The Convivial Labour Force Project / Projet main d'oeuvre conviviale
(2021)
author(s): Julien Gagnon Rouillard
published in: Research Catalogue
The Convivial Labour Force Project fits somewhere between the nomadic fablab and the anti-business. Flirting with the limits of a free maker space and applied conviviality, the project is inspired by a desire of reappropriating social economy and questioning the meaning of transaction within mutual aid.
The goal is simple: to offer one’s free collaboration in a diversity of projects - through cabinetmaking to sewing including cooking and horticulture – all while aligning the co-performed tasks with the principles of economic degrowth, conviviality and horizontality.
________________________________________________________
Projet main d’œuvre conviviale s’inscrit quelque part entre le fablab nomade et l’anti-entreprise, aux limites du maker space gratuit et de la convivialité appliquée, inspiré par un désir de réappropriation de l’économie sociale et une remise en question de la transaction dans l’entraide.
L’objectif est simple : offrir gratuitement sa collaboration dans de multiples projets – de l’ébénisterie à la couture en passant par la cuisine et l’horticulture – tout en alignant les tâches ainsi co-effectuées avec les principes de la décroissance économique, de la convivialité et de l’horizontalité.
XRW (Implicature)
(last edited: 2025)
author(s): Zoe Panagiota (aka Betty) Nigianni
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
50 A3 drawings black and coloured markers, including:
3 A3 collages on paper with newspaper cutouts and printed photos.
12 A4 drawings on paper with coloured markers, glued on A3 paper + 1 A3 with black ballpoint pen and markers, glued on A3 paper.
13 A3 drawings on paper with black marker, and red, pale blue, gold, pink and orange markers +1 A3 two-sided.
17 A3 drawings on paper with coloured markers.
1 drawing on sketchbook cover with red nail polish.
1 text drawing on sketchbook cover inside.
1 drawing on sketchbook cover back inside with black, orange and gold markers.
22 A4 drawings with ballpoint pen.
Some of the above is preparatory work for 4 large prints and 13 paintings. The 12 A4 glued on A3 are preparatory work for a collage on panel.
I made the art between 2023-2024, from the perspective of the observer. Most of the research material came out of crime and fraud reports. I started writing the blog afterwards, from the summer of 2024.
I adopted the visual vocabulary of the graphic novel, which I partly studied and read a lot about looking at different graphic artists' work, when I was attending classes at the University of Malmo, Sweden, in 2012. I mixed this with stylistic elements of the architectural sketch, using heavily the black marker and stick figures. Much of this work is, amongst other, about children. I wanted to emphasise that, by intentionally applying stylistic elements from children's drawings, in a naive and loose architectural composition. Using this visual approach, I wanted to evoke a comically sharp twist to the otherwise dark subject matter.
The text is written like a trip-hop song. Parts of the analysis is inspired by Saul Kripke's interpretation of Wittgenstein's example of mathematical calculation. I used plenty of popular and less popular literary and philosophical references, for the visual art and in the writing. In the style of art, I was inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat's drawings and paintings, which are laden with input from popular media sources, like jazz music and television, recorded in an automatic and naive drawing manner.
Saul Aaron Kripke was the inventor of the possible worlds philosophical hypothesis, which was seminal for philosophers working in the area of contemporary analytic metaphysics, including the theory of counterparts and the theory of names. He died in 2022. Lauren Berlant was a cultural theorist and gender studies scholar. She died in 2021.
For Nikos ('Rama', 'Mr X'), Filip ('Philip'), and Brandon - August, September, and October 2024. For "Daddy G" and 'Eric' ("Paul V.") - January 2025 -. Who are not politicians, but are doing something political.
See also exposition "The Loot", under 'Art and Activism Exposed as Research Blog'.