Trust / The archive of Libby Sacer by Libby Sacer Foundation

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Trust / Καταπίστευμα | Exhibition The Archive of Libby Sacer [April 10 – May 17, 2014]

"Trust" was the inaugural event of the series of events entitled

Passport please, presented by the Libby Sacer Foundation at Cheapart space, in Athens, as part of the groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s residency there.

Passport please Libby Sacer (1925 – 1013), a Jew mulatto and woman by choice, remained completely invisible during her lifetime. After her death in London, her heir discovered an abundance of evidence regarding her crucial role in the art, thought and politics of a period that spans for over half a century. The group Libby Sacer Foundation begins a dialogue over the next few months (April – November 2014) on issues that Libby Sacer embodies, our heritage and “ghosts”. This series of events, entitled “Passport please”, refers to boundaries and restrictions of the Body, of Space, of Identity, and of the concept of Mediation in art and public life. In Trust archive, material function months.

are presented fragments from Libby Sacer’s reconstructions and creative approaches to the by the group’s collaborators, some of which also as trigger points for the events of the following Libby Sacer Foundation”

Libby Sacer* remained unknown up until her death in 2013. Her inheritor, realizing the importance of the artifacts found in her home, hired a group of specialists to analyze and classify the findings. Since then, a series of discoveries started that concern the art, philosophy and politics of a period that spans for over half a century, implying a crucial involvement on Sacer’s part.

The group

Libby Sacer Foundation

was founded in

January 2014. As ‘Cheapart Resident 2014’ the group was hosted in Cheapart art space and, inspired by Libby Sacer, opened up a dialogue with our origins and ‘ghosts’. Until November 2014 the group organized a series of events such as public talks, art shows and performances concerning the boundries/constraints of Body, Space and Identity, the ideological mechanisms that define them, and the concept of Mediation in art and public life. This series of events was entitled Passport please.

* Libby Sacer (b. Jan Tamrat) changed her name to what we know when she was 25 years old. The name Libby (Liberty) most probably refers to a sort of liberation or release that she felt she’d accomplished at that point in her life. The reason why she choose the cacophonous Sacer as her surname, though, is not as obvious. Of the all the possible explanations for this choice, the one that seems to be the most convincing can be found in the term homo sacer as defined in Roman law. [See pg.99]

Trust included: a) authentic objects from L. Sacerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s archive, b) reconstructions and/or copies from the archive, and c) creative approaches to the material (images, objects, texts, performances inspired by Sacerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s archive).

Collaborating

artists, scientists, writers, performers and

architects: Elena Akyla, Nikos Giavropoulos, Roza Giannopoulou Nelly Kambouri, Eftihia Kiourtidou, Vasiliki Kondyli, Costas Corakis, Tina Kotsi, Euripides Laskaridis, Miakela Liakata, Alexander Maganiotis, Anna Maneta, Maria Sarri, Olga Spiraki, Myrto Stamboulou,

Eugenia

Tzirtzilaki,

Dimitris

Halatsis,

Stefanos

Chandelis, Maria Fakinou.

Several artifacts in this exhibition led to ď&#x192; separate events during the following months. These exhibits are indicated in this publication with a tag. For a more detailed presentation of those events, please see the final pages of this edition (pg112-133).

From the archive of Libby Sacer Wooden Luba (ethnic group of Central Africa) mask, most likely from the Democratic Republic of Congo, 19th c.

From the archive of Libby Sacer Standing figure, possibly from Zaire or Angola, end of 19th c

From the archive of Libby Sacer

Painting by an unknown artist, of unknown year (possibly the 1960s) found in Libby Sacer’s home in London. Black pen on paper 23×30cm

This exhibit led to  Artist talks /A dialogue on Cultural Production | Presentations [June 6 and 7, 2014]

From the archive of Libby Sacer Wooden mask with straw head-cover, of the mbangu type (disease mask), by the Pende people, Democratic Republic of Congo, early 20th century. The stressed characteristics of the mask symbolize punishment that the ancestors may impose in cases of misconduct, in the form of a disease. Mbangu masks were used for teaching and reminding rules and responsibilities to the community, associating the loss of moral values with illness and disease.

Reconstruction from the archive of Libby Sacer Works by an unknown artist found at Libby Sacerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home. These tattoo studies were designed on transparent paper, having as background the cover of the first issue of "Ornament and Crime" by Adolph Loos (1870-1933). In this book, Loos condemns decoration as degenerative and "decadent", introduces the concept of "immorality of the dĂŠcorâ&#x20AC;? and expects its abolition, as a necessity for the functioning of modern society. As an example he mentions tattoos of the indigenous Papua, whom he considered morally and culturally underdeveloped, and compared them to modern man, who, when branded with tattoos is considered either a criminal or a degenerate.

Reconstruction from the archive of Libby Sacer Reconstruction of architectural model, based on drawings, sketches and notes, found in Sacer’s home, dating from the period when she was in dialogue with artist-architect Constant Nieuwenhuys (19202005), regarding the utopian city of New Babylon. Excerpts from notes: “Modern people are nomads. The city is based on networks & is in constant movement [...] Maps lose meaning.”

This exhibit led to  City & the Dough / Part I | Discussion [October 8th] 21

From the archive of Libby Sacer In 1935, Sacer met Suzy Schwartz in Alexandria, Egypt, and the two women maintained a friendship up until the end of their lives. After her death, Schwartz donated her entire archive to her friend Libby, which was found in Sacer’s home in London, among everything else. Here, a small part of Schwartz’s archive is exhibited, letters from the correspondence between them, passports and small objects, as well as information on the relationship of the two women. (Links to photographer Vivian Maier, cinematographer Jack Smith and others.)

This exhibit led to  Family as an ideological mechanism | Discussion [October 22] 23

Creative response to the archive of Libby Sacer Accountantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book with drawings and collages, notebook pages in negative print. An approach to the questions raised by Sacerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life, concerning the existential dimension of sexuality and eroticism.

Reconstruction from the archive of Libby Sacer Reproduction of Jacob Yordaens’s painting “Moses and his Ethiopian wife” (date of work: 1650), one reproduction of which Sacer owned too as evident in the photograph of her home to the right. On the table, research documentation on the painting’s history & Sacer’s relationship to it. Article, notes and bibliography (in Greek translations) that Sacer used to certify the painting and map out a conspiracy of concealing it. [You an read the full article in Greek here.]

From the Archive of Libby Sacer Personal diary that Sacer started in 1970. Occasionally she cut pages out, a gesture that probably relates to her anonymous street performances the â&#x20AC;&#x2122;70s. In these performances she gave fragments from her personal recordings to passerbys as she followed random paths in the cities she was in.

Reconstruction from the archive of Libby Sacer Reproduction of a photograph found in Sacer’s home; notebook with information on Assata Shakur and cut-outs, available to visitors as gifts. The photograph is from a Black Panthers’ public demonstration; at the back side, the inscription reads: “To remember some of our young, free faces, love, Ches”. Most probably the signature belongs to Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, as “Ches” was one of her aliases. Assata Shakur, considered one of the leaders of the Black Panthers movement, was charged with the murder of a policeman and was sentenced to life imprisonment in a New Jersey jail. She escaped in 1979 and in 1984 she was granted asylum in Cuba.

