Parasite Art hopes to reawaken the parasite as a discourse. The term was more often discussed in the early 2000s, on different art platforms such as Kunstforum International (Germany), the P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, or Michael Rakowitz’s “paraSITE” intervention in New York. Recently, the idea seems to reappear in different places around the world, like in Quito, Zagreb and Berlin, creating new momentum for this publication.
We are pleased to present the second issue of Parasite Art. The magazine was founded to investigate the emergence of a new form of art that follows the strategy and practice of parasitism. Parasite Art expands into a variety of fields and uses a range of strategies. With Issue 2, we propose to continue a journey of new discourse and exploration on this subject.
Issue 2
Editors Note:
Still Parasiting
(but ever closer
to appropriation)
The second issue of Parasite Art deepens the ref- lection begun in the first issue…
„Du nennst das Kollektiv,
ich nenne es Standards”
Ich habe mit Van Bo Le-Mentzel in seinem Tiny house “Pick-up” gesprochen. Er ist einer…
Das Parasitäre in der Pandemie
Die asymmetrische Gastfreundschaft scheint an ihr vorläufiges Ende gelangt zu sein: Unter der nunmehr zweijährigen…
Die Genealogie
eines Begriffs.
Der Parasit auf Weiterreise
Parasit, Schmarotzer, Schädling – unsere Vorstellungen vom Parasiten sind meist mit Ekel und Abschaum besetzt…
Neoliberal dreamlands?
Punks and parasites
When I free-associate the term ‘parasite,’ my youth comes to my mind and with it…
Der Parasit und seine biologische Funktion.
Ich habe mit Linda Galle gesprochen, Biologin und Kuratorin der Ausstellung “Parasites – life undercover”…
Casa Parásito
Casa parásito (“Parasitic house” or “parasite house”) is a minimal design object meant to be…
Thinking Through Metaphors:
The Parasitic Observation
1. Thinking Through Metaphors Everything can be observed as a parasite1: arts parasitising on the…
Urban Niches –
a parasite reclaims public space
In October 2022 the artistic intervention Parasite Parking reclaimed public space through activation and habitation.…
Parking and
subjectivity.
Notes on Parasite Parking towards a symbiotic public
Is urban infrastructure made by autonomous individual subjects for autonomous individual subjects? Was it ever…
The parasite paradox:
Collectivity and the Niche
In biology, a parasite is an organism that lives on and depends on another. The…
The Parasite:
Coping as Troublemaking.
Michael Rakowitz is a US American-Iraqi artist who gained recognition for his project “paraSITE” in…
My Own Dummy
Sitting On My Own Knee
There is a kind of artistic freedom in dying without ever having an audience for…
Which Parasite?
Parasite Parking was presented in conjunction with RAISIN, an exhibition curated by Asha Iman Veal…
Visiting Open Sheds:
Preliminary Thoughts
Open Sheds Used for What? The phrase is drawn from the journal of a mining…
Tonia Andresen
is an art historian and a research assistant in the DFG project „Cleaning, Cooking, Caring. Care Work in the Arts in Western and Eastern Europe, the USA and Latin America since 1960“ at the University of Bochum. In this context, she writes her PhD on global labor relations and care in Latin American art since the 1980s. She has realised several exhibition projects in Hamburg and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, and is particularly interested in artistic practices that address global inequalities, labor, gender and queernes.
Martin Bartelmus, Dr.
is a Postdoctoral Scholar of German Literary, Media, and Cultural Theory at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. His research topics are French Theory, Object-Oriented Ontology, Animal and Plant Studies as well as materiality and mediality of writing.
Felix Maximilian Bathon
studied sociology, politics and economics and is doing a PhD on small group sociology while being interested in the practice of theory and theorizing (doing theory).
Jermel Clark
is an Associate at Mosaic Sales Solutions, where he is a brand ambassador. In 2020 he was a potential primary candidate for Illinois, U.S. Senate.
Sabine Fabo, Prof. Dr.
since 1998 professor of art studies in a medial context at the Department of Design at Aachen University of Applied Sciences. 1991 freelance research assistant at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen. 1991-1997 research assistant at the KHM Cologne. Main research interests are cultural aspects of consumer aesthetics, concepts of the Gesamtkunstwerk, and subversive artistic strategies (ed.: Parasitäre Strategien, Kunstforum International, vol. 185, 2007).
Linda Galle
is biologist and the exhibition curator of the Museum der Naturkunde of Berlin, where she works in the Education and Exhibition Department. She is part of the Research Program “Museum and Society” and constantly develops the concepts for temporary exhibitions and is their Project manager.
Thomas Mayer
is a Berlin based performer, musician and theatre-maker from the UK. He trained in Devised Physical Theatre at Arthaus.Berlin and now focuses primarily on the creation of embodied, multimedia live art. Thomas also dabbles in writing and visual art, with a particular love for collage and word play.
