March 15th, 2007

The “Will Work For Food” happening deals with the desire to find a new definition for labour and the act of working.

“Will Work For Food” (WWFF) takes a position towards the question what role labour plays in a time, when full employment becomes an unattainable utopian conception. It deals with a re-assessment of labour” its disjunction from covering the cost-of-living of the individual.

An essay by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, his “Notes in ordinary of the resistance against the neo-liberal invasion” (under the title “Contre-feu” – Backfire) gives some suggestions: “It is high time to create the preconditions for a collective outline of a social utopia.” Bourdieu describes a potential social network that actively offers resistance against neo-liberalism. “Contre-feu”, backfire, is a term originally coming from fire suppression and denotes a controlled fire, which is set in order to control the spread of a conflagration. Translated into art it means to seize resources that are inherent in the system, re-code them and put them into practise against the status quo. Or more concise: Fight fire with backfire!

With reference to the utopian ideas of the 50s and 60s of the 20th century which yearned for the liberation of humanity from any form of labour WWFF plays with the possibility to fulfill this dream and takes over the role of the precarious subject. The WWFF vehicles are communication catalysts.

They give an occasion and a space for social interaction and discussion.

The WWFF vehicles stand for a guaranteed basic income.