The Grand Domestic Revolution GOES ON ~ (GDR) is an ongoing ‘living research’ project initiated by (DAI's longstanding partner ) Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons as a multi-faceted exploration of the domestic sphere to imagine new forms of living and working in common. The Showroom in London presents an exhibition of contemporary and historical artworks and a diverse and growing reference library formed a base for workshops and events that developed the GDR further, while they forged connections and affinities with The Showroom’s ongoing programme of neighbourhood-based commissions Communal Knowledge.
Inspired by US late nineteenth-century ‘material feminist’ movements that experimented with communal solutions to isolated domestic life and work, the GDR saw artists, designers, domestic workers, architects, gardeners, activists and others collaboratively experiment with and re-articulate the domestic sphere, challenging traditional and contemporary divisions of private and public. ( See also DAI and Casco's 2019-2020 collaboration in COOP study group All About My Mother)
At The Showroom an exhibition of contemporary and historical artworks and a diverse and growing reference library formed a base for workshops and events that developed the GDR further, while they forged connections and affinities with The Showroom’s ongoing programme of neighbourhood-based commissions Communal Knowledge.
The Reading Room by Christian Nyampeta functioned as a solitary reading room where it was possible to read out loud in the library during The Grand Domestic Revolution GOES ON at The Showroom. The readings were recorded and stored.
The mobile Reading Room made a procession around the Church Street Neighbourhood. Selected extracts from the texts in the GDR Library were read aloud and recorded en-route, before returning to The Showroom, where informal readings and recordings continued. There was then an open invitation to select, compile and produce instant zines photocopied from books in the GDR Library. The ensuing zines and recordings generated further encounters and occasions.
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