Invisible moments count in social art practice.

Martin Krenn: Mary Jane Jacob

I think that it is really important that these more or less invisible moments in social art practice get more attention. For example in Innsbruck I had the opportunity to cooperate with a group of sociologists and students from the University of Innsbruck. We conceived, as well as realised, an art project together with immigrants and activists in public space which was at the same time closely monitored for research purpose only by another group of the same department. They took notes about conversations at the art installation, which would normally not be documented. The idea of the project Statt Rassimus (Instead of racism) was to initiate a discussion about the vision of a city without racism. After more than half a year of preparation and regular meetings with a group of students and activists we realised a five-day project in public space that used an electoral campaign as a “Trojan Horse” vehicle to thwart the logic of conventional election campaigns. The project’s aim was to request passers-by to actively adopt a party for anti-racism and solidarity politics. People were invited to present their ideas there at the installation as well as on our website. This was the visible part of the participation, but the research group also observed that immigrants, who were visiting the installation regularly and who had no legal status or documents were also taking part in the project. They discussed with the passers-by as well as with us their situation but for legal reasons didn’t want to become visible in the project. Nevertheless they influenced the course of the project as well as the statements by the passers-by. Maybe we always have to keep in mind, as you said, that there are so many things that are happening in such a process or project which are of great importance but are unfortunately overlooked. Finally even the creator of a project cannot know all the other processes which may have been triggered by such a project.