As the end of 2019 closed and the dawn of 2020 rose up in front of me. A feeling for the need to revise my previous activities as an artist weighed on me. The core reason for starting LDD was going to stagnate and lose its purpose, another artwork made to make a statement and laid at rest to only one dimension for change being portrayed. This uneasy feeling caused me to want to dig deeper and push past what I had already established and learned. A new platform to experiment with the ideas for sustainability had to be brought about. Naturally the starting point of this for me was to seek the advice of those around me. Consult and find a beginning point of emulation. As LDD originally emulated a second-hand store in a new setting and for the purpose of highlighting waste within a particular setting. A new and also familiar establishment a foundation was the advice next step to take. This seemed logical as within its recognizable legal structure is the benefits of flexibility to push through capitalistic boundaries. Of course, for this to take place one must first understand all the structures in place and how they function before playing within it. This is the process I set out on and along the way gathered a merry band of enthusiastic participants with common visions and passions of their own. It is here, with this collective group of people, where the real experiment has started to taken shape for my artistic practice of 2020.

The story of “A Hero’s Journey” is a compelling one that captures the attention of many tales and is also used a metaphor for finding and achieving success. But in this day and age we have enough individual heroes each pitching one above the other and each one desiring the limelight and attention. Stories of a band of heroes is not often told and if they are, they’re still depicted with a figure at the head a leader at the top. The particular story of lion king, as a hero’s journey, was relayed by one of the other presenters, like myself, that was also giving a motivational talk at the I Chooser employee day. The thing I found odd was the focus on Simba as being the Hero instead of the entire web of supporting structures and systems set in place for a healthy savanna, Simba was merely playing one part in it all and he certainly didn’t achieve his individual hero’s journey on his own. Also, the journey wasn’t made for his benefit alone but for the benefit of the whole ecosystem, his lessons learned along the way were a personal befits and plus point. The whole story gets overlooked and the individual pressing on this stand-alone hero is highlighted for the purpose of everyone taking initiative and striking out to do something new and unique. Most hero’s stories end here at the hight of accomplishment of the main peril. But the stories don’t continue on to describe how everything else contributes to a thriving long-term benefit apart from the hero alone.
But for something to survive and thrive long term, it needs support. Nothing truly stands alone, even a stand a lone tree on a hill is supported by the earth and soil beneath it, it is reliant on the sun, wind and rain for its survival. That tree that lone hero will not stand forever without the support of other elements surrounding it, playing integral parts it’s longevity.

I too felt like a stand-alone tree, ready to give up with the weight of LDD’s branches heavy and in need of support and healthy ecosystem to thrive within. LDD began to feel meaningless and stagnant on its own. The thing about ecosystems and support systems is that they are complex and sometimes hard to define. The lines between who is leading and what holds a founding role cannot be clearly outlined. In every ecosystem, there are new elements at play so sometimes the characters will all of their traits and contributing qualities are complex to define. This is perhaps why it’s easier to tell the story of one element in the ecosystem and its achievements of survival. Instead of having to articulate the intricacies of all the connecting mutual support systems. 1.*

With the vision for exploring ecological sustainability within our current structures and how it could thrive. It makes sense to also investigate ways of emulating a natural ecosystem within the structures of LDD. The already known hero at the top should be set aside and the rest of the ecosystem and all its complexities has to be explored. The lines between leader, curator and participate are blurred and intertwined. A mutual support system grows, the individual and the team, the professional and personal are merged together. The journeys are shared, the difficulties supported and the fruition combinedly celebrated. Each element within an ecosystem has its own rhythms and timings. Some of these are like clockwork and others are not and yet still they shift and effect each other in syncytium. As a result of these collaborations and connection new seeds, paths and possibilities take form.