[To read the full text of the notebook in Greek please go to Καταπίστευμα]

CUT

OUTS

Reconstruction from the archive of Libby Sacer Copies of pages from a manuscript found at Libby Sacerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home and below, the full text typed. The notes were probably written in May 1968. In the passages, which are accompanied by sketches, there are references to historical events that took place in France (such as the night of the barricades, the big marches, the student-worker assemblies and the occupations of industries), but also to events that occurred elsewhere, such as Italy, India and the USA. Although in the last sentence Sacer explicitly states her intention to continue recording methods of protest, no other such notes were found at her home.

Transcript: Method 1: Constructing out of plan I walk around and I can only see people constructing walls. I am much older than they are and this makes me invisible. I take notes: NOT OF WHAT THEY SHOUT NOR OF WHAT THEY WRITE ON WALLS. But of how they move around. This is my method. There are many (young) bodies around me and they all search for material to build their walls. They collect pieces of metal, stones, garbage, but also they destroy buildings to get more metal and more stone. They are gradually becoming more organized but there is no one there to organize them. Their bodies synchronize become syncronized as they destroy buildings to get material to build their walls. And then they collect whatever is left and place it in piles, one on top of the other. This is done quickly in order to rest and then they start all over again. But most of the time they rest and talk and laugh. They are in a hurry, but they are calm. They think that they have already won. 41

At first, I do not see why they need to barricade themselves. It is strange to me, maybe because I am older, why such nice bodies would want to find a cover for themselves. How can these fragile constructions protect them and why do they want to be protected in the first place? Perhaps they think that I am a spy, or an undercover police. Perhaps I think that I could have been a spy. If it wasn’t for my skin and my looks they might have thought so. After all they are mostly white and probably catholic or Marxist too. But my skin color betrays me: I cannot be a spy. The police would never hire me. This is my advantage: I don’t matter and I can walk around without being noticed. The walls of metal, stone and garbage are getting bigger and bigger. One idea might be, that maybe they want to keep the police out of their quartier land, but at the same time the construction fever seems like a more ambitious gesture. It’s as if they wanted to make a monument for themselves in this city. Because they do not want to leave anything out. They will just have to destroy every little detail in the surrounding buildings and they will rebuild the streets around them anew… if they are left alone. Their method of protest is the construction out of plan and against the plan of the city. The city has many construction sites to take material from and reuse in more effective ways. The city is being rebuilt by constructors, but the new walls that the protestors build stand in the middle of the street. They transform the street into a construction site. Cars are burnt because they are no longer needed in these newly built construction sites. The walls did not really protect or cover anyone. Chemicals were thrown to disperse them. I was in the middle of it; I tried to run towards a place where I could breath. I could not see and finally I found a street, which was empty. I could smell chemicals but I at least I could breath. The only thing I could think of was that it was a pity that the walls would be torn down. The method was not ineffective. Chemicals flow across walls. But the constructions, ephemeral as they were, were still constructions in the middle of a street normally used for moving vehicles. The press has made a huge misinterpretation of the protest method. I did too, at first. But this was its success. These were not “barricades”, these were construction sites. I have to keep in mind that this is a method, and I have to add it to the other methods, to think of ways to use it in my performances. Although I am a stranger to all of this I can record and categorize methods of protest. 42

Method 2: Gherao Today I did not walk; I tried to look at the city from a birdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eye view. I live in the area where nothing is happening. Unless you live in the quartier or in the Universities or in the industrial occupations nothing is really happening. And that is a problem because all protest is concentrated in a center. I despise the center and so do they. So when the night falls, I will walk to the assembly and I will raise my hand and speak for a while. I need to EXPLAIN TO THEM HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO COVER THE WHOLE CITY. Like phantoms. They would not like the idea of phantoms. They would not like my speech either. My French is bad. Perhaps I should dress as a man to make them listen to me. A black man has more authority, especially a black man in a mustache or a bold black man. I did not walk but I read about a new method, the gherao. It was in a pamphlet that was left on the street outside my apartment published by a group called La lute infinie. In India, the labour unions formed a circle around les usines to get the employers to agree to their demands. The group that made the pamphlet tried to make a drawing. When I saw the drawing of the encircled industry, I realized that this method could be read in two ways. The first way: they circle the industries and would not let the bosses leave until they agreed to their demands. This method requires endurance and perseverance. The second way (which does not exclude the first): they make a circle around a space of labour and lock inside the bosses, in order to make them feel entrapped into their own profit making machines. I can imagine them stuck in there, locked inside their own greed. This creates within the â&#x20AC;&#x153;bosses: the NEED to escape from their own property. The Indians do the opposite of an occupation. Instead of appropriating space, they make this space impossible to endure. The Bosses have no patience and they cannot endure. Method 3: Occupy - multiply Here they occupy the place of work and make their demands. They occupy and MULTIPLY. I think multiplication is a very important part of the occupation. Marxist students have been working in factories for years. Marxist and anarchist students now join the workers who occupy and demand a share in the ownership of the means of production. I find this a bit difficult to comprehend. Why is it that only students go to factories and workers never go to universities? Why workers do not masquerade? And what happens to these students when they complete few years of working in the factories. They return and finish their university degrees, get married, become 43

avocats. A big nothing is this masquerade. And these occupations, they do not convince me. The method is simple, but not effective. I would like to see les usines encircled like in India. In the evening, I will go to the Censier –the enormous steel and glass monster- where I can hear the workers-students discussing and writing leaflets. I never talk. I try to remain at the margins because I like to hear people talking. There are whole rooms of people writing short leaflets. Writing and sharing leaflets has become a method. This method is about proliferation of positions. Subjects are not unitary: they become multiple as they work together to producewords, many words, useless words…that make sense to those who write them because they allow them to take control of their lives. They no longer want to be represented by trade unions or by student councils. INSIDE THE BELLY OF THE BIG STEEL AND GLASS MONSTER REPRESENTATION IS BEING DISSOLVED. Method 4: Protest from across the border I read yesterday that there were several non-French workers that have been deported to Franko’s Spain. They were brought by the police to the borders and sent off to another territory. In the leaflet it was not specified where they were from. Maybe they were Spanish or Portugese consierges. I was trying to think what to do. Solidarity is not enough. We need to find methods to protest that include those deported even from afar. I need to distribute the methods. Once I finish them, I will print them and send them off to the streets, with compliments as my mother would say. “With compliments” will be the name of the pamphlet. I think that pamphlets are always printed by groups – never by individuals. I will pretend that I am a group. No one will know that I am not, because no one can count how many I am. Of course once they ask they may find out. I will pretend that I am a group that represents foreigners who have been deported to Spain by the police. I am a group that managed to send secret pamphlets from Spain’s Franco. Method 5: The long line I am now at the big demonstration. There is a crowd, really populous and long. A tale of a beast, whose belly I cannot see. There are so many groups and groupuscules within the crowd, but they all follow the line. ‘They walk the line”. Sometimes we stop, sometimes we read leaflets that are being distributed by the groupuscules. But the road is constantly covered with people marching towards La Republique. I enter the crowd and start to march and repeat the slogans of the man with the loud speaker. 45

