Brick Bohemians: A Community 

Derrick Ryan Claude Mitchell

Saint Genet 

Director

ryan@saintgenet.org

“Anything important has to be almost invisible. And underrated.” -Agnes Denes

“When Emperor Franz Joseph ordered the construction of the Ringstrasse boulevard, a building boom began in Vienna. Architects were commissioned to provide plans for buildings; and to carry out the construction project an army of workers was required. Just for one other major project, the construction of the Arsenal complex, one million bricks were necessary, and these were specially produced in the Wienerberg brickworks.

‘Brick Bohemians’ was the nickname given to the workers from Bohemia and Moravia in the Wienerberg brickworks in the south of Vienna. Although they regarded themselves as being among the more fortunate workers, their working and living conditions were unimaginably dreadful.”

This Laboratory will continue with the themes of exhaustion, intervention, action, activity, and labor as they relate to Representation, Substantive Transformation, Time, and performance at the “vanishing point”. The ‘Brick Bohemians’ will perform processions between Die Angewandte and Winerburg, mine clay on the hallowed grounds where our Bohemian forebears toiled, fought, and perished, and create 3000 bricks of exact historic dimensions (in homage to the 3000 indentured servants “accommodated” in mass living quarters), and present these objects as artifacts in a yet unknown form. https://www.ziegel.at/information/geschichte/wiener-ziegelmuseum

This transparent process of action, accumulation, and transformation will be in dialogue with the manifesto of Hungarian Artist  Agnes Denes and be elastic and responsive in its methodology to allow for the most diverse inclusion of as many participants as possible ascribing to the communist ideal of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”. 

This Lab will be hosted in Computer Lab 327.  The first meeting and statement of purpose will be held on October 16th at 4pm. Further information will be provided  at the APL Roundtable on October 23rd. 

This Lab will have an open time schedule, and procession times from Angewandte will be posted on the wall of Computer Lab 327. This lab will also include 5pm meetings each Friday beginning October 16th to discuss process, methodology, and desired outcomes. For further information please contact ryan@saintgenet.org 

KKP Lab

Dilection and action bases examination

This lab will have a home in Computer Lab 327, as well as processions to Winerberg.