Draftsmen\'s Congress, Paweł Althamer
Venue: St. Elisabeth Church
The Draftsmen’s Congress is a continuous meeting of people who communicate using images instead of words. Everyone is invited to join the discussion through paint, charcoal, collage, and other traditional materials and techniques, and react to issues like current politics, symbols of power, religion, economic disasters, and so on. Not happy with what other people paint? Use a pencil or pen to cover their images or draw your comments next to them. Paweł Althamer incites a conversation and asks us to have an honest talk. Be polite or politically incorrect, frustrated or outraged, and fight others in an image battle. Picture your love, your hate, your opinions and demands. Spit out the truth and speak out.
The congress took place in St. Elisabeth Church in Berlin-Mitte, which is used for both religious rites and cultural events. It has the spirit of a temple; an atmosphere for the calm exchange of thoughts—but also for a noisy quarrel. The walls and the floor of the church, covered by a white surface, are a background for images and can be totally marked by the visitors. Many Berlin-based artists, architects, and other professionals who use drawings in their work accepted our invitation to participate in the congress. Non-professional draftsmen are also involved.
In this project, authorship, hierarchies of expertise, and qualifications are blurred into an enterprise of illustrating excess, which is free and open to all. A series of workshops furthermore bring together different social groups with clashing interests, beliefs, or opposing views who are encouraged to communicate in a non-verbal way. The use of visual language is democratized in a mass conversation that only looks like an exhibition.
Paweł Althamer is an artist who creates social sculptures. He lives and works in Warsaw.