My French is no good, but it does not matter because no voice can be discerned from the crowd. The crowd follows the line. The line is not straight but has a purpose: la Republique. As we marched, I begun to feel squeezed. Once I reached la place, I could not breathe and I fainted. They told me that they had to carry me to a nearby café that was open. I drank some water and entered again into the crowd to become invisible. This incident made me much more visible and it did not help my method. This time everyone sticks together more tightly because there are rumors of the police having sought bullets. This squeezing made me uncomfortable. Crowds walking on a line are powerful, but I cannot be part of this line. Because I need to record and observe. The crowd gathers more and more people. As a method the line is always to be seen from a bird’s-eye view even by those who are within it. The crowd shares a bird’s-eye view through rumors that run from mouth to mouth: those next to me told me where the line started and where it ended, they estimated how many people could be in it. We walked and squeezed because we knew that the line was so long. But the line did not cover the city and it did not transform its plan or construct anything. I am beginning to think what it would be like if the line turned in unexpected ways, if it opened and closed, if protestors spread and gathered and then reassembled. It would need a lot of synchronization, Chinese discipline perhaps, but it would be even more powerful then walking towards la republique. Method 6: Reoccupy I read about the battle of the Valle Giullia. Through all those leaflets that they give me, I am able to learn more about methods. There was an occupation of the school of architecture. The occupiers were kicked out by the police that took over and guarded the place. A few days later 4000 students attacked the police with stones and other material in order to take back –occupy again their school of architecture. Pazolini wrote that he sympathized with the policemen because they were working class, unlike the students who were mostly middle and upper class. I disagree. There was no drawing in the leaflet but I made one in order to make sense of this method. Reoccupation is a method in itself. Much more important than occupation because you come face to face with working class policemen who could have turned against the state if they were not disoriented by the police mentality. 46

It seems that there are always many ways to read a protest. You can look at it from different angles. My method is to go inside and then to leave and look at it from outside, from above. I examine and record how bodies move in those circumstances; bodies move strangely under pressure, in excitement, in anticipation of an attack. My body is black and Jewish and old and I move in secret. This gives me an advantage that others lack. J. told me that this obsession I have with my black skin making me invisible is false. He told me that I draw people’s attention because I am not white like most of the protestors. But I don’t see eyes turned towards me. I don’t notice anyone noticing me. So I will keep on with my method, which is based on the ability I have to observe without being observed. Method 7: Looting L. who is American, with beautiful curly blond hair, blue eyes and a bright healthy skin with no pimples, told me yesterday that if I crossed the Atlantic and told people that I was black, Jewish and middle class, they would laugh at me. I would be THE funny story to tell at suburban cocktail parties. I talked to her about methods. She gave me a completely different view of methods because she told me about the race riots –a topic to be avoided in suburban cocktail parties. She brought me letters to see –no drawings- that friends send her. Amongst the letters there was a picture of the army overtaking Chicago after the assassination of M.L.K. that her aunt had posted. It was a military zone and she was a middle class American lady with white hair, blue eyes and pale wrinkled skin. She wrote behind the photo that she was very frightened. I can imagine that after her Paris experience and her African boyfriend, L would turn like her aunt. That is the problem with those shining American bodies. Or perhaps they would invent the technologies that would always keep your skin shining. The race riots were not about occupying nor about marching. They were about looting and destroying commercial shops. In one of the letters, a Marxist friend of L. was criticizing the riots because they went out of control and ended up in this savage state. Another friend, however, told her that he heard that the riots started when shop owners were asked to close their shops in respect for MLK’s death. Those who didn’t close their shops, found the crowds attacking them, smashing windows and looting the merchandize. This / A protest method is like an outburst of anger against traders and consumers. Trade is dispersed, riots are dispersed. Looting is a way of appropriating what others have deprived you of. Race is for 47

most of us a class issue. In France, I am invisible. In America, I would be impossible. Not only am I black but I am also middle class. The method of looting and destroying shops is a violent reaction against segregation. It is not exactly a method but an anti-method. As you march to protest, some deviate from the line and their final purpose and disperse in different sideways of the road to attack the shops. It is not symbolic, it is about covering the whole city and transforming its planning. There is no final destination, just small acts of denial of capitalism and racial segregation. But looting may also be about doing harm to your own. To loot black shops is to loot those who have succeeded in becoming middle class, but have forgotten of their race. In America, race is in the skin and the skin is in the class. Even if you are mixed, you belong to a certain race, a certain class. I never forget my skin color, but I don’t have a race. There is no bird’s-eye view of looting. You cannot see looting from above. There is no drawable form in this method of protest. It is an almost impossible struggle for me to turn L.’s letters into a drawing. Photography or rather film is the only way that looting as protest can be represented. I find it puzzling. I imagine myself as one of the high level strategists of the proteststeaching and organizing protestors, telling them what to do before they go out on the streets. If the method of looting was to be taught, there will be no way to show them what to do on the board. I’d just have to tell them: Take what should be yours; make it yours, and it is yours. One letter from Chicago, told L. about a group of protestors that decided instead of smashing the window of a large shop to remove it with a track. They placed handles on the window and connected them to the track. When the track started to move forward the window was drawn and then it collapsed into pieces. This is such a spectacular way of looting. Maybe machines can help me draw the looting method of protest. I am invisible in France but I would have been extremely visible in America because it is all about skin color and religion. Being black here is perhaps less important than being Jewish. L. is Jewish too. She laughs when I ask her to go to the Synagogue with me. I admire the whiteness of her skin and her young, healthy looks. I think that all people who are wealthy have this shiny healthy look. I am not certain: now that I am old I no longer have this glow. But when I was 49

younger, in Ethiopia, I had the wealthy-healthy shiny look and everyone thought that my skin was light and bright. Method 8: Guerilla war In Ethiopia, protest turned against people like my mother, white privileged people who had nice houses with dark servants. My mother was spared because she had a dark child. This gave her an advantage over other privileged diplomats with white children and white wives. I need to think about the Ethiopian method, especially now that I am in this European capital, where most of the protestors are white and I am simply a ghost “that haunts Europe”. Eritreans saw us Ethiopians as colonizers and I was a target even though I was not as dark as most Ethiopians and not as Ethiopian as most Eritreans. I was spared from the hatred of the ELF because of my white mother, who was not Ethiopian and because of my lighter skin. The upper class students from Eritrea did not take their struggle to the streets, they did not occupy their faculties, they did not stage huge marches in Adis Abeba and they did not construct walls within the city. They took the arms and fought against the Ethiopians army and the Ethiopian emperor. They were twice colonized, once by the Italians and once by the Ethiopians. They wanted to escape this vicious circle and I sympathized, although my mother kept telling me not to get carried away because they were turning into Marxist fanatics. I did not get carried away. I just fled. I could flee of course because my skin was lighter and I had a white Jewish mother. The guerilla war method is not a protest but it is a method that looks at a complete separation, a redrawing of borders. Borders in Africa are artificial, borders in Europe are fluid. People in Paris care about social justice, in Eritrea justice is about sovereignty. Violence is of an entirely different level there. Once you have been in a battle zone, like the one that Eritrea was during 1961, you can no longer look at the protest here as violent. My friend A. told me that “this is not exactly a protest. There is nothing at stake here. You don’t really put your life at risk in Paris. There are no guns or very few guns. No one will attack you and kill you.” A is from Eritrea but he is now a refugee in Paris. He never goes to the demonstrations. He works and writes. He does not consider this as protest, but as a game. When he saw my drawings and my notes, he said that they looked like a twisted football game, but it was not a real battle against capitalism. He has contempt for white middle class children who protest. He thinks that they are so naïve. He admires black middle class children who take the arms. But he fled Eritrea too because he could not 50

carry a gun and he could not kill. I disagree with him. I think that protest is a game but an important game. All games require meticulous strategies, like guerilla wars do. The game in Paris is not about a new state or an old territory, but it is important. I will continue with my method.

