European Communities. The photographs of the various forms of living demonstrate how architecture and mobility can be expressions of personal development within a collective beyond the functions of private property or livelihood.
For European Communities, Immo Klink has documented 17 intentional communities
across Europe. He has spent five years researching well established and newly
founded locations, examining their beliefs, habitats and micro-economies. The sites
are miniature experiments of creating different ways of living. Klink sees those
founded most recently as "collectives which want to prove another world is possible,
where groups put their ideas about society into practice - they are in effect
extended forms of protest."
The images comprise a wide spectrum, from highly organised and profitable groups to
secluded and loosely bound travellers' sites. The various spiritual orientations of
these alternative scenes borrow from Christianity, Paganism, native Indians, Far
Eastern philosophies as well as the liberation ideals of the 60s and 70s.
The artist has also come across recurring political and ideological ideas
underpinning the communities - environmentalism and a critical attitude towards
consumerism and capitalism. Consensus-oriented decision-making is widely preferred
over majority rule and, unlike their predecessors of the 1970s, most of the new
communities are more pragmatic, having abandoned ideas of collectivism or shared
production.
A constant flux of members keeps the communities highly dynamic and as a result many
have accumulated an extraordinary alternative know-how. Concepts such as organic
farming, natural building, permaculture and alternative healing methods were
practised here already in the 1980s before permeating the mainstream.
The photographs of the various forms of living demonstrate how architecture and
mobility can be expressions of personal development within a collective beyond the
functions of private property or livelihood. The large scale practicability of these
models within our European societies might seem utopian but at the same time they
serve as a rear-view mirror.
Opening 13 oct. 8 pm
Espaivisor - Galeria Visor
Corretgeria, 40, bajo izq-2 - Valencia
Hours: tue-fri 17-24, sat 12-24
Admission free