DATA OF INTEREST

GUEST:
Sascia Bailer

HOST:
Juliana Rabelo


Synopsis:

Sascia Bailer explains the relationship between curation and care. She begins with the contradictions and ambiguities that complicate the subject, and invites us to reflect on how we can change the situation of caretakers in our societies and how to think about this from the perspective of art and curation.

«The work of caretaking is a fundamental form of work that sustains social life and enables the continuity of any social system; it is a sphere that all of us take nourishment from in order to survive» she tells us, citing Bengi Abkulut.

The work of caretaking is a common good: we can't escape from care because we all depend on it and, at the same time, we all, in different contexts, care for someone, or ourselves, or take care of things. The work of care makes all other work possible. However, for this same reason, it is devalued in societies centered on production.

The importance and necessity of caretaking work creates an ambivalence when it comes to its consideration: the work of caretaking has historically been one of the most exploitative, flexible and invisible forms of work, primarily done by women.

Bailer exemplifies how she deals with the tensions surrounding the subject of caregiving in her curatorial practice. She considers her practice to be relational curation: she builds platforms for encounters, exchanges, solidarity and alliances as a critical practice that cares for artistic and socio-political processes, more than for art objects.

She asks herself: How can artistic and curatorial practice relate to the care crisis, visibilize the invisibility of care through artistic projects, knit relational patterns that counteract the marginality and isolation of the work of caretaking?

These are some of the formats that Sascia Bailer has experimented with: care for caregivers; paying attention to the reality of caregivers; relating to the community through questions followed by intimate moments of dialogue and conversation about the issues; confronting the community with artistic activities, taking them outside the institutions and contexts of art; among others.

The issue of care can become a methodology if we think about the structures that we create and ask: who do they include and who do they not allow to participate? How can we offer a curatorial framework that doesn´t exclude the artists and participants with caregiving responsibilities?

Possible strategies include: offering representation to artists who are generally marginalized; showing the need for creating an environment where caretakers can work; considering the experiences of the caretakers as forms of expertise; facilitating artists and participants with children attending the program; thinking about what bodies need and creating informal moments of exchange as a collective activity; all of the collaborators should be paid for their work, support local people and businesses; events should be free; dedicating efforts to accessible infrastructure that includes “care” (playroom, daycare, free food); rethinking the system of cultural production from the point of view of the structure that holds it up; among others.

The issue of care is important because it has to do with the ethics with which we relate to others beyond our experiences, privileges or needs. The perspective of care forces us to think about the interrelatedness of our actions. It makes a big difference in who we are excluding and at what point.

All of the above is also applicable to our daily life, relationships and work contexts to become micro-political agents of care. Sascia Bailer ends by inviting us to take seriously the power we have in our daily life and to work from there despite the differences and tensions that we will inevitably confront.


Bio:

Sascia Bailer is a researcher, writer and feminist curator who works at the intersection of care, contemporary art, and social transformation.

In her doctorate in curation from the University of the Arts in Zurich and the University of Reading, she explores the activist potential of curation as a form of care. She is the author of "Curating, Care, and Corona" (2020), co-editor of the anthology "Letters to Joan" (2020), the art books "Re-Assembling Motherhood(s)" (2021) by Maternal Fantasies, and "What We Could Have Become" (2021) by Malu Blume. She has worked internationally in the arts including at the MoMA PS1, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics.

In 2019/20 she served as the artistic director of the M.1 Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung, and currently works as an independent educator and curator. She has a master´s from the Parsons School of Design and a graduate degree from Zeppelin University.

VIDEO

Who Takes Care of the Caretakers? Art, Curation and the Care Crisis

PODCAST