MAJÁLIS – introducing lumbung members #2

“Majális'' is the traditional celebration of spring in Hungary; throughout the month of May. There are many customs related to this period, one of which is erecting the co-called májusfa (May tree): a symbol of rebirth and new beginnings. “Majális'' also refers to “Majelis”, the common decision making platform of lumbung inter-lokal, as part of documenta fifteen. With the series of “Majális” discussions, OFF-Biennale invites members of lumbung inter-lokal to present their work and to decorate our common “május-fa'' with shared ideas on community, education, political agency, ecologies, urban practices, and the celebration of music, dance, and bodies.

Although the context, problems and possibilities of the West Javan Jatiwangi district consisting of numerous rural villages and of the urban context of Berlin, with more than fifty times the population, are far apart, the projects of the Jatiwangi Art Factory and ZK/U - Centre for Art and Urbanism start from similar premises. Both art organisations engage local communities to rethink their own surrounding and enact possible futures. Their approach and means may be different – creating speculative projects, showing up alternatives, or even playing a diplomatic role with effect on the government and/or investors -, but they both aim to have a real impact on the top-down processes affecting the local communities, to give voice to those who have no voice and to create space for political imagination.

ZK/U

ZK/U – Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik (ZK/U, Berlin) is an artist and research residency that has hosted more than 500 artists since its opening in 2012.

ZK/U is located in a neighborhood in Berlin marked by conflicts between established “middle-class” citizens, precarious first and second generation migrants, and newly arriving groups. Therefore ZK/U aims to (re-)activate the social and spatial relationship between individuals and groups that are divided by differences in education, income, gender, and cultural background. It is interested in bringing together global discourses and local practices. More specifically, it looks at how art can act as a catalyst for transformation in urban spaces.

Jatiwangi art Factory

Established in 2005, Jatiwangi art Factory (JaF, Jatiwangi) is a community that embraces contemporary arts and cultural practices as part of the local life discourse in a rural area.

Their manifold activities, always involving the local public, include a video festival, a music festival, a residency program, a discussion series, and a TV and radio station.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, its clay industry made Jatiwangi the biggest roof-tile producing region in Southeast Asia. A hundred years later, in 2005, using the same clay, JaF encouraged the people of Jatiwangi to create a collective awareness and identity for their region through arts and cultural activity. In doing so, JaF tries to cultivate clay with more dignity and to raise the collective happiness of the community.

Majális is part of the Living Room event-series.

Living Room in Budapest is a precursory event to OFF’s participation, in the frame of lumbung inter-lokal, in documenta fifteen. Living Room is realized with the generous support of Goethe-Institut.