^{SALON OF OPEN SECRETS – MZ* BALTAZAR’S LAB}

Olivia Jaques, Patricia J. Reis, Lale Rodgarkia-Dara, Anna Watzinger and Stefanie Wuschitz

Kunstraum Pro Art 
Salzburg, Hallein
Opening:
14. September 19:00

Kaffee Kränzchen & Performance 
Olivia Jaques and Anna Watzinger

Sa, 17. September 11:00
Guided visit through the exhibition

Fr, 28. October  18:30
Finissage and artist talk

With special thanks to the following artists who collaborated with Mz* Baltazar’s Lab for this exhibition:

Catarina Reis
Erika Farina
Taguhi Torosyan

When gas, electricity or water are scarce,

the immense interdependence of human and non-human needs

becomes tangible. How does a company in Taiwan, a mine in Portugal,

a river in Indonesia, or a glacier in Antarctica relate to meeting

our daily needs?

On the other hand, which needs of these living entities did we neglect because we mistakenly treated them as dead matter and mere commodities?

Ultimately, how do we position ourselves towards their past, present and future? How can we recover materiality, critically, as a contribution to a sustainable ecosystem?

Our global commodity chains and their entanglements in complex patriarchal structures

are the starting point for the artistic investigations of the Salon:

How could not only coffee but also hardware be fairly manufactured and traded?

How can we strengthen our communities in order to be able to

negotiate our needs and conflicts differently than before?

What does it even mean to be part of a far-reaching network or a specific community?

Artists from the collective Mz* Baltazar’s Laboratory have been dealing with these questions for two years and present various speculative proposals in the “Salon of Open Secrets”.

The collective Mz* Baltazar’s Lab weaves a cooperative web of feminist Hackers.

They are committed to problematizing Technopolitical interdependencies and to the process of collective search for solutions. The collective is not only a method, but also the material of the artistic debate.

Forms of collective knowledge transfer that were believed to be outdated, such as a secret, a coffee party or a manual, are playfully reactivated.

To remember these outdated forms but also become aware of their colonial context can inspire generative resistance.

SALON OF OPEN SECRETS – MZ* BALTAZAR’S LAB