DETOX
seit 2023
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Team
- Anton Vasilyev:
- Maja von Kriegstein:
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Date
Februar 2023
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Dauer
ongoing
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Aufführungsort
various
DETOX ist die Zusammenarbeit des Komponisten und Medienkünstlers Anton X und der Musikerin und Performerin Maja vK.
Im erweiterten Raum von zeitgenössischer Musik, Klangkunst, Performance und kritischem Denken führen die Künstler*innen jeweils am 11. eines Monats in wechselnden Formaten und Kooperationen einen Geldwaschgang durch – ein gesellschaftskritisches Ritual, das zu 98% auf Verzweiflung und zu 2% auf Witz basiert.
Es ist eine Reflexion über das eigene Privileg, über Geld als Medium der Entfremdung, als Medium der Herrschaft und der Ungerechtigkeit. In diese Dynamik ist auch die Kunst verstrickt.
Das Projekt ist eingebettet in den Versuch, das gemeinsame Leben so wenig wie möglich von der Logik der Anonymität und der Quantifizierbarkeit bestimmen zu lassen.
Dieser Versuch ist nicht im Sinne einer romantischen Utopie zu verstehen, sondern als tägliches Erkennen und Kultivieren kaum definierbarer vielfältiger Bezogenheiten zwischen Menschen*.
DETOX: MONEY LAUNDERING // 4bid gallery // OCTOBER 9th // 19:30
Money Laundering is a long-term performance project in which the artists of DETOX reflect on their own and the general entanglement in global capital flows and express hope for a space beyond that dynamic. It takes place once a month, always on the 11th or around the 11th, in changing formats – creating temporary poetic cells of reflection, movement, sound and word. 98% desperation, 2% wit.
After starting out with very direct ironic symbolic acts such as cleaning coins with toothbrushes, DETOX developed into a more open improvisatory approach, acknowledging that basically anything an artist does in a developed neo-liberal democracy is a form of political whitewashing. The art provides the basic hygiene for wealthy nations, like Germany or the Netherlands, which function on the basis of modern slavery and violently protect their outer borders. All artistic expression is defenseless in the face of these things. We have little clue, on how to position ourselves towards this enormous injustice – apart from being aware of it. But also being aware of the political potential of friendship, understanding and practicing it not only as a place for sharing intimate information about each other but also as a place for exchanging different perspectives on the world, which in itself is a political act.
We regularly fail in finding a balance between critical reflection and playfulness. With 98% of desperation, we practice both: critical thinking, discussing, educating ourselves and on the other side to just keep playing, improvising and developing a musical language together and being friends.
For almost a year now we have been washing money, consistently every month 1-2 times, in changing formats and casts and in different places. To 98% desperate and sometimes only laborious, to 2% funny. How can one – especially with music – really take a stand? Intervene? Maybe even bring about a change? Make suggestions? Grieve? – To bring together conceptual thinking, reading, discussing, criticizing, consciously observing the abysses of the current world order on one hand and playful energy on the other seems to be completely impossible again and again – and then sometimes it just happens to fall into each other, as if by accident -moments, which are mostly beyond our control.
Giving up control is also a part of our current flexible performance setup, built from a number of transducers, microphones and everyday objects, used both as sound makers and amplifiers. This network can be manipulated from multiple positions, which enables and requires collaborative work on the same sound. We put ourselves in unexpected situations, lose and share the control. This happens in mutual awareness, trust and with the attempt to let an in-between-space emerge and grow – almost as if there would be another performer, who we take care of and vice versa, who can change our setup, take the control, but also retreat for a moment.
DETOX
http://www.detox.wtf
ANTON X
https://xers.info
MAJA VK
DETOX summer readings
Articles from the south African online journal THE CONTINENT
David Graeber: “Debt: The first 5000 years”
Hannah Arendt: “On Humanity in dark Times”
Hartmut Rosa: “Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the World”
Thomas Pikkety: “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”