Laura Pregger, Eva Heller, Marc Schwegler, Gregor Brändli

Brändli/Heller/Pregger/Schwegler – 1 – research, rules and structures
Aug 29, 2016

As a group of four Basel based individuals, we have been researching and discussing the contemporary swiss cultural institutions for over a year. During our residency here we’re now trying to tie together the different aspects that arised during those discussions. We’ll also come up with a specific action/project.

Last week we defined basic rules for the functioning of our working sessions – according to Christopher Dell’s improvisational theory that proposes a minimum of rules for a maximum of variance.

We designed a very rough daily routine we strictly stick to. The morning sessions are devoted to the work on our possible action and it’s aesthetics. Afternoon sessions are dedicated to transcendental and expanding perspectives – we work on our ethics (rules, parameters, references), discuss theoretical aspects and our critique – all focussed on institutions.

But besides this rough time frame – and this is vital – we take affective decisions, make no further plans and proceed intuitionally and tactically – never strategically.

We have also read and discussed a lot of books, manifestos, artistic concepts and essays which are important to our undertaking, thinking and proceeding – such as:
„Die improvisierende Organisation“ by Christopher Dell
„Komplizenschaft“ by Gesa Ziemer
„Black Mountain College“ published by Nationalgalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (Eugen Blume, Matilda Felix, Gabriele Knapstein and Catherine Nichols)
„Kollaboration“ by Mark Terkessidis
„Eine neue Soziologie für eine neue Gesellschaft“ by Bruno Latour

We are very happy to welcome 1-2 guests per week who expand our view on our topics and find accomplices for what we’re looking to achieve.

Brändli/Heller/Pregger/Schwegler – 2 – Society, Economies and Artistic Practices.
Sep 6, 2016

During our second week we have been focussing primarely on discussing contemporary artistic projects and initiatives as well as phenomenas in popular culture. We have also been fortunate enough to host dramaturge and curator Max-Philip Aschenbrenner who provided valuable insights and inputs, especially in relation to the asian performing arts scene.

Two fields seem to stay vitally important on our journey: A new conception of society/societies as well as economic questions in the broadest sense. We will pursue those aspects further in the upcoming weeks.

Those things were dear to our hearts during this week and have been shaping our discussions:
The open letter of Frie Leysen and Max-Philip Aschenbrenner to the supervisory chairman of the Wiener Festwochen, Dr. Rudolf Scholten.
The Anthony Weiner / Carlos Danger controversy in the US.
Marx’ Fragment on Machines.
Japanese artist and architect Kyohei Sakaguchi.
Donna Haraways concept of speculative fabulation.
Chris Kraus novel I Love Dick.
Georges Bataille and Marcel Mauss.

Brändli/Heller/Pregger/Schwegler – 3 – missions, operations, characters, places
Sep 11, 2016

This week we’ve been discussing the possible outcome or public appearance of our work.

Brändli / Heller / Pregger / Schwegler – 4 – Fictionalising Facts
Sep 19, 2016

Our fourth week has been pretty intense. The main issue we discussed were moments were hegemonic ethics of facticity crash – when tactics of fabulation penetrate otherwise stable environments. This discussion has been fruitful to a certain extent.

Our time at Sasso has been crucial to our project. We’re looking forward to follow the paths we managed to sketch out during the residency. Thanks to the whole Sasso Crew, our guests and the guy who took us up the hill that time we were hitch-hiking.

so long,

Gregor, Eva, Laura & Marc.