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.

Parasite Art, Issue 2, p. 5

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

The second issue of Parasite Art deepens the ref- lection begun in the first issue…

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1. Thinking Through Metaphors Everything can be observed as a parasite1: arts parasitising on the…

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In October 2022 the artistic intervention Parasite Parking reclaimed public space through activation and habitation.…

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Is urban infrastructure made by autonomous individual subjects for autonomous individual subjects? Was it ever…

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In biology, a parasite is an organism that lives on and depends on another. The…

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Michael Rakowitz is a US American-Iraqi artist who gained recognition for his project “paraSITE” in…

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There is a kind of artistic freedom in dying without ever having an audience for…

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Parasite Parking was presented in conjunction with RAISIN, an exhibition curated by Asha Iman Veal…

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Open Sheds Used for What? The phrase is drawn from the journal of a mining…

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Ich habe mit Van Bo Le-Mentzel in seinem Tiny house “Pick-up” gesprochen. Er ist einer…

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Die asymmetrische Gastfreundschaft scheint an ihr vorläufiges Ende gelangt zu sein: Unter der nunmehr zweijährigen…

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Parasit, Schmarotzer, Schädling – unsere Vorstellungen vom Parasiten sind meist mit Ekel und Abschaum besetzt…

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When I free-associate the term ‘parasite,’ my youth comes to my mind and with it…

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Ich habe mit Linda Galle gesprochen, Biologin und Kuratorin der Ausstellung “Parasites – life undercover”…

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Casa parásito (“Parasitic house” or “parasite house”) is a minimal design object meant to be…

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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.

Imprint

Issue 2 Parasite Art – gnawing towards collectivity (Spring '22)

Editor in Chief

Design and Layout

Photography

Jakob Wirth, Alexander Sacharow, Vivi D`Angelo,
Max Emrich, Eno Schleicher

Design Advisor

Zora Hünermann

Web Design

English/german Edit

Marina Resende Santos, Thomas Mayer, Vincent Brière, Ulrike Distler, Indra Küster.

financed by

Museumsverbund Worpswede and Jakob Wirth

Special thanks to

A big thank you to all the contributers for participating in this research and contributing with articles. And I am especially very greatful about Marina Resende Santos work, which was elemetal for realizing this magazine. Thanks for all the work, effort and thoughts and the inspireing conversaitons. And my thanks to Alexander Sacharow, which was my best collaborator during the artistic work of Parasite Parking in Chicago! He is a great thinker and artist and friend.