This exhibit led to ď&#x192; Public space & demonstration / The protesting body | Discussion [May 29, 20] 51

From the archive of Libby Sacer Portrait, acrylic pastel, screen printing on camvas, 70×70 cm, 1984. In New York, Libby Sacer was connected to personalities that lived and worked in the sidelines, such as Jack Smith, or in complete obscurity, as Vivian Maiers, but also with some prominent figures of the American scene like Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat. Libby Sacer’s relationship to them is confirmed by a series of other findings, however, it is still not confirmed if this unsigned work is indeed a product of Warhol’s and Basquiat’s collaboration. [The piece was donated to the archive by British collector Gary Lier.]

From the archive of Libby Sacer Unsigned work, attributed to the Belgian conceptual artist, poet and writer Marcel Broodthaers (estimated date of work: 1969), found in Sacerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home in London. Her relationship to Broodthaers remains unknown.

This exhibit led to ď&#x192; Biennale, a discussion / Mediation | Discussion [October 29, 2014] 58

From the archive of Libby Sacer Unsigned; found in Libby Sacer’s home.

Capitalism as necrophilia – thoughts

“Viva la muerte!” (Long live death!) Slogan of Franco’s fascists in the Spanish Civil War.

It may seem odd to subscribe a pervasive human behaviour to a social system of class exploitation; however, this is irrelevant to its human dimension manifested as an attraction to corpses or objects symbolizing death. And, of course, it doesn’t refer to the system in general but mostly to a latent aspect of Capitalism’s philosophy as demonstrated mainly in its political and ideological foundation. Without doubt, necrophilia is a case of malevolent aggressiveness; in Capitalism it acquires the form of an obsessive attempt to conceal all traces of autonomy and unpredictability that can potentially elevate the social process through a specific metonymic representation: the view of Historic Time as a product developed by an automated mechanical procedure. It’s an aggressive “domination” of the social body realized through distancing it from its fundamental vital element: class conflict. A domination primarily as a violent act on the grounds of losing any element of self-action, an ownership on something already dead. This action unravels accompanied by its indispensible supplement, the duality of mutilating – reconstructing the dead corpse, a typical necrophilistic behaviour. As a result, society appears as a fragmented total of human units whose cohesion is justified through the emergence of a classless State, distant from “civil 60

society”. A State itself, divided into a grid of mechanisms unifying historical time and space through a “selective” national narrative hailing from a primary “national and tribal” quintessence. Precisely this chain of domination, the procedure to obliterate and mutilate – reconstruct the living body connects capitalism with necrophilia. In Marx’s analysis of the Capital’s function, production means in terms of value are “dead labour” that devours the “living” labour force. The basic need of the social body to produce materialistic sources sustaining its existence is transformed to a mechanical, individualistic production of commodities used for trading. Living labour’s collectiveness as a means to satisfy social needs is replaced by the soulless body of personalized competitiveness. And its motivating power, work, is transformed into products, supplements of machines. Here, domination is accomplished through the transformation of the labour force into a “pile of goods”, a body of materialistic possessions, results of a production scheme fragmented into individuality and united through the mechanism of the competitive market. This “fetishism of commodities” in which social relationships are replaced by objects, procedures by mechanical repetition constitutes a “corpse-like” situation meeting its political/ideological equivalent in the emergence of a bureaucratic automotive: the modern bourgeois State. The grid of its mechanisms of suppression and ideology transpose the complexity of class struggle into a normality of institutionalized repetition. Thus, the constantly alternating social geography is transformed into the infinitely identical individuals/tiles, destined a priori to meet their historic fulfilment in the formation of the great mosaic of the Nation. The Nation–State is the most complete form of this “destructive domination”. It dominates historic time and space by mutilating its continuum into autonomous stories “demonstrating” the desire for the culmination of the Nation, stapled a posteriori into something resembling an anthology of national narratives, like an artwork that has just passed a censorship committee with apparent signs of erased inconvenient clips: civil war, class struggle and states of emergency are subscribed to unfamiliar interventions in an otherwise uninterrupted continuum. History in the making with its unpredictability is translated into an unacceptable external intervention and ostracised with the contempt of a necrophiliac when suddenly confronting his innermost fear: a corpse showing signs of vitality. Nevertheless, contempt towards the unpredictable does not identify with the denial of all notions of action. More than this, it signifies that the body’s autonomy is replaced by the necrophiliac’s will. The body, governed by something outside itself becomes the object of its operator’s repetition and movement; thus, the culmination of the Nation is the outcome of the selfwilling ancestral evolution of the Race. Symbols of death like the Sacrifice of Heroes and national anthems’ “Sacred Bones” branch out to the tribe’s essence/will which appears as a historical advancement of the Nation 61

towards its present completion and constitute the narration of a national teleology. Other examples of Capitalism’s latent necrophilia are contemporary wars between nations. Of course, conflict is the common element of all societies divided into classes; however, war has acquired a unique form in modern societies. For the first time in History, war has a mechanical character. From religious or political, it has become industrial. The tribe’s warrior/defender of past-times gives place to a warfare systems’ operator. People are transformed into machine supplements and warfare is congratulated as justified labour. Having the form of either military or “collateral” casualties, Death becomes “wastage” of an industrial activity. This same mechanical perception of war reaches its culmination in the Nazi Concentration Camps. A tool’s intervention between offender and victim transforms “human wastage” into a basic manufacturing good. In this case, detailed “scientific” calculations with mass destruction paranoia compose the ultimate fantasy of the necrophiliac: a huge corpse-producing machine. It’s not the “exotic” aspect that frightens more, rather its subliminal familiarity. An extreme manifestation of a rationale the latent aspect of which people experience every day. The goods industry accommodates the scary logic of an industry that produces corpses. Violence is not the predominant element. Besides, violence is interwoven with historical social conflict. The “rational” calculation of a mechanized death-producing belt prevails. Capitalism’s aggressiveness manifests in the fact that it presents exploitative class relations as a social automation built on the infiniteness of singular components. This latent necrophiliac feature is a historic novelty. Past societies represented class structure as a creation of a transcendental Being; harmony and order was guaranteed by a ruler with “the grace of God”, the chosen one that the Being appointed his representative. Hence, in Capitalism, destructive aggressiveness is hidden in the form of its own philosophical representation: if man was liberated from Gods and Rulers, this happened in order to transform him into a cogwheel of a machine operated by the “natural” laws of the market.

This exhibit led to  City & the Dough, Part II / Camilo Vergara | Presentation [October 24, 2014]

From the archive of Libby Sacer Pencil on paper, dimentions 20,5Ă&#x2014;27, found in Libby Sacerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home in London. Unknown artist.

From the archive of Libby Sacer Two photographs in metal frames, depicting the permanent shadow marks in Hiroshima, Japan, after the first atomic bomb was thrown, on the 6th of August 1945. In the standing frame, shadows on the bridge across the Ota river, 1,5 kilometers away from the point of explosion. On the other, the shadow of an elderly person with a cane imprinted on stairs. The images were found on Sacerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s desk and are probably reproductions from the press of the time.

