It has been a few months since the project ‘OnMaterials’ has picked up. As it has committed to suspend the life of materials that otherwise are thrown away or kept aside to rotten, the project's mantra sounds like a 3-words speech: collect-reuse-create.
It is commonly practiced to pile up materials in the corners of spaces till a ghostly energy overtakes the space and the materials. But how about from ignored and 'rusted' to overturn materials to efficient and meaningful'?
In my understanding, the 1st Step for ‘OnMaterials’ is to collect raw materials, like those that remain ignored. Proceeding to the 2nd step, a collaborative force of makers and designers may bring them back to life by assembling imaginative constructions.
Once the materials are processed and re-assembled, in step 3, they are offered so as to continue seizing life and purpose in the widely artistic community. At last, what was deprived from being gazed and efficiently used, it is ontologically restored through the process that ‘OnMaterials’ propelled. From "wasted" and "unwanted", materials become entities that are for (creative) use.
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On the 21st of April an event was launched at the art studio of ‘Kassandras’ in Metaxourgeion. Having a genuine interest for the significance of materials and their (conceptual) meaning, I harried to attend the promising event that 'OnMaterials' initiated. Unfortunately, I had missed the opportunity to participate in the workshops that had taken place the previous days, and which were tailored on how to reuse unwanted materials, in order to create objects out of them.
At the event, despite from a performative feast with experimental sounds, an auction was staged - but not the kind of one we are used to! This was an occasion for offering valuable skills in exchange of the newly produced objects that were created during the workshops. For instance, in exchange of the recently manufactured designs, attendants bid with cooking sessions, photographic documentations and writing a text for the merits of 'OnMaterials'.
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Taking some time to talk to the members of the project, the layers of reusing unwanted items were unwrapped. First and foremost, by the time 'OnMaterials' regarded to use the objects that had been left to lay in corners, they observed how the beholders reconsidered their value. Suddenly, it became apparent that their ontology (tentatively) tilted towards being a preeminent object rather than a 'spoil' or else a ghost, since their utility was within the realms of possibility, once again.
Surprisingly enough, the dilemma of being an object or a non-object; cha scrap vanished. The backbone of the market economy could frame the occasion, as being in 'demand', the objects were considered 'valid' and valuable. Furthermore, by undertaking the task to transform them, like in Kassandras, they were attributed a surplus of worth. The maneuvering by the artists and the time invested for their metamorphosis added ‘worth’ to the currently useful, but once unwanted materials.
However, what seemed to compel competitiveness -as it is happening within the market economy, was bounced by inspiration and awareness. From the very start the mission was to transform a problem creativly: 'how from ignored and 'rusted' materials to overturn them into efficient and meaningful'.
Standing within the crowd, I observed how a system of exchange was reinvented and actually it focused on “intangible” benefits, such as volunteerism, creativity and ideas. Saying that I recalled the social worth of creative projects, like ‘OnMaterials'’ and more precisely I was alluded to the positive consequences of "the third sector", whereby people benevolently contribute to convert communities.
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At the event, while attendants and contributors were happily interacting, not only the materials were cherished and handled, but for the most part individuals actively exchanged knowledge and traded skills. All in all, it felt like creativity was holding hands with understanding and the 2 attributes were encouraging visceral- positive actions to take place in the near future.
What I keep alive in my memory is that on the 21st of April I threw myself into a festal auction. The spirit held was somewhere between a children’s game and a group performance, during which individuals practiced actions that bear value.
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"The third sector, ... is now being described as the social commons where people generate the goodwill that allows society to coherre as a cultural entity". ('Why Cities, Museums and Soft Power’ museum, vol 94, 2015)
‘Why Cities, Museums and Soft Power’ museum, vol 94, 2015
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