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30/4/2014

Leisure Complex

SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin

Film Programme and Roundtable
with the participation of Yaara Benger and Saverio Pesapane

Curator: Marianna Liosi

Art directors: Dr. Bonaventure S.B. Ndikung, Dr. Elena Agudio

On Thursday, May 1, Marianna Liosi will present the first outcomes of her long-term research project on the ambiguous relation between leisure and work. Leisure Complex is a compilation of three films by contemporary artists, paying tribute to the social and political origins of the International Labour Day.

Historically, the 1st of May commemorates a series of workers’ strikes for the introduction of an eight-hour day, which were rocking the city of Chicago between 1867 and 1886. This date symbolizes the paradox behind the working-time regulation: the right to work was essentially interweaved with the restriction to work. This paradox arises a wide range of questions concerning the development of the concept of leisure and its adjustment to the current amendments in labour policies. Does it still make sense to speak about a division between work and free time? Should labour and free time be still considered exclusively in a direct opposition, where leisure is merely a time slot freed from the constraints of work life? And viewed in politico-economical terms: granted that the borderline distinguishing free time from work is overwhelmingly blurry – what is leisure worth in a society where the identification of an individual is based on their work activity? Is free time a natural human right or rather a subsidiary to work?

Screened in a narrative sequence, the films of Deepa Dhanraj, Francesco Jodice and Alexander Vaindorf investigate into this topic from three different perspectives. The artworks relate emblematic stories and extreme situations from various cultural and geographical contexts: migrant workers in Dubai, deprived of any free time for the sake of opulence and luxury of the happy few (Jodice); Indian women who upraised for the right of a weekly day off (Dhanraj); Ukrainian caregivers in Italy using their leisure as means to reach personal emancipation and reconnect with their national community (Vaindorf).

In the course of the evening, Yaara Benger, researcher at Max-Planck Institute, and Saverio Pesapane, author of Dubai Citytellers, will join in a conversation with the curator and the audience to articulate the discourse of the ambiguous relationship between labour and leisure through an historical approach and with regard to the role of capitalism and market in this liaison.

Image: Detour. One Particular Sunday, Alexander Vaindorf, 2006-2008

Thursday, May 1, 6.30 pm
Evening Programme:

-Dubai Citytellers, Francesco Jodice, 2009, film, HD, 60’ (courtesy: Podbielski Contemporary)

-Maid Servant, Deepa Dhanraj, 1981, 16 mm b/w, excerpts (courtesy: the artist)

-Conversation with Yaara Benger and Saverio Pesapane, 30’

-One Particular Sunday - a trailer for Detour, Alexander Vaindorf, 2008, single channel DVD, 14’ (courtesy: the artist)

Press contact:
Marina Kochaytseva communications@savvy-contemporary.com

SAVVY Contemporary
Richardstr. 20 12043 Berlin-Neukölln

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