CORRESPONDANCE

In collaboration w/ Vida + Jeroen + Natalia + Cihangir + Frank + Deborah + other crafters

2019 / neighbors + tacit knowledge + active listening + performance

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Tacit knowledge is an understanding of the world, which is acquired through the act of practical engagement with the beings and things around us. This form of knowledge is embodied and functions as a tool that is often referred to as “skills” which are revealed in the performance of making and visible in the hand gestures of all experienced craftsmen.

The idea of correspondence is in the heart of the project. Performance objects were created which call for the same hand-gestures as used by the craftsmen of Bos en Lommer (a district in Amsterdam), with an intention of unifying the diverse rhythms of gestures we embody, within the playground of collective improvisation.

The project was developed together with diverse craftsmen who initially had no contact with each other, even though living and working in one neighbourhood, undergoing gentrification. It hopes to invite the makers to reinvent ways of cooperation and reflect the possibility of harmony. It is a tactile strategy for solidarity.

Can craftsmen learn to collectively improvise like jazz musicians do? What happens when we enter each other's performances? How can we learn to listen to each other's tacit knowledge?

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