hanare×SocailKitchen

- Survivla project website (Japanese ONLY)

- e-flux article on the Social Kitchen's survival

 

Guest: Vera Mey (Assistant Director of ST PAUL St Gallery, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand), Sara Krajewski (Director of The Institute of Visual Arts / INOVA, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA), and many more!

 

- Responses to the e-flux email.

---------------------------------------------------

Dear Social Kitchen and Hanare Project,

I just wanted you to know that I'm really impressed with your project, which I discovered via email.  I'm in Los Angeles, so as much as I'd like to, I won't be dropping by, though I wish I could. 

 

I've listed you on AMP's page of Centers for Japan.  http://pluginamp.com/network/node/7609

I wish you the best, for many more years of successful operation!  Your project is an inspiration.

 

all the best,

Terri

 

Terri Anderson

Executive Director

AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

Los Angeles, CA, USA

http://pluginamp.com

 

 

Social Kitchenの皆様

 

  ”Social Kitchenさんの言う「自由」というのは、一言では言い切れない深い意味が込められています。ある意味では、グローバル資本主義の競争社会も「個人の自由」を尊重した自由市場で成り立っています。そのため、私たちが立ち向かっている経済というのは、ある意味では私たちの目指す「個人の自由」を満たしたものです。そのため、「自由」という言葉の意味の深さを問うことも必要だと思いますし、「自由」という言葉を軸にアートと経済の関係を問うのも面白いかもしれません。そのためにもアーティストから見た経済だけではなく、経済学者から見たアートの批評に耳を傾ける等、社会の中に存在するアートとして広い視野を持って活動していくことが私たちにはとても重要だと考えます。”

 

 

    最後に、SKさんの「２１世紀の公民館」を考える上で、お役に立つのではないかと思う本を英語になりますが紹介します。The Giftという本なのですが、贈り物で成り立つ経済とお金で成り立つ経済の比較をする本です。非常に読みやすい本です。

 

    特に、p.59－７０の５章の "The Gift Community"はSocial Kitchenが抱えている経済に対する疑問が焦点です。

 

    p.67では "....gift exchange is an economy of small groups. When emotional ties are the glue that holds a community　together, its size has an upper limit." と書かれています。この点はSocial Kitchenが（私自身もですが）目指しているコミュニティーの限界を指摘しており、SKさんの状況を客観的に理解するのにお役に立つのではないかと思いました。

 

小西智恵

 

 

Dear friends

I just wanted to reply to your email about social kitchen in solidarity to say that we are also a small independent space, less organised than yours, also asking these questions about our own future.

I am an artist and the co- organiser of an independent space called CAZ, based in Penzance in Cornwall in the UK -www.cazart.org.uk and we face many of the same financial struggles and questions about sustainability and also issues with funding. Although I dont have answers I just want to say that this project sounds really great and to send you support. Id like to stay in touch with you and perhaps we can act together somehow to support each other, in terms of sympathy, but also perhaps generating opportunities and sharing resources. For instance perhaps we could send you artists from Cornwall to do residencies and apply for funds to support paying you some money for hosting them in your space? This is just an initial thought.

 

We want to develop CAZ in a similar way to your project to offer a warm social space where artists can come together and exchange ideas, eat food, drink and share art. Perhaps you could act as advisors to us.

 

Best wishes

Rebecca Weeks

 

---------------------------------------------------

Dear Sakiko, Shingo, Megumi, Michiko, and Yufuko,

 

I was just forwarded an ‘e-flux’ piece about Social Kitchen from a fellow artist. The entire time I was reading about your struggles and about what you are trying to accomplish, I held a heavy heart, but also I had fireworks and hope blasting off inside of me.

 

The project which you are attempting to accomplish reflects a very personal goal of mine, and as such, I’ve been making personal notes on this concept for the past few years while traveling and while interacting with people and places.

 

I come from San Jose, California, where I most recently served as Arts Commissioner for the city, a big part of this job was helping citizens, artists, and arts organizations connect and thrive within their communities.

 

Currently, I’m enrolled in an MFA program in Edinburgh, Scotland called “Art, Space, and Nature.” The contents of the program are also in-line with such projects as yours. I also run an online publication called ‘sociecity’ where we are starting a pilot program this year to work with high school students in the U.S., giving them opportunities to create ‘published’ work which challenges social conventions, and allows their creativity and ideas to shine.

 

Reading of your social/cultural center excited me especially because I will be in Japan (mainly in Kansai region) for 6 months from March until August, working on a documentary project called The Final Straw http://finalstraw.sociecity.com as well as creating a community-based art+nature project for a festival called ‘Setouchi Triennale.’ Both of these projects center around Japanese “natural agriculture” and issues of food, nature, and community.

 

Your efforts are really, honestly, extremely impressive to me. I would much enjoy talking to your wonderful group when I am in Japan, sharing ideas and experiences with you, and if possible helping by working directly with you to implement ideas that can help Social Kitchen thrive.

