MY CHOICE OF WORK MY RESISTANCE, 2023, clothing collection, performance, sound, text, presented as part of “Antimonument Extended” initiated by Shimpei Takedain Düsseldorf, Germany
MY CHOICE OF WORK MY RESISTANCE is a project by CRAFT (Oscar Cueto and Manuela Picallo Gil) that aims not only to remove a monument from its otherwise unquestioned presence in public space, but also to fill the gaps of unrealized monuments to women resistance fighters. The performance and action on the square was accompanied by the spatial intervention by Alejandra Baltazares and the sound installation by Navid Razavi, which is based on the sound of the resonating body of the sculpture “Bergischer Löwe”.
In recent years, there has been a growing demand for an active engagement with unwanted monuments in public spaces. The “Antimonument Extended” event in Düsseldorf addresses this desire and invited various artists and cultural practitioners to show and experience their positions in public spaces as well as in the Wild Palms gallery. The project is organized by Antimonument e.V., a non-profit organization based in Düsseldorf, which was founded in 2017 on the basis of Shinpei Takeda’s “Antimonument Manifesto” and sees itself as a platform for projects at the interface of art, memory and technology. “The debates about monuments today increasingly revolve around the question of who is represented by whom. Until now, the erection of monuments has usually not been preceded by democratic decision-making processes or citizen consultations […].
The CRAFT collective is responding to the invitation from the “Antimonument Extended” event to recontextualize monuments whose artists were described as “God-blessed” under National Socialism with an artistic practice based on intensive research that combines performance with monument activism and virtual reality. The performance and action on the square will be accompanied by Navid Razavi’s sound installation, which is based on the sound of the resonating body of the “Bergischer Löwe” sculpture. […] “My choice of work, my resistance” is a project that not only aims to remove a monument from its otherwise unquestioned presence in public space, but also to address the gaps in previously unrealized monuments to women resistance fighters.”
Ursula Maria Probst, August 2023