From the archive of Libby Sacer â&#x20AC;&#x153;Parrotâ&#x20AC;? voice recorder, late 1960s.

Reconstruction from the archive of Libby Sacer Digital reproduction of two photographs of Sacer, found at her home.

From the archive of Libby Sacer Ceramic statuette, 19th century copy. This is an Egyptian funerary figurine, of the ushabti type (or shabti or shawabti). Many ushabti were together placed in tombs in ancient Egypt with the purpose to serve as replacements for the dead, in the case they were asked to perform manual labor in the afterlife. Their name means "responders", ie those who respond when the gods call the dead to work. On the body, affirmative statements are engraved (such as: yes, right away, gladly etc.) indicating their willingness to work.

This exhibit led to ď&#x192; Linda, prima vista | Participatory performance [November 10 2014] A collective performance of an interview. Reading together the words of a woman who serves others; a cleaning lady. 74

From the archive of Libby Sacer Pioneer recording machine and tape. Α’ side consists of recorded laughter by various people of different ages, possibly Sacer’s laughter as well, recorded in the ‘70s. Β’ side includes narrations in English as well as two songs and a fairytale in Krio language (one of Sierra Leone’s official languages). The tape was found in Sacer’s home, together with the recorder without any accompanying information. It is speculated that Sacer either conducted some kind of research on the sound of laughter, or that she simply wanted to keep in this way the laughter and stories of her loved ones.

Gsju

uuuuu

uuuuuuuuu

uhuiiii

Gsju

uuuuu

uuuuuuuuu

uhuiiii

Gsju

uuuuu

uuuuuuuuu

uhuiiii

Gsju

uuuuu

uuuuuuuuu

uhuiiii

Stories heard in Krio language (one of Sierra Leoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 15 dialects): - I want to tell you why I left home. There was a dictatorship, so I left. There was no food, no doctors and so on. Too bad I left my own, but I had to. If you are pregnant there, the children are dying in childbirth. I am here, and still, I have problems to stay. I hope life will go better here. People leave to find a better life. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Once upon a time, there was a very beautiful woman. A man found her one night and took her to his home. When they arrived at his house, the woman said: "Come see my teeth." Her teeth were huge, and he got so frightened when she saw them, hat he fainted.

From the archive of Libby Sacer Some of the books found in Sacer’s home in London: -

Dichtergrube-Neuere Deutsche Lyrik (Poets’ Greetings, new German poetry), Elise Polko. C. F. Amelangs Verlag Leipzig ca. 1900 The diary of a young girl, Anne Frank. Random House, New York, 1952. Cinque Anni a Milano (Five years in Milan), Uliano Lucas, Tommaso Musolini Editore, 1975. The Decade of Women- a Ms. History of the Seventies in Words and Pictures Paragon Books, Putnam Publishing Group, 1980.

This exhibit led to  Book Reports: Pick a Ghost & be its Passport | Presentations [#1: June 13th 2014 / #2: October 1st 2014 / #3: April 5, 2015] 78

Creative response to the archive of Libby Sacer Small library of names, as an attempt to gather cases of women –from the arts, science and not only–, who either became famous using a male name, or their value and significance were acknowledged after death, like Libby Sacer. These short biographies belong to painter Eleni BoukouraAltamoura (1821-1900, Greece), visual artist Claude Cahun (1894-1954, France), mathematician Marie-Sophie Germain (1776-1831, France), writers Karen Blixen (1885-1962, Denmark), Charlotte, Emily & Anne Brontë (19th c. UK), James Jr. Tiptree (1915-1987, USA), George Eliot (1819-1880, UK), Virginia Woolf, (1882-1941, UK) and firefighter Lillie Hitchcock Coit (1843-1929, USA). [For the full texts in Greek, see here.]

Creative response to the archive of Libby Sacer Model for the set design of one of Libby Sacer’s performances without spectators, during the period 1960-1968. Some of Sacer’s notes, underlying the approach: "Going through a dark period, I don’t want to talk anymore. [..] Communication is deeper than we think. I look at this vast landscape and I think that there is no identity- there is no single entity. Speech is enforcement. And nothing can be imposed here, in this vast landscape." "A prayer without words.. There is no recipient, only the completed body. [..] A glittering kaleidoscope. Darkness in me and from darkness, light.”

Creative response to the archive of Libby Sacer Study regarding the relationship between identity, memory and imagination, inspired by Libby Sacerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s friendship with French visual artist, photographer and self-portrait pioneer Claude Cahoun (18941954,), and the painted audiences for Sacerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s performances without recipients. Sacer performed privately, in her home in Ethiopia, along with one other women, in the years 1960-68.

Reconstruction of spaces

Creative response to the archive of Libby Sacer A possible version of Sacer’s gallery space in her home.

Creative response to the archive of Libby Sacer Libby Sacer spend most of her life in search of space, identity, and balance between different worlds. Being in constant movement as a collector of experiences and thoughts, she has in her suitcase notes and sketches and defies all kinds of passports and limitations.

Reconstruction from the archive of Libby Sacer Reconstruction of a set design for one of Sacer’s performances, based on her notes. Excerpts from those notes: “Kann es Liebe sein?” [Can this be love?] [..] “A space of familiarization familiarity with sexual identity. [..]Narcissism, diversity, […] boundaries, prejudices, conventions."

Reconstruction from the archive of Libby Sacer Reconstruction of scenic space from Libby Sacerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s drawings and notes. Configuring identity in different contexts and filtering the personality through them.

Reconstruction from the archive of Libby Sacer Reconstruction of space. A room - retreat of Libby Sacer in London. This was an additional construction placed outside her building.

Performances

Creative response to the archive of Libby Sacer Repetitive live performance. An approach and study to Libby Sacerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s body during her private moments. Based on the availiable information about her (ethnic origin, sexuality, choice to remain unseen, and so on) a physical approach to her condition is attempted, through some of ehre basic bodily needs (eating-moving-resting) as pleasure (eating dessert, dancing, looking out the window). [Performances every Friday.]

Reconstruction from the archive of Libby Sacer According to her notes, Libby Sacer used a jacket in a performance she performed privately (with an audience painted on the walls) during the period 1960 to 1968. She called this jacket " Karyotakisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;jacket ", although she had never met the Greek poet Kostas Karyotakis. In the pockets of his jacket [a copy of which is hereby displayed], she stored items associated with loss, which she organized by pocket in thematic groups and she renewed regularly until the end of her life. During the performance, he would wear the jacket, sit on a chair and then performing multiple falls. Perhaps it was not a representation of a suicide, but a "testing" for her own possible death. [Performances on four different dates. The rest of the time, visitors were welcome to search inside the pockets.]

Creative response to the archive of Libby Sacer Video, color, 18,5min. This video-recording of a performance without an audience, is in dialogue with Libby Sacerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s private performances.

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* Visitor’s addition "How vulnerable?” Writing on the wall with cosmetic red lipstick. The phrase appeared on the gallery’s wall on April 10th 2014, opening day of the exhibition (between 9: 30pm and 10: 00pm). The identity of the writer and the intent of hers/his intervention remains unknown. The Libby Sacer Foundation chose not to remove it, but rather include it with this explanatory note.

