Terms: exploitation of hidden motivation, affective labour, outsourcing, social choreography, spontaneous grassroots alternative, path stop, places of transparency, rhythm
“In fact, that is the meaning of the ruble, the ruble is in itself nothing other than a little piece of laziness.”
Laziness—The Real Truth about Mankind, 1921
Kazimir Malevich
“In this project, I would like to rethink the logic of the relationship between work and earnings, the functions of money in the society, and the labor economy in general. I draw attention to people who, through various reasons, have found themselves in a very difficult economic and social situation; people who use a public space, as the main place for labor and earning money. This way of work might be a choice, but it is often made out of desperation, particularly within the lower registers of economic mobility.
I created five situations with five different people. Each of them has its own specific type of work: someone sells drugs, someone is involved in sex work, someone played a musical instrument, someone worked as an actor, and someone sells flowers. All these people are not residents of Switzerland, and all of them are forced to do this specific job in order to survive. I offered to each participant a small fee (20–50 CHF) for a physical rest from labor for 5-10 minutes. In other words, I paid them for their working time, but asked to use this time to care for themselves. All these situations were documented in the video.“
