Workshop for artists and students with Slovenian artist Tobias Putrih organized around the question of collective form.

The workshop for interested students / artists (art/education/social and gender studies/cultural management