Common Ground. HOTEL GELEM partizipatives Kunstprojekt – kollektive Prozesse und eigene Praxen im Prekären

Abstract

Common Ground. The participatory Art project HOTEL GELEM – collective processes and own practices in precarious living conditions

Due to the culture capitalistic principle, artistic, creative work no longer brings a position of personal independence or a development of critical faculties. Creative capabilities are nowadays a general skill that matters for all different kinds of occupations. At the same time, the success of every creative undertaking is reduced to its commercial success. Art could do more. The project HOTEL GELEM leads us to a fundamental understanding how the given preconditions and the social expectations shape our specific opportunities for participation and expression. Many Roma families suffer from expulsion and exclusion, and try to survive in the outmost precarious living conditions on the fringes of our society. Together with these families, HOTEL GELEM attempts to break the dreadful vicious circle of stigmatization and poverty. The potential of the artistic practice lays in the possibility of overcoming predetermined views.