“WHY WE WORK TOGETHER”
Ask! Actie Schonen Kunsten
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| Members of the Justice for Domestic Workers making a reverse graffiti art |
Why we work together? Actie
Schonen Kunsten is an asssociation of cultural art workers making alliances with Migrant Domestic Workers who address the condition s and demands of Domestic Work mainly in Netherlands. It is an assonating name using the traditional Dutch term for ‘fine arts’ which
can also be read as ‘clean arts’. On the 28th of October 2012, Actie Schonen
Kunsten
(ASK) visited London in cooperation
with The Showroom London and Justice for Domestic
Workers – an organisation of multi national migrant domestic workers based in
London. The Showroom’s Louise Shelley
formally introduced the artists from the group ASK Netherlands who came for a reverse
graffiti campaign with the J4DW. Binna
Choi, the director of the group who
initiatively working together with Rogier
Frederik Hendrik Delfros, a graphic artist and Marc Roig Blesa, visual artist started the open discussion by
asking why we should work together? There were five reasons we tackled with
them. Firstly, Domestic workers and artists are both dealing with aesthetics on
a daily basis. Aesthetics in domestic labour doesn't mean of that beautiful
design or looking nice and good. It is more of recognition and acknowledgement,
constant questioning and (re) negotiation. As Domestic labour and workers are
struggling with this invisibility, artists who are specialists with aesthetic
works of art are now struggling with the invisibility of art. Artists and domestic
workers contribute greatly in the society without being recognised and
acknowledged. Hence, both have to break these mental barriers and work together
in a new form of protest. Secondly, we, domestic workers and artists both
demand recognition and respect for our work. We perform our living labour under
conditions and precarity. Thirdly, we believe in domestic labour. Domestic work
is the beginning and end of all labours. It is the source of economy and we
should be the centre of reorganisation and challenge the current pattern. Next,
we can learn from each other. Domestic workers can use media and art spaces as
platforms. Working together with various artists from The Showroom and Tate
Modern and credits for Monica Fabiola Cortazar, J4DW’s Art Adviser we
developed a new way of approach to campaign. With Art, we believe each
individual is an artist with a unique kind of creativity and resourcefulness
that need to be brought into the outside world of domestic bondage. On the
other hand, artists and curators can learn from the domestic workers’
organisational strategies and collectivism. Finally, we count on temporary
alliances. As what the artists said, we cannot make a change if we just stay in
our own respective worlds.
Together
with ASK cultural art workers and with The Showroom, we Justice for Domestic
Workers enjoyed the collaboration of strategic campaign and reverse graffiti
campaign in “dirty” areas around The Showroom neighbourhood using isotopes, a
work of art by Berlin artist Andreas Siekmann
representing an ‘army’ of Domestic workers.
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| Army of Domestic Workers, image: Andreas Siekmann(Artist, Berlin) |
J4DW would like to thank Unite the Union and Tate Modern for continuous support in
making this project 'Making Domestic Work visible in British Society'.
