The Grand Domestic Revolution Goes On

The Grand Domestic Revolution (GDR) is an ongoing ‘living research’ project initiated by Casco, Office for Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht as a multi-faceted exploration of the domestic sphere.

Inspired by US late nineteenth-century ‘material feminist’ movements that experimented with communal solutions to domestic life and work in order to connect it to the public domain. The GDR involves artists, designers, writers, researchers, activists, domestic workers and others in collaboratively experimenting with and re-articulating the domestic sphere, and exercising notions of the social, the public and the commons.

At The Showroom an exhibition of contemporary and historical artworks and a diverse and growing reference library will form a base for workshops and events that will develop the GDR further. Exhibited works employ a wide range of methodologies to playfully problematise domestic issues and questions of labour, and range from the satirical to social critique and activist actions. These include Pauline Boudry and Renata Lorenz’s housewives’ manifesto Charming for the Revolution; Rehana Zaman’s Like an Iron Maiden Trapped Between a Rock and Hard Place; GDR’s cooperatively produced sitcom, Our Autonomous Life?; and two works produced by GDR in collaboration with domestic workers in the Netherlands: Matthijs de Bruijne’s I will not ask anything about you, you will not ask anything about me, and public cleaning actions by the artist/domestic worker collective ASK! (Actie Schone Kunsten).

Connections and affinities will be forged between the GDR and The Showroom’s ongoing programme of neighbourhood-based commissions - Communal Knowledge - linking the project to issues at stake in the Church Street neighbourhood through workshops and events, and a new video work by artist Joseph Williams, a member of the homeless artist collective Seymour Arts.

The Grand Domestic Revolution Goes On is realised in the framework of COHAB, a two-year project initiated by The Showroom, Casco - Office for Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht and Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm, supported by a Cooperation Measures grant from the European Commission Culture 2007-2013 Programme. The Grand Domestic Revolution Goes On has been additionally supported by: Arts Council England, Outset Contemporary Art Fund, as The Showroom’s Production Partner 2012, and The Showroom Supporters Scheme. Communal Knowledge is generously supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and John Lyon’s Charity.

The Grand Domestic Revolution Goes On

Künstler: AND Publishing , Andrea Francke, ASK!  (Actie Schone Kunsten), Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad, Cinenova , Domestic Workers Netherlands  & Matthijs de Bruijne, Helke Sander, Joseph Williams, kleines postfordistisches Drama , Our Autonomous Life , Pauline Boudry / Renate Lorenz, Read-in , Rehana Zaman