 

However this works out, remember that you are doing the right thing, and the amazing thing, and I thank you very much for all that you do.

 

Warm Regards,

Patrick Lydon

 

---------------------------------------------------

Dear "Social Kitchen" project,

 

Thank you whole-heartedly for your message, sent out through the 'e-flux' newsletter/emailer. While reading it, I personally felt a strong community of  purposes & practices, with our international network, "Cultura21", which I invite you to visit online at our multi-lingual website www.cultura21.net (see also our webmagazine, English mailing-list & eBooks).

 

I don't have a great solution to suggest for your financing issues (we all struggle with looking for mixed financings, between community-financing and sometimes grants), but I can at least echo your communication: I asked our intern, at Cultura21 Germany, who helps me update our website, to prepare a website post based on your message and linking to your website.

 

Best wishes for your work!

 

Kind regards,

Sacha Kagan

 

---------------------------------------------------

Hello my name is Vera Mey and I am a curator based in Auckland, New Zealand at a University Gallery.

 

I felt very excited by your e-flux announcement and very curious about your projects. Within our gallery we always try to find a balance between participating and not participating in rigid and often conservative economic structures very difficult. A project we worked on here was an open structure called Assembly assembling different artists, architects and activists in an constructed open space to look at the idea of speaking freely and fearlessly (one of the University's charter aims). Please see attached more information here http://www.stpaulst.aut.ac.nz/actions

 

---------------------------------------------------

hello to the social kitchen collective,

 

i read about your project with great surprise and respect. your idea of funding your project through translation reminded me of the initial impetus for a project that my creative-partner and i launched in 1999 - dream coordination office.  we also started out by funding our art projects by doing translations rather than getting caught up in the mill of grants and "official" funding (begging). in the end, after two years of intense artistic activity (bicycle trips throughout Europe collecting dreams and then setting up open-air venues for sharing and producing dreams) the translation work won over and now we do mainly translations and once in a while a "dream" project. so, apart from one piece of advice - (do not succumb to the temptation of steady income through translation work) i am very interested in getting a dialogue going on useful tips for dealing with funding projects like your social kitchen as i truly believe they are the keys to a healthy and livable society. i will try to gather and send links to similar (and succesful) initiatives from the city of vienna, austria and will contact people i know who worked in very similar contexts in london, england in the 1980s - a cooperative kitchen/art center with performances and projects and a squatted house/art center and people involved in the same in amsterdam, the netherlands at the moment - maybe starting a network or at least a common platform will be a way to improve the chances of survival.

 

yours,

lisa rosenblatt

 

---------------------------------------------------

元気ですか everyone at Social Kitchen!

 

My name is Andrew and I recently read your write up in E-Flux online magazine. I was very excited because as I read it it felt as if I had found a sibling that I never knew I had! Here in Kansas City myself and two others, Sean Starowitz and Erin Olm-Shipman run an organization called Bread! KC (www.breadkc.wordpress.com) which is based off of Incubate's Sunday Soup Network just like your Sunday Brunch project. Further more, Sean and I collaborated to create a temporary cultural hub that revolved around critical cultural dialogue as well as elevating cultural practices called The Speakeasy (http://thespeakeasydotorg.wordpress.com/). One of our goals was to expose as many different people to a world of culture which, to them, may only be a rumor or an irrational, uneconomic, past-time, and thus connect the art community with the everyday laborer.

 

While reading your article I was most interested in your goals of having others propose projects for the space. In the work that we have done so much of it has been initiated by ourselves, and your idea of breaking down the hierarchy between organizers and participants is, I believe, a key step in bringing the art community closer to the other communities around it. I was also intrigued by your interest in "creating better citizens." This is a topic that I feel in contemporary American art communities is avoided. Most people feel that patriotism is a BAD thing while not understanding that to be a good citizen is to be a patriot. Those who speak out against the misdoings of our government or criticize the wrong doings of our leaders are in fact Patriots/Citizens. Like you I feel that creating a more critical and active citizenry is the only way to creating a better country. 

 

Thank you for your time everyone! I really enjoyed learning about you, and would love to work with you in the future as a chance to learn from you and to bring what I have learned to you. Best of luck in all of your endeavors!

 

 

さようなら

Andrew William Erdrich

 

---------------------------------------------------

My name is Alberto Licandro, Italian from MIlano living in 埼玉県さいたま新都心.

Social Kitchen e-flux news 見た。面白いことです。

私は建築デザイナー、現代美術画家、助教授、自然な事のためだけ興味がある。

私は自分で自然な料理、有機の材料で作る。

元気な体力を作る。

Social Kitchen見たく事は、昔から作りたい、けどまだです。

いつかあそちらに行きたいとゆっくり話したい。

 

宜しくお願いいたします

 

アルベルト・リーカンドロ