Katja Legin: Work and Home

A conversation with Elija – my 4 year old son – about work.
While he is doing something else (in the first part he is preparing a dress for a magician, in the second part he is on the swing).

K: Eli, what am I doing? What is my profession?
E: A show.
K: Do you know what it looks like when you do a performance? What do I do when I'm performing?
E: You move around.
K: What about Tomi? What does Tomi do?
E: Tomi is typing.
K: Oh, but do you know what his profession is?
E: Director.
K: Do you know what a director does?
E: No.
K: Do you think we like what we do?
E: Yes.
K: What do you think we like to do most?
E: Drawing and painting. Tomi likes to write and work.
K: What do you like to do?
E: To compile with someone.
K: Cubes?
E: Yes.
K: Oh, and you like to make things in company?
E: Yes, with you.
K: What do you really not like to do?
E: When someone tells me what to do.
K: What are you going to do when you grow up?
E: I'm going to be a worker.
K: What do you mean a worker? What kind of worker?
E: I will build. Houses. Round ones.
 
In a couple of weeks I've asked him again.

K: Eli, do you still want to be a worker who builds when you grow up?
E: No. I'm going to be a cyclist. A racing one.
K: When did you decide that?
E: When I was playing at being a cyclist.
K: Oh.
E: When I play at being something else, I'll be something else.
K: But do you think, Eli, that people enjoy working?
E: No. I mean, if it's just a little bit, just one or a couple of emails, then yeah. But if you have to do a full, all night let's say, no.
K: Is there anything else you would like to say about work?
E: Yes. If you work, you get a bit bored.

Let’s Work! (2022–2023) deals with the problem of work. It invites us, through various artistic situations set in specific environments, to reflect on the meaning and value of work, the ways in which we experience work in everyday life, and how art is at work. In the first chapter (2022), artworks are contextualized in locations that play a constructive role in society in terms of the formulation of labor policies, and more specifically the formulation of strategies in the field of cultural labor, in public services that respond to labor problems, in institutions that educate the upcoming workforce, and in spaces that play a role in contemporary art practices. The spatial and temporal positioning of works for (re)viewing by both institutional staff and invited and casual visitors aims to widen the field of visibility of the artwork and its reception. In the second chapter (2023), the artworks will be presented in their entirety in exhibition and performance formats.