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Libby Sacer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Libby Sacer Birth name

Jan Tamrat

Born

27 January 1925 Ethiopia

Died

28 January 2013 (aged 88) London

Nationality

Ethiopian

Field

Writing, poetry, art books, installation art

Movement

Conceptual art

Works

Part of the Plan

Libby Sacer also Libby Saker or Liberty Sacer born Jan Tamrat (1925â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2013) was born in Ethiopia in 1925. Her father, a Jewish Ethiopian, named Tariku Tamrat, in the archives of his community (Beta Israel) was mentioned as a labourer and craftsman but was fluent in more than 20 local dialects and sometimes worked as an interpreter. He died in an accident when his only child was five years old; this had a major impact on Sacer. Her Danish mother Tania, from a family of landowners active in Ethiopia and other countries, was the author of romantic novels and travel books, which she signed with pseudonyms. Because of her mother's occupation, Libby travelled around the world from an early age and received an excellent education.

Life Sacer chose her name when she turned 25. In her writing she leaves hints about her sex that led to speculation that she was a hermaphrodite or a transgendered person. Both her existence and her influence in various movements of art and philosophy were unknown until her death in London in 2013, at age 88. As she never had children, after her death, her will stated that all her property would be handed to the British artist and activist R.H., whom she had never met before. The heir, recognising the importance of the artefacts found in her house, hired a group of specialists to analyse and classify the findings. A series of discoveries concerning contemporary art and philosophy have started since. At Sacer's house in London, among other findings, there were important works of art by Klossowski, Claude Cahun, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Marcel Broodthaers and others. These works were thought to have been lost or were unknown. There was also personal correspondence with over 20 prominent personalities of the last century from the fields of philosophy, politics and art, and rarities such as African 104

ritual vessels and masks, stuffed animals, thousands of books, videotapes, audio cassettes and reels, a huge collection of male and female fancy dresses and accessories, and a series of personal objects that belonged to Albert Camus, Michel Foucault, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Guy Debord, Jack Smith, Hannah Arendt, Louis Althusser and others, meticulously archived. Notes and books by her were also found as well as recordings made by her; as it seems this material circulated exclusively from hand to hand. Some titles of those works are: "Meta-fetishism" After â&#x20AC;&#x201C; fetishism, "Part of the Plan" Part of the Plan, "Alluring dominance" Fetching sovereignty, "What is to be un-done" What should be un- done, "City Spine" Urban spine], "The Method" Method. A few of her letters sent to key figures had been returned unread. The mass of the findings indicates her crucial role in several artistic, philosophical and political movements of a period covering more than half a century. Sacer has been present in a series of major events of the last century. A crucial moment in her lifetime was 1938 when she left Berlin, after burning all her belongings to erase any tracks of her past. While the available biographical data is still incomplete, much of her life has been mapped out, apart from the 1960s a decade which remains a mystery until now. According to some evidence, during this period, her mother died and Libby S. retired to a deserted area near her birthplace, close to the border of Ethiopia and Eritrea. According to floor plans that have been found, the house where she lived was designed by the artist and architect Constant Nieuwenhuys as a sample building of the utopian city of New Babylon. There, along with another unknown woman (photos of which have been found), they gave theatrical performances without an audience (viewers were painted on the walls), composed and played music and made artistic projects without recipients. In 1968, however, she relocated to Paris, where she participated in street battles, recorded events and suffered an injury on her left leg. Years later she travelled to Athens, Greece, where she was photographed with Jean Genet in a city-central pastry shop. While her source of income remains mainly unknown, probably part of it came from essays and articles published over the years with aliases, following her mothers footsteps, and possibly a share of her mothers property. How and to what extent Libby Sacer influenced modern thought and art, is still to be investigated by professionals commissioned by her heir.

Additional information The house where she lived during her last years is located within the city of London, while her house in Ethiopia â&#x20AC;&#x201C;according to plans and notes that were found in Londonâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; is located in a distant, isolated area, outside town, very close to the sea, but cut off from it. Pieces of information relating to other people, which hitherto remained disconnected and enigmatic, have begun to come to light in recent months, acquiring a new meaning. For example, in the home of a political figure associated with terrorism 105

(member of the Black Panthers), the police had found a note that it was unable to connect with anything else and at the time had simply been archived in police files. The note, pinned inside a closet, bore the inscription: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I do not care about people knowing who I am and what I think; I care about discussing these things with those burning by the same flame and together do things that will change reality in an invisible yet tangible way, which one would take for granted, like street signs. ~ L. Sacerâ&#x20AC;? Libby Sacerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s body bore two tattoos: An arrow on the inner side of her left arm pointing to her palm and a corresponding arrow on her right arm pointing to the opposite direction (towards the elbow). It is speculated that these two arrows were symbols of one of the theories Sacer had developed regarding the body in relation to space, and to others. The chronology of the life of Libby Sacer is still incomplete. Confirmed so far are the following: 1925: Birth in Ethiopia 1930: Death of her father 1932 (7 years old): First trip with her mother outside Ethiopia 1938: (13 years old): Leaves Berlin, along with her mother 1950: (25 years old): Begins to travel alone 1952-4 (27-29 years old): Works in a Kibbutz 1960: (35 years old): Returns to Ethiopia [1960-8]: In this time her mother dies 1968: (43 years): Paris 1970: (45): New York 1981: (56 years): Athens 2013: (88 years old): Dies in London.

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From Libby Sacer to the thematic season of events Passport please

“Αrti burti.* Man’s dead. We need to [incomprehensible] the human being again. She’s still swimming among parallel universes between millions and millions of possibilities. Nothing is final. There’s indications, there’s hopes, constraints, [incomprehensible] possibilities collapse every second, new constellations of possibilities form, new data that influence the composition of the new subject.” *Arti burti: “Bullshit” in Amharic (Ethiopian language) Extract from audio recording by L. Sacer while under the influence of alcohol

The ambiguous sexuality Libby Sacer, seen through the prism of the current debate on the regularity of social gender in relation to sovereign structures, makes us wonder if she would have stayed on the margins if her identity had been recognizable and classifiable as male or female. On the other hand, maybe her thought wouldn’t have spread in so many fields if she wasn’t puzzled by a tangible difference of her own. And also: how was her perception of space affected by her extended traveling and lack of national identity? This mulatto Jew who lived in the heyday of Hitler and Apartheid, seems to occupy a border region in multiple levels. She built her identity in the space between the sexes, and while he lived near celebrities she remained in obscurity. Today, however, it is revealed that she drew a spectacular trail in the shadows. Even though she structured and recorded her thoughts, she made them semi-public, distributing them only to selected recipients, some of whom either presented them as their own, or were significantly affected by her, as her long correspondence shows. Libby Sacer abstained from public discourse, keeping distances that probably saved her life, at a time when she would have been persecuted for literally everything that she was. She kept her distances from many other things too, however, choosing to live in the cracks of the common perception of normality and success, in the green zone between avant-garde and obscurity, between what’s ordinary and what’s extraordinary. Surprisingly, through that choice she overcame 109

many barriers and boundaries, leaving the trail behind that seems to be ahead of its time. What she has left us with, provides her with an after-death passport to pass on the other side of the borderlines she had set or had been imposed to her; a passport that provides her a recognized status and a valid identity, sparking many questions and stirring all that we know about the society of the last fifty years, its art and philosophy. Libby Sacer is today at a place where nobody will ask for her passport. This is a question that she could finally answer only once it could no longer be posed to her: Passport please. Considering Libby Sacer’s legacy as a spiritual “Trust Fund” that is ours too, we will “discuss” with her ghost over the next months. This dialogue, which will unfold in laboratory structures, with the participation of artists and theorists, relates to boundaries and limitations of space, national and gender identity, and the ideologies shaping their limits. Through this dialogue we will attempt to draw "passports" for unseen areas of our current experience, reflect on the conditions of our reality and detect the elements that define our own "passports". Finally, our intention is to create a field of substantial criticism or controversy even, in regards to what is happening around us.

