ANTWERP.- Superhost 2022, the second edition of the series at M HKA, is a project by Falke Pisano titled Where Should We Begin? It consists of a site-specific installation, displays of artworks by Falke Pisano and invited artists, performative works, lectures, screenings, interviews and workshops conducted by the host and her guests throughout the year.

Where Should We Begin? is a sustained, multi-layered (practical, conversational and artistic) research into labour conditions in the field of art, with a specific focus on the labour involved in public programming in art institutions. Situated within the museum, this research aims at collapsing discursive ideals and material realities to discover how different practitioners carve out a space for imagination and desire as they consciously negotiate the conditions in which they work.

Superhost curators asked Falke Pisano how she understands the notion of labour.

“In this project I am trying to understand better what shapes the work we do. When we develop and produce public events or exhibitions, what are the forces at play that shape what we do and the decisions we make? We give value to the things we find important, but we also work in a system that gives (often different) value to similar things. What is the friction there and how do we deal with it? And another question is: How to not internalise and individualise the things that are not working in this system of production? How can we share experiences that are related to the working conditions? To me, in the end it is about risk: How do we collectivise risk? We are all taking risks all the time, and we try to keep a lot of these risks private.”

Falke Pisano’s work

The artist states: “I am interested in how we come to know the world, how we develop the capacity to look at this world critically, to be able to tolerate more and more complexity, and to adjust our worldview (and self-image) again and again. I am interested in how, by constantly thinking and speculating about our position and capacity to act within this world, we can slowly develop methods, interventions and forms of organisation that go beyond merely aesthetic and representational proposals, but still carry the power of the imagination and in which it remains possible to connect in unexpected, or in non-optimised functional ways, different modes of thinking (theoretical, poetic and practical) and acting (imagining, articulating, moving, organising, making, doing).”

Curated by Anne-Claire Schmitz and Joanna Zielińska

Superhost is a programme that invests in a year-long relationship between an artist or a collective practice, the museum and its participating communities, and supports the production of artworks, performative or discursive creations.