The trick is to not get boxed into conventional structures or preconceived formulas for modelling and managing these mutual support systems. But to be attuned to the alive unique responses and needs of the current ecosystem transpiring. In this case the one that is forming around LDD. This means being acutely aware and collectively conscious, of our values, vision, goals, activities and outcomes. Deciding together what should or shouldn’t be done so that we do not stagnate, institutionalise, solidify or close off the ecosystem. Once again in the case of LDD anything that stands in the way of allowing a community to thrive from it. This is easier said than done and as expressed by curator Lara Khaldi, “It takes time and time to trust each other…this is the experience and to trust each other on so many levels that you’re working really for the benefit of a larger group of people and not yourself.” 2* The goal of which is to exhibit the experience of various collective communities and how they operate and the results of them coming together to share and support one another from their own ways of operating and structuring. The process itself and the longevity results of which are the focus. What is being articulated and what is language, communication and structures that are being used in the process. Each one different to their own set of circumstances and make up but still coming together in support of one another and what this looks like.

There is a familiar feeling with in the current LDD make up. As the community and activities unfold so does the team of individuals with a variety of backgrounds comes together. By welcoming in multidiscipline backgrounds LDD’s enacting can be tested and changed within real social contexts. This opens up new realities, possibilities and future ways of being together. Moving the idea of social sustainability from theory to action and physical testing of theories, concepts and ideologies. Ways of working together towards ecological and social sustainability. The idea of having a circularity economy is only one part and step towards a whole bigger needed for change that also encompasses our social interactions and ways of being on many levels of inclusivity and mutual support.

By considering various artistic, economical, educational and theoretical approach’s and values LDD can experiment with what needs to be sustained and how? Is it necessary to redo what has already been done, perhaps in an adapted form, a different environment or with different people? We can test values, push, question and shake what is solidifying and search for an intersectional and alive flows. The results of which is not failure or success but what the value of what can be been gleaned, what becomes relevant and alive through the process. This must be done by individually and collectively slowing down to reevaluating and resisting the feeling like we’re have to rush towards goals. But rather let our evaluations lead. Together we must reflect, critique, listen, share, evaluate, adjust, add, learn, unlearn, enact and so on accordingly. 3*

And so, it is that LDD has brought me to a point where a choice has been made to collectively enact an evolving pedagogy. 4* Embarking on an ecosystem journey to explore its intricacies and its all-encompassing elements. A way to explore the hero’s story from the totality of what it entails, the collective story rather than the individual one. And perhaps by embarking on this time related journey, with its intervals, stretches and phases, one can uncover and shed light on the necessary, beautiful, complexities of what a healthy whole thriving ecosystem entail.

The backend pages, with all the scattered and shattered questions, thoughts and elements, seem to be indeed, a dumpster full of links, kinks and parts that seem to be loosely and separately rattling and nagging about in my mind. By throwing them together visually and with giving time, discussion and further investigation from odd angles and vantage points. They are now being to take shape and position for why they came up in the first place. Each one’s purpose is deeply connected and interwoven within a complex ecosystem of ideologies, thoughts and visions that are being explored. The sense of it all comes through a timed journey, the control of which isn’t always in one’s control as one realises that the timings are based within the same ecosystem one is trying to make sense of.

Finding the balance between relinquishing control and sharing responsibility and having trust. Finding new ways of working together.

Community

That actively listing to each other and taking time to talk together and share our values, interestes, perspectives and critiques.

Building trust and sharing responsibility.

Recognising each others qualities.

Having patience.

Defining & enacting our values.

The 1st Monday of every month we have dinner together.

Time to slow down and work with what is available & explore new ways of being together.

The need to regularly shift between the Macro and Micro connections in this alive Rhizome

References:
1* https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-mutual-aid-a-factor-of-evolution
2* Taken from a personal interview with her in discussion about the preparation towards Documenta 2022
3* The three ecologies page 39 – 40 – Felix Guattair
4* Pedagogy, most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners.

Collaborations

Funding

Precarity

Gemeente Utrecht

Applications and proposals.