The visitors as always, rather shy, some allow to get caught by us, others spend a long time looking and reading but don’t dare to come closer even when asked to do so.

The visitors. The most interesting visitors were definitely students from a school in Neukölln the other day. Five pupils, who were half of the art course as part of a project based on the topic ‘labour’ challenged us more than any other random lawyer-author-artist-visitor: How do you explain ‘meta-art’ to a 8th-grade student, who has probably never before been in an art gallery or project room? How do you manage to make the youngsters understand that even with a university degree you might end up unemployed, without giving them pessimistic ideas about their education, work, future?

Well, life is hard.

since we discussed many times during the hours of work about the GRUNDEINKOMMEN. And I think it is a very stimulating thought…
I found a very interesting website concerning that subject. On that website you can also order a film. Or talk to me - I have the film at home (Possibly we could also organize a public viewing in the gallerie or at home?!?)

Its:

www.initiative-grundeinkommen.ch

However nice a work starts of…after a while your relationship towards work is changing. You are getting used to it. You remember again that this is not the job you looking for. You ask yourself about your ideal working conditions, about how the relationship between employee and employer should take place. How you would do it? How you would like it to be? What you could contribute? And if you believe your effort is worth it?

I read the rules and reminder we get via email the last time round from the office.

I can see the reactions. Workers get together, discuss it. And groups emerge. Standing in front of each other. Like so often: employees in front of the employer. Each group distrusts the other – or so sometimes it seems. Each one insists on his or her position.
Again it seems difficult to empathy what is like to be in each other’s shoes.

Sometimes I wish that employer give their employees space to make mistakes. That they trust their workers enough - that they always will get back on their feet. And of course it’s difficult. You as employer pays the money, carries the responsibility, has to hold everything together…

Maybe I am hopelessly naïve. But I love the thought of giving things away without expecting something back. To trust even you have no guarantee people will not exploit you for that.

At this point I am coming back to a often discussed subject between us worker:
Something the green party of Germany proposed many times…that people will get a wage, just like that. Everyone, without exceptions. Without having anything to do for it. It’s based on solidarity. And already this will change everything.

Why causes the action of giving away money ‘for free’ so much hatred, jealously and resistance? (I think something that also plays part in the treatment of ALG II receivers. Despite the fact that this is ingrained in the constitution).

—————-

‘Monai will not be part anymore the next month’

It’s a very short explanation. I would have wished a more public reasoning. Rather than sticking to principles (and maybe from the office point of view rightly chosen consequence) I would have wished that it had been part of a discussion. That the problem came into the exhibition instead of having to be pushed away.

What I mean is: How can the exhibition work if not also the relationship and happenings between employees and employer are made part of it. Otherwise it is (maybe a stupid example)…as if you have a fair trade shop and then offer your staff conventional coffee.

We can really only just discuss what is there. I think it was a very interesting situation. Like most conflicts are. And at the heart of the subject of what we do.

————————–

I have a question mark on how to participate.

And I wonder, or I ask you Aydan and Bülent:

How do you want us to participate?

Lets take for example one rule we get from the office: Clean up the Pausenraum. Don’t leave the jackets on the chair…

Sometimes just one person comes around in the 3 ½ hours I am working. Since we have nothing to do we start talking, we start doing, we start looking for ways to make our stay interesting for us. And it might be to cause a mess (which we actually don’t often do).

You said you want the exhibition to evolve.
But at the same time we should keep everything untouched. In place. Unmoved.

Do you want me to correspond to the hours of having nothing to do (and what’s starts emerging out of it)?

I would love hearing some words to the participatory aspect.

———————

Would it be not nice to create a blog or something (I am not sure what is technically the best) where we can collect jobs we hear about and make that knowledgeable to the other? Where we can beyond the exhibition give tips and help concerning the working life?
It could be also a place where we can exchange skills. Or simply a forum where we can upload thoughts and excerpts to subjects concerning work and everything that comes with it. = I am also just looking for ways how the exhibition can benefit us beyond the 7.50 Euro (and the thought processes involved)

———————–

Ok. I talked definitely enough now.

I am sitting in the break room at work and working on my “own“ projects…..meditative about what is “my own“.

„In one of his early writings, Walter Benjamin reflected on capitalism
as: “Capitalism is a religion of pure cult, without dogma. Capitalism has
developed as a parasite of Christianity in the West (this must be shown
not just in the case of Calvinism, but in the other orthodox Christian
churches), until it reached the point where Christianity’s history is
essentially that of its parasite—that is to say, of capitalism.” In a
nut shell, what he is emphasizing is positioning capitalism as a religion
that he focuses on the pure cult without any dogma. Capitalism needed a
kind of common optimism, a general believe in its promises of happiness and
liberty. Moreover when it is the moments of big economic crisis, this always
reduces the “gloriole” of capitalism and of economy and along with this process
neoliberal arguments about deregulation as the way to universal
troubleshooting are loosing their power of persuasion. That’s why the
local territories, which still have some of their traditional and moral values,
beauties, and patterns (that have not been transformed after capitalist
revoltion) look like local paradise… Where you can escape from the harsh
capitalist models, but at the end find the most direct and wild face of
it.“ taken from http://www.adnanyildiz.blogspot.com/

This wild faces, he´s talking about. I know them. They are smart, nice looking persons. It´s hard to look like an idiot, nobody wants to be ashamed. Maybe sometimes.

Yesterday I saw ’The Birds’ by Hitchcock and was fascinated by those huge cigarettes all women were smoking. Mitch, the male protagonist and heartthrob of the women, didn´t smoke once. Was it a gesture by Hitchcock to underline a strong female position in this movie !? They all felt in love with him and followed him to Bodega Bay. I think he looked like an irish
midget. The soundtrack of this movie, which didn´t exist at all, impressed me the most. Brilliant dialogous and wild, hysterical faces when the birds start to attack. No Soundtrack. Funny to watch. Actors maybe have the perfect jobs. They are payed better then me, standing in this gallery for “being myself“, for tellin “my story“.

—

Music comes out of my computer. He´s sitting on the right side of my view, reading a book by Gershom Sholem. He recomended me „Die Geschichte einer Freundschaft“. A book, Scholem wrote togeter with Walter Benjamin. She is on the left, sitting on the table, moving slowly to the music and making fun about the rap lyrics which I like. She was fired today.In the background
construction workers.

After work I have to go home, for a little nap and be at 4 o’clock in Kreuzberg, near Görlitzer Park.I have a meeting for a videoproject I am currently working on with a friend.

Of those who are willing to talk with us are quite some who actually don’t think that there would be a problem with jobs, even if one has studied. Many take this situation maybe not good but some way normal. We had comments like:”it just depends on you! One has to work hard and be clever, than you will have it.” and after this can come some great stories about their children how well they do in life. Yes, and somehow I can not argument very well, because in the very moment that I say “I studied philosophy and aesthetics.” happens that one second silence and than..”hm.. well with that kind of paper one can not do too much” So at the end it is my mistake that I didn’t learn something better. And some way I have to agree.

Others are more empathic , mostly those who had or have similar problems. But still most of them are interested in my background (they realise very fast that I am not German) , they ask me about Hungary. Last time a man wanted to talk about the Hungarian porn industry!!??
Yes, and one more thing. Many people want to know our salary and the way we got here. One man said that we should go on strike for better payment. Don’t be afraid, I won’t do it , but I found the idea very funny. What would that mean for the exhibition? It would get completely out of control, would turn it up side down!

As I find myself completely happy putting flyers in hundreds of envelopes instead, I realize the world has turned upside down.

The good sides: Philosophic talks with – well, academic – colleagues. Interesting biographies.
The before mentioned “creativity of boredom”.

I learn: Japanese style t-shirts folding. How thoughts about strikes can be developed.

And then there are the visitors, who sometimes have ideas as well: To create a “fragrance of the unemployed” and put it in the bottles, the fragrance of the people, the smell of the job centres.

So far, none of the visitors has offered me a job, although this doesn’t surprise me. Some seemed to not even take notice of us. Some appear to be rather surprised, if not disturbed by people talking to them. Some share their own experiences with unemployment and others even get inspired, thinking about further projects, other artists. Usually, they think we want to sell them perfume or t-shirts. Mission accomplished? Well, speaking in monetary terms, that would be a nice outcome…

The text we got from you Aydan Murtezaoglu…and which I later discovered in the gallery. I read the text. Sometimes understanding most of the time not understanding. Visitors coming to the gallery ask me about the text. I was wondering why this text makes it us as visitors so difficult to get into it. Of course you could say: You are just a simple girl but does this text just wants to talk to a very small group of people? For me the most important thing at this exhibition is to address the subject, to communikate with the visitor and the colleagues, to make each other feel what it is like in ones own shoes.

The other dilemma, which probably arises. ‘I found you a new job’…yes. And I like the job you gave to me a lot. But would it not have been more beneficial if you would have employed less people and they could have worked more shifts/make more money/ had actually a job, which did pay the bills (although only for the next two month).

Visitors who come to the gallery mainly come themselves from art background. For me the question always stays how to engage with people from all paths of lives about this very universal and important subject.

Which brings me to the subject on how to start a communication with the visitors.
Not many people take the time, the braveness and the interests to talk longer than a few sentences with us.

One guy did. And at the end of the conversation he offered me a paid job next time he comes to Berlin. For a video and photographic project.
A very nice gesture I think, a gesture, which came out of his visit + thought process + empathy and was leading to = action.

Another man proposed to create chaos for us – to give us a real reason to clean up again. He carried the T-shirts around the space, leaving them in the toilet and on the floor. I followed him around in this game, trying to show my best motivation, to please him, to make him want me as a next employee. I think he liked that. He then offered me 10 Euro if I would guess what job he was doing (but I stupid cow forgot later on to really ask for the money!).
Money and the power that comes with it is an interesting thing.

The other thing I thought is that a working place (especially when the employees have not much to do) is perfect place to flirt and to come up with ideas and to plan a demonstration. Boredom can be a great source of creativity. Why do I so often forget that!

Another day after a long time with no visitors, the dancer in the group starts with few of us to work on a choreography including T-shirts and movements out of the actions we do. Even the most monotonies work inspires for play and can create something fun to do. So it made me think again that humans really strive for play, look for meaning in things they do and wish expression.

How is that urge so successful suppressed!?

Beside that just a few ideas to stir up more interaction/communication:

- Little acted out scenes (one person faints while folding T-shirts, one cleans the floor and the visitors have to decide if they want to walk on the wet ground…)
- Employing someone who checks about the other workers
- The name of us on the clothes we wear
- A wall were visitors can give us ideas or hints or even offers for a job
- A wall were we list our profiles for the visitors to read and to react to
- Perfumes which can be sold – profit to us (a person from the team creates the labels, smell with names like my first day of work, at the end of the day…
- Maybe a table were visitors can sit down and tell a person behind there what they like and don’t like about their job.
- An evening event where visitors and employees come together and discuss possible ideas for actions beyond the exhibition.
- At the end of the two-month a meeting were people share their experiences and their thoughts about how to move on.