Van Bo Le-Mentzel
is an architect, author („The Little Professor“, 2016, Ecowin) and filmmaker from Berlin. Among other things, he is the initiator of several initiatives between design and social participation. Well-known projects are Hartz IV Furniture (2010), One Sqm House (2013), Karma Chakhs (2013), Tinyhouse University (2015) and the Co-Being House. His furniture and Tiny Houses have been exhibited internationally and have found their way into the collection of various museums (Vitra and others).
Maire Witt O‘Neill, Prof.
is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago crisscrossing disciplines such as performance, video, sculpture, installation, writing, directing, education. O’Neill received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is currently a lecturer at SAIC and the Director of the Theater program at Music House Chicago. O’Neill’s work revels within a collision course of vernacular entertainment and performance, voice, philosophy, television, and goofy games of conceptual twister.
Michael Rakowitz
is an Iraqi-American artist working at the intersection of problem-solving and troublemaking. His work has appeared in venues worldwide including dOCUMENTA (13), P.S.1, MoMA, MassMOCA, Castello di Rivoli Museo d!Arte Contemporanea, Palais de Tokyo, the 16th Biennale of Sydney, the 10th and 14th Istanbul Biennials, Sharjah Biennial 8, Tirana Biennale, National Design Triennial at the Cooper-Hewitt, Transmediale 05,FRONT Triennial in Cleveland, and CURRENT:LA Public Art Triennial.
Marina Resende Santos
is an artist and researcher based in Berlin. She studied comparative literature at the University of Chicago and is completing the MA Spatial Strategies at the weißensee kunsthochschule berlin. She has served as the editor of Lumpen Magazine in Chicago and is a co-founder of the artist-run space Make-up in Berlin. Her work deals with issues of technology and ecology in the urban space. Her work has been shown in Chicago, Los Angeles, Vienna, Berlin, Salzburg and Apolda. She has taught at the Bauhaus University in Weimar and weißensee in Berlin.
Cecílía Resende Santos
is a researcher and occasional artist and writer interested in the social and environmental history of the built environment. With her twin sister and main collaborator Marina, she started Open Sheds Used for What? in Chicago in 2020. She holds a B.A. in art history from the University of Chicago and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Art History at Columbia University in New York.
Alexander Sacharow
is a research associate working on economic policy and finance. His areas of speciality are housing, taxation, public finance as well as foreign policy. He studied public policy, economics and philosophy.
El Sindicato
declares: ,“A ‘Sindicato‘, in the dictionary definition is an ‘x‘ number of persons united in defense and for the promotion of their laboral interests. That is what we are, a union of workers that uses architecture to do the things they like the most in and outside the profession. Composed by María Reinoso, Xavier Duque and Nicolás Viteri, we are currently working in architectural and furniture design, construction, construction management and administration, and developing cultural, artistic and educational projects, this almost always within a personal project or pursue. So our practice is as varied as different are the members of our team. Architecture is not our life, but is a really useful tool for it.“
Tricia Van Eck
directs 6108|North, an experimental cultural space that challenges what art is, whom it’s for, and where and how it is created. Named after its dilapidated mansion’s address in Chicago, 6018North is also itinerant. Previously Van Eck worked 13 years as a MCA Chicago curator organizing more than 70 exhibitions and programs including Chicago artists Kerry James Marshall’s and Theaster Gates’ first solo museum exhibitions, Tino Sehgal’s Kiss, and Mark Bradford’s residency and exhibition.
Jakob Wirth
is an artist, activist and sociologist, who’s focus of work is the public space. He chooses his artistic language processual and according to the context and topic he is working with. It expands from Performance Art, Video, Social Practice and direct Guerilla Interventions. His main interest is to intertwine the artistic field with politics and “everyday realities”, by hijacking unknown systems and challenging the borders of norms. He holds a Master in Spacial Strategies as well as in Public Art and a BA in Sociology.
Parasite
unknown.
- joe fullview
- hmd-1
- arasSITE, Michael Rakowitz, New York, 1998- ongoing. Image ©Michael Rakowitz.
- Screen Shot 2022-02-26 at 13.33.46
- Screen Shot 2022-02-26 at 12.47.06
- IMG_1914
- ick-up house, 2,5 m2, ©Van Bo Le-Mentzel
- Ruhender Verkerh, Wolf Vostell, 196
- Sup- ported by Mikle a neighboor: Parasite Parking pilled up on a pick-up, being transported from the Magnificent Mile to Down- town Chicago.
- © Hwa Ja Götz, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
- Casa Parásito, El Sindicato Arquitectura, Quito, Equador. © Andrés Villota
- Tazro Niscino, Es will mir nicht aus dem Sinn, Hohenzoll- ernbrücke Köln 2005, Foto: Sabine Fabo, Parasitäre Strate- gien, Kunstforum International, Bd. 185, Mai-Juni 2007, S. 153.
- 20200701_Graham Livingtson-molt_MRS
- © Hwa Ja Götz, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin