Home»collections»The Alchemy of Eviction, Vienna 2016

The Alchemy of Eviction - Exhibition / Laboratory / Forum

For the first 2 weeks of May the ‘mo.ë’ arts space will open its doors for an interactive exhibition and series of happenings inviting exploration of the connections between our outer living circumstances and our inner thoughts and perceptions.

Mo.ë is under pressure of eviction through the forces of gentrification and is challenging this in the court. Mo.ë has rejected the termination of its rental contract under the controversial take over of the building by a developer, so is now squatting. Gentrification fractures communities across the world as the money of the rich capitalises the vibrancy of creative community. That such separating and divisive forces are accepted as entirely usual and legitimate things in our society and that challenging them is difficult and rarely successful, hints at their systemic nature - that they may be more deeply located in our thoughts, perceptions and assumptions. Is it possible that we could find more connected ways of thinking, being and acting together?

Social Sculpture is an expanded conception of art that considers every human being to be an artist who can contribute to the shaping of the huge ever shifting 'artwork' that is the creation of a just and ecologically sustainable society. It challenges the materialist worldview that enables much of the exploitative social systems and attitudes we are all struggling amongst and emphasises that the ‘material’ for making art is not only physical - that our thoughts, ideas and dialogues are ‘invisible materials’ that can also be worked with. At its heart it recognises the capacity we all have, to imagine different futures and that if attended to in careful ways, this power of imagination can be a transformative force to shape a better world.

As an arts space that is standing up for its right to remain, mo.ë is provoking many questions about how we understand art and society. As a culmination of a 6 month arts residency, UK based artist and activist Darren Jan Sutton in collaboration with the mo.ë collective, opens up a space for engagement through a collection of installations and objects, images and texts, actions and dialogues to investigate mo.ë’s eviction, gentrification, capitalism and the place of art, imagination, thought and transformation within it all.

To offer a way for us all to engage in some of this, a space for dialogue will be opened every day. A shared space for exploration, enquiry and insight, a community of thought. Everyone is welcome, please come along. How do we feel about mo.ë’s eviction, about other aspects of contemporary capitalism? About our ability to engage in the shaping of society, about human creative capacities? What questions do we have? : Dia-logos; [a stream of meaning flowing through and among us] [new forms of dialogue and participation] [permanent conference].

Can we explore a new [social] alchemy together, through our imagination, making a new form of gold or ‘social capital’ out of what usually separates us?