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Libby Sacer, the collector “At Sacer's house in London, among other findings, there were important works of art by Klossowski, Claude Cahun, JeanMichel Basquiat, Marcel Broodthaers and others. These works were thought to have been lost or were unknown. There was also personal correspondence with over 20 prominent personalities of the last century from the fields of philosophy, politics and art, and rarities such as African ritual vessels and masks, stuffed animals, thousands of books, videotapes, audio cassettes and reels, a huge collection of male and female fancy dresses and accessories, and a series of personal objects that belonged to Albert Camus, Michel Foucault, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Guy Debord, Jack Smith, Hannah Arendt, Louis Althusser and others, meticulously archived.”

The social scientist and philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906 - 1975), a pair of earrings of whom were found in Sacer’s collection, was much older than Sacer. Arendt was almost twenty years older than Libby Sacer, but this fact is not a reason to exclude the possibility that the two women had indeed met and developed some kind of relationship, especially since it has been confirmed that they both were at the same places around the same time. In addition, the two women certainly shared a good number of friends and acquaintances in both Europe and the USA. When Arendt wrote her essay on Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), which was first published in English in 1968, it is possible that she didn’t only have Benjamin in mid, but also Sacer. Whatever the case, today we can read her thoughts on the characteristics and role of a collector, as a useful guide that illuminates with rare clarity certain aspects of Libby Sacer’s life and intents. In this essay, Arendt analyses the collector’s passion as a particular relationship with the past, in an attempt to help us understand the 112

reasons why one would collect things and – as Benjamin had ut it – “transform” them. Arendt writes:

Benjamin exemplified this ambiguity of gesture in regard to the past by analyzing the collector's passion which was his own. Collecting springs from a variety of motives which are not easily understood. As Benjamin was probably the first to emphasize, collecting is the passion of children, for whom things are not yet commodities and are not valued according to their usefulness, and it is also the hobby of the rich, who own enough not to need anything useful and hence can afford to make "the transfiguration of objects" (Schriften I, 416) their business. In this they must of necessity discover the beautiful, which needs "disinterested delight" (Kant) to be recognized. At any rate, a collected object possesses only an amateur value and no use value whatsoever. (Benjamin was not yet aware 'of the fact that collecting can also be an eminently sound and often highly profitable form of investment.) And inasmuch as collecting can fasten on any cate- gory of objects (not just art objects, which are in any case re- moved from the everyday world of use objects because they are "good" for nothing) and thus, as it were, redeem the object as a thing since it now is no longer a means to an end but has its in trinsic worth, Benjamin could understand the collector's passion as an attitude akin to that of the revolutionary. Like the revolutionary, the collector "dreams his way not only into a remote or bygone world, but at the same time into a better one in which, to be sure, people are not provided with what they need any more than they are in the everyday world, but in which things are liberated from the drudgery of usefulness" (Schriften I, 4(6). Collecting is the redemption of things which is to complement the redemption of man. Even the reading of his books is something questionable to a true bibliophile: (t 'And you have read all t:hese?' Anatole France is said to have been asked by an admirer of his library. ‘Not one-tenth of them. I don’t suppose you use your Sevres china every day?'" ("Unpacking My Library"). (In Benjamin's library there were collections of rare children's books and of books by mentally deranged authors; since he was interested neither in child psychology nor in psychiatry, these books, like many others among his treasures, literally were not good for anything, serving neither to divert nor to instruct.) 113

Closely connected with this is the fetish character which Benjamin explicitly claimed for collected objects. The value of genuineness which is decisive for the collector as well as for the market determined by him has replaced the "cult value" and is its secularization. These reflections, like so much else in Benjamin, have something of the ingeniously brilliant which is not characteristic of his essential insights, which are, for the most part, quite down- to-earth. Still, they are striking examples of the ftanerie in his thinking, of the way his mind worked, when he, like the fldneur in the city, entrusted himself to chance as a guide on his intellectual journeys of exploration. Just as strolling through the treasures of the past is the inheritor's luxurious privilege, so is the "collector's attitude, in the highest sense, the attitude of the heir" ("Unpacking My Library") who, by taking possession of things-and "ownership is the most profound relationship that one can have to objects" (ibid.}-establishes himself in the past, so as to achieve, undisturbed by the present, "a renewal of the old world." And since this "deepest urge" in the collector has no public significance whatsoever but results in a strictly private hop by, everything "that is said from the angle of the true collector" is bound to appear as "whimsical" as the typically Jean Paulian vision of one of those writers "who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like" (ibid.), Upon closer examination, however, this whimsicality has some note- worthy and not so harmless peculiarities. There is, for one thing, the gesture, so significant of an era of public darkness, with which the collector not only withdraws from the public into the privacy of his four walls but takes along with him all kinds of treasures that once were public property to decorate them. (This, of course, is not today's collector, who gets hold of whatever has or, in his estimate, will have a market value or can enhance his social status, but the collector who, like Benjamin, seeks strange things that are considered valueless.) Also, in his passion for the past for its own sake, born of his contempt for the present as such and therefore rather heedless of objective quality, there already appears a disturbing factor to announce that 114

tradition may be the last thing to guide him and traditional values by no means be as safe in his hands as one might have assumed at first glance. For tradition puts the past in order, not just chronologically but first of all systematically in that it separates the positive from the negative, the orthodox from the heretical, and which is obligatory and relevant from the mass of irrelevant or merely interesting opinions and data. The collector's passion, on the other hand, is not only unsystematic but borders on the chaotic, not so much because it is a passion as because it is not primarily kindled by the quality of the object-something that is classifiable-but is inflamed by its "genuineness," its uniqueness, something that defies any systematic classification. Therefore, while tradition dis- criminates; the collector levels all differences; and this leveling- so that "the positive and the negative ... predilection and rejection are here closely contiguous" (Schriften II, 313)-takes place even if the collector has made tradition itself his special field and carefully eliminated everything not recognized by it. Against tradition the collector pits the criterion of genuineness; to the authoritative he opposes the sign of origin. To express this way of thinking in theoretical terms: he replaces content with pure originality or authenticity, something that only French Existentialism established as a quality per se detached from all specific characteristics. If one carries this way of thinking to its logical conclusion, the result is a strange inversion of the original collector's drive: "The genuine picture may be old, but the genuine thought is new. It is of the present. This present may be meager, granted. But no matter what it is like, one must firmly take it by the horns to be able to consult the past. It is the bull whose blood must fill the pit if the shades of the departed are to appear at its edge" (Schriften II, 3 (4)' Out of this present when it has been sacrificed for the invocation of the past arises then "the deadly impact of thought" which is directed against tradition and the authority of the past. Thus the heir and preserver unexpectedly turns into a destroyer. "The true, greatly misunderstood passion of the collector is always anarchistic, destructive. For this is its dialectics: to combine with loyalty to an object, to individual items, to things sheltered in his care, a 5mb born subversive protest against the typical, the classifiable."

