Werker Collective
Werker (2009, Amsterdam) focuses on labour and was initiated by Marc Roig Blesa (1981, Madrid) and Rogier Delfos (1981, Amsterdam) in its home of Amsterdam. It began with the release of ten issues of Werker Magazine inspired by Der Vereinigung der Arbeiter-Fotografen (the association of worker photographers), whose politicised photo clubs in 1920s Germany followed the first socialist photography experiments in the USSR. Under the signature Werker Collective, for the last ten years Werker has been activating workshops based on self-representation, self-publishing, image analysis, collaborative education processes and counter-archiving to expand self-publishing into moving image, installation and performance. Their international allies, from researchers to schools to archives, explore feminism, queerness and collective authorship, inquire into worker’s solidarity and have included: Ariella Aïsha Azoulay; Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons, Utrecht; Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid; Ciudadan@s en Defensa de la Escuela Pública, Móstoles; Dutch Art Institute, Arnhem; Georgy Mamedov; International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam; Jo Spence Memorial Archive, London; Juan Carlos Mohr; Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga; Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona; Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam; Sindillar: Sindicato de Trabajadoras del Hogar y los Cuidados, Barcelona; Sonsbeek 20–24: Force, Times, Distance, Arnhem; Susoespai: Creació i Salut Mental, Barcelona; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; The Showroom, London; The Voice of Domestic Workers, London; and We Sell Reality, Amsterdam.
further reading:
yes with us, never about us: art/workers, solidarity and privilege. collectively, iaspis stockholm 2021.
imaging dissent: towards becoming a common subject. art & education classroom, e-flux january 2020.
Werker@DAI:
2022 Kitchen respondents in Arnhem