The Other Lab

Mixing and Assembling
Exchange and co-creative processes are central when playing with others—siblings and friends. Some artists in the exhibition Siblings – Awesome & Annoying aim to dissolve the boundaries between art and life, connecting it with everyday experience. There are works that we can physically interact with, where participation is essential to the completeness of the artwork. Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica, for example, referred to the audience as “participants.” Clark describes the exchange between the viewer and her artwork as a dialogue between two living organisms.

The other lab on the second floor above the exhibition allows children and adults to engage in this kind of exchange, providing a platform for co-creative experiments. A diagonal—made up of easels positioned opposite each other—stretches across the room. The work shelf along the right-hand wall is filled with a wide variety of papers and adhesives. Tearing, gluing, cutting, scratching, leaving drawn marks—there are many ways to create new images here, individually but above all together.

Experiments build on the refined collage techniques of Jiří Kolář. How can old and new be connected? Printmaking techniques can expand the experience. At the same time, sound plays a role: everyday noises, speech, melodies, voices—what resonates within us and around us? And how can these sounds be assembled into a new piece? The goal is to recombine as many different elements as possible in collaboration.

Mona Jas