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Summaries of events that the exhibits of Trust led to ď&#x192;

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â&#x2013; Artist talks / A dialogue on Cultural Production | Presentations [6 & 7 June 2014]

Artists speak about their work: What do they do and how do they think about it? How do they produce their work? During the two days of the Talks, the following artists presented their work and rationale: poet Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke, choreographer Tzeni Argiriou, theater director Giorgos Zambulakis, photo-journalist Maro Kuri, visual artist Stavros Bonatsos and architect Elias Papageorgiou.

[Artist Talks / Day 1]

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[Artist Talks / Day 1] 120

[Artist Talks / Day 2]

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â&#x2013; Biennale, a discussion / Mediation | Discussion [October 29] Art historians Nickos Daskalothanasis, Evi Baniotopoulou and Alexander Teneketzis discuss biannuals and other major periodic exhibitions, with reference to their politics and economy. How are these major artistic events produced? What is their role as institutions in contemporary art and how do curators and artists function within them? Why did the participating artists in the Biennale of Sydney and of Sao Paulo react? With references to the context and symbolism of cases such as the Biennale of Venice and of Gwangju, the Kassel Documenta and the Thessaloniki Biennale, the discussion focused on the relationship between

politics

and

aesthetics

the

environment

major institutional artistic events.

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â&#x2013; City & the Dough / Part I | Discussion [October 8] Architect Dimitra Siatitsa from "Î&#x2022;ncounter Î&#x2018;thens" group, urban planner and writer Panos Totsikas and economist Elias Ioakimoglou, discussed the transformations of the modern city. In the case of Athens, who's interviening and how? Which initiatives appear to be initiated by collectives and residents and which are verified as such? What does the "City of Capital" mean and how do we go from the "City as Commodity" to the "City of Solidarity"? An overview and decoding of the changes currently in progress in the city, as well as an interpretation of these changes as political phenomena.

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■ City & the Dough, Part II / Camilo Vergara in Athens | Presentation [October 24, 2014]

In collaboration with the group Εncounter Αthens, the ChileanAmerican photographer and documentarian Camilo Vergara was introduced

anthropologist

Costas

Gounis

(University

Crete). Vergara presented pictures he shot in the USA and Germany, and discussed the city as a field of destruction and desire, with references to ghettoization (New American Ghetto, 1995), destruction (American Ruins, 1999), gentrification (Harlem: The Unmaking of a Ghetto, 2013) and "new urban ruins", as in the case of Detroit.

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â&#x2013; Family as an ideological mechanism | Discussion [October 22] What is family and what is its role in the construction, control and reproduction of identity? How does it stabilize social power relations? And how are families changing today in crisi-stricken Greece? Historian-researcher Gianna Katsiampoura, University professor Makis Spathis and film director George Georgopoulos approach the issue from an economic, political and artistic perspective, with references to the Greek history of feminism, the passing from the family to educational structures and how it is dealt with in cinema.

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■ Public space & demonstration / The protesting body | Discussion [29th May 2014]

Discussion on the control mechanisms applied on the body and the use of public space by crowds and police during demonstrationsprotests. Speakers: Nickos Kazeros – Architect, Nelli Kamburi & Pavlos Hatzopoulos – Social Scientists /Gender Studies Dept. at Pantion University, Dimitris Katsoridas – associate at the Greek Workers Union and Michalis Paparounis – director at Futura editions.

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■ Linda, prima vista | Participatory performance [November 10 2014] A collective performance of an interview transcript. "Linda is leaving. On the eve of her departure, she talks* about her past and future, borders, love, racism, money, dreams, children, art, life. We find out who Linda is, as we read her words together, giving her voice." (*Talking with Linda, an Albanian immigrant talks about her life, edited by Helen Syrigou-Rigou, ed. Open Borders)

The space was divided by a piece of fabric. Behind it, a table, a chair and a light; on the table was the transcript of Linda's interview. The readers of the text alternated, as audience members read as much as each wanted, prima vista. The spectators' chairs were on the other side of the fabric, so only the magnified shadow of the readers could be seen by the viewers, offering an encouraging anonymity to those who read and unifying them visually (shadow as costume). Every pause called for a decision in real time about whether the story would continue or not. Every new reader who took a seat behind the curtain, decided it would. [Watch the first part.] A note on the concept of Audience: While in many European languages the word for “audience” comes from the Latin audio (hear), and the performance refers to what one sees (spettacolo in Italian), in Greek the word for audience is “κοινό” which also means “common” or “shared”. The audience in Greek is not merely a group in public space (Publikum in German) and the emphasis is not on what you see ( a show) or hear as audience (audienca in Albanian), but somewhere else: on an act of participation, of sharing.

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Book Reports: Pick a Ghost and be its Passport A day when ideas become viral and thrills become contagious. Responding to an Open Call, Athenians pick and present a book that ‘haunts’ them, sharing ideas that they consider relevant here and now.

■ Book Reports #1 |Presentations [June 13th 2014] In Book Reports #1 the following books were presented: “The tight shoes” by Georges Sari, presented by linguist Kanela Pouli, “Ping-pong: Sizzling chops and devilish spins” by Jerome Charyn, presented by George Katsikatsos, mechanic with studies in philosophy, and Platos’ “Seventh Letter”, presented by artist Alexandros Mistrotis. ■ Book Reports #2 |Presentations [October 1st 2014] In Book Reports #2 were presented: Yannis Adoniades' “Chess and Literature” presented by journalist Kosmas Kefalos, Georg Büchner's “Lenz” as well as some of his letters, unpublished in Greek (translated by Maria Roussou) presented by actress Eftihia Kiourtidou, Friedrich Nietzsche’s “Antichrist”, presented by visual artist Dimitris Halatsis, and "End Pit" by Alina Popa, Irina Gheorghe, Stefan Tiron, Claudiu Cobilanschi, Florin Flueras, Ion Dumitrescu (The Beauro of Melodramatic Research, PradisGaraj, Postspectacle) presented by Eugenia Tzirtzilaki. ■ Book Reports #3 |Presentations [April 5th, 2015] In Book Reports #3 the following books were presented: Jack Ketchum's "The girl next door" presented by Pepi Daniel, and Sergio Tischler's “Time and emancipation - Mikhail Bakhtin and Walter Benjamin in the Lacandon jungle” by sociologist Katerina Nasioka. 134

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All images by the L. Sacer Foundation, other than pics in pg132, kindly offered by Jordi NN

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Thanks The Libby Sacer Foundation would like to thank Thanos Vovolis for his valuable contribution towards the presentation of Trust and Jordi NN for his black & white photographs of Linda, prima vista. Also, our gratitude goes to Nikos Kazeros for his presence during the early stages of the process,

well

Fotini

Kapiris,

Dimitris

and

Giorgos

Georgakopoulos for their generosity in hosting Trust and the rest of Libby Sacer Foundation’s activities in 2014. Last but not least, our thanks go to the visual artists, performers, architects, writers and theorists who offered their enthusiasm, creative ideas and personal involvement to the project; without them, Trust would not have been possible.

Selected articles in the Greek press: Athens Voice * Αυγή * Το Περιοδικό * Το Σπίρτο * Αrt & LIfe * Click at Life *Lifo * 10percent * The R project * Left.gr * Φύλο Συκής * Athens Voice II * Το Περιοδικό ΙΙ 137

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