts. We offer the people coffee, tea and snacks. We don’t take any money for that. Alcohol is forbidden in the area, so either us nor the visitors drink alcohol in or around store. We are guests. So we should behave like these. But we should also be artists and provoke, if we feel like.
In the time before I was asking myself how it will be, in a village so small, that the mailboxes are collected in one place. Actually just in front of the store.
Market Groseria - Picture: Kolja Kraft
So the project “Market Groseria”, - which literaly means grocerystore - was born. And the group, which was there the whole time did alot already. I will not go in too much detail, but what was happening there during the whole month was performances, impro evenings, exhibitions, workshops, theme evenings, contemporary dance, music, jam sessions, crafting, fire shows, playing cards and having conversations. The people of the village came nearby every evening to spend they’re time here.
And there I got this question in my head. I realized, that I had a total different feeling while doing arts. The people of Stolec were really enjoying the arts in any kind. They were open to listen, to see - but also to speak and to react. I saw that there was already a big love for the people being there for the whole time. And I was a new member, so everyone was a little shy first, but also interested. And so I started to work on a performance. I wanted to mirror something from the village. But I don’t wanted to tell them something, they already know, but also not taking their stories and making it my own. I wanted to create something complex, but I also wanted to be understandable.
And there it was - the question: who am I making art for?
Suddenly I felt being in my work. And seeing it as a gift. Sometimes, when you’re in your daily business of being an artist - you think about paying rent for apartment and studio, thinking about making money with your art - it’s easy to forget who is the target. I was always trying to make my art open to everyone, using simple language, but explaining complex things. But in this moment I realized that I started to use a complex language while moving to cologne. Which doesn’t have to be wrong, but for me it was talking to other people.
Market Groseria wanted to be everything at the same time. Complex, fun, simple, a tryout. And it worked out. Because it was open to all the people interested.
Flower workshop - Picture: Malik Meyer
I got in mind again, that we, as artists have responsibility. And these days more than ever, its important to create communication, communicative spaces and arts together. It’s important that art media corporate and fusionate, that we listen and speak. And Market groseria was a great example of bringing people together in respect. I hope, that there will come more projects out of this, and that I can participate in more of those. I think I will think about these ideas for more than in one post. But till then: Thank you Malik, for inviting me!
