ARCHIVE OF THE MEETINGS HELD IN BERLIN FROM SEPTEMBER 2018 TO JUNE 2019
1st meeting: artists' oppression. Definition of creativity, external and internalized oppression, artists' commitment to honor being an artist
led by Diana Sirianni & Naama Ityel
2nd meeting: artists' internalized oppression (competition, the “good artist”, self-exploitment, isolation, invalidation of self and others)
led by Diana Sirianni & Naama Ityel
3rd meeting: appreciation of yourself and others (through verbal and embodied exercises)
led by Diana Sirianni & Naama Ityel
4th meeting: what is success? Your values as an artist. Writing your artist's manifesto and sharing
led by Diana Sirianni & Naama Ityel
5th meeting: the role of criticism, support your art project, getting support instead of critique
led by Diana Sirianni & Naama Ityel
6th meeting: art & activism
led by Diana Sirianni & Erin Christine Bell
7th meeting: art & activism
led by Diana Sirianni & Naama Ityel
8th meeting: jealousy & competition
led by Pauline Payen & Diana Sirianni
9th meeting: nature & environment
led by Saman Pourisa & Diana Sirianni
10th meeting: creativity and play, how to generate new material
led by Vanessa Thüring
11th meeting: how to stand in the spotlight while feeling insecure
led by Helena Hentschel
12th meeting: conversation as an aesthetic experience
led by Pedro Risse
13th meeting: financial precariousness in the art
led by Elena Mazzi & Diana Sirianni at ZK/U - Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik
14th meeting: reconnecting to your motivation for making art
led by Maayan Dannoch
led by Monica Gentile & Michael McDermott
16th meeting: making a decision and committing to it
led by Naama Ityel
ARTIST SUPPORT GROUP FOR BERLIN BASED ARTISTS (OPEN TO EVERYBODY*)
The Artists' Support Group has been a great process that lasted almost one year between September 2018 and June 2019, with 16 meetings and about hundred international artists participating. We are thankful to all who took part to it. It allowed us to create a connection with many beautiful artists and re-align ourselves with our artistic path. We might continue the group in the future. For the moment we decided to focus on our art production and integrate in it the informations and discoveries we have gathered in the artists' support goup.
WHAT IS THE ARTISTS' SUPPORT GROUP?
Structure
It is a meeting that took place every two weeks in a collective dance studio in Berlin Neukölln. It was open to every person who has creativity in the center of their life or wants to have it, whether if they earn money with it or not. We used different tools such discussion, biographic work, practices of embodiment and games.
Every artist could lead a meeting on a topic that was relevant for them; the collective supported their preparation and took care of the opening and the closing round. This included for the leader 1) to get some time in front of the group to share what was nice and challenging in their preparation and feeling the support of the group; 2) at the end to receive an appreciation from each participant for their leadership.
Our aim
Our goal was to raise awareness among artists about structural issues, to bring private and public closer and generate support and courage, to remind each other our motivation of being artists and face together the challenges connected to it. In our society it is hard to be an artist and we develop an inner voice that makes us isolated, judgemental, competitive, overproductive and very serious. In the group we shared practices for shifting these patters based on solidarity and appreciation and empower each other against the oppression we experience outside and reproduces inside.
It was important for us that the knowledge we create and share together was embodied, that the meetings created an experience which is not only intellectual but also emotional and transformative.
