An Annex to Afrodita (2017) for Who Cares? Festival (2020)
The project aims to turn the time I spend with my child into a work of art, so that I can receive the budget to cover the production costs of a new artwork commissioned by a festival focused on care work. It is certainly not a huge amount of money, but it is enough to alleviate the scarcity of productive time – and consequently of income- linked to the task of raising a child during the COVID-19 lockdown.
After spending many days thinking about care and following a similar process I followed for Afrodita (2017), I decided to convert the time I spend with my child into goods or capital through the methodology I have named analitic replica.
This gesture brings back some of the questions and reflections I had during those months; by reclaiming social and economic recognition for empathy and love, aren´t we following the productivist logic we criticize so much? Isn´t there something perverse about demanding to change fondness, passions and relationships into a value? And finally, if care work is the good, isn´t there a risk that care work becomes a goal and s/he who is being cared for turns into a mere instrument to reach that valued Good?