A Gestural History of the Young Worker, Condition report
Werker Collective
15 April 2023

Public Event: 16:00-19:00

For the first public event of the Public Research Residency II with Werker Collective, Looiersgracht 60 is pleased to invite you to join us for A Gestural History of the Young Worker, Condition report (2023). On April 15 Werker, together with Kyrgyzstani LGBTQ+ activist and curator Georgy Mamedov, will present this installation which revisits the 2019 work, A Gestural History of the Young Worker (2019). The initial installation was developed by Werker and Mamedov as a collaboration in Yekaterinburg, Russia for the 5th Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art. The work consisted of a series of archival images built into a free-standing framework taking a critical look at the visualization and representation of the body of the labourer, interrogating the normative glorification of the worker’s body, and the associated oppression of non-normative bodies.

While nearly four years has passed since the first presentation of the work, the political climate around the topic of representation of non-heteronormative bodies in that context has been even further exacerbated. Werker and Mamedov’s work has already been subject to numerous acts of censorship, informing them to recreate the work again in a fuller context. A Gestural History of the Young Worker, Condition report (2023) is an installation that displays the unassembled elements of the original installation from 2019 on the floor of Looiersgracht 60, a space laden with a rich history as a factory and printing plant itself. The separate elements of the installation reference the act and formation of a condition report, a process undertaken after each exhibition or transport of an object into a new space. The installation will be accompanied by a new sound installation between Werker and Georgy Mamedov that is based on transcribed conversations surrounding experiences as queer workers under challenging conditions, specifically those that contributed to the exhibition of this work from 2019-2022. During the public event visitors will be invited to experience and engage with the installation and sound work.

'A Gestural History of the Young Worker, Condition report' with Werker Collective will take place on Saturday April 15, 2023 from 16:00-19:00 at Looiersgracht 60. Please email us at info@looiersgracht60.org with any questions or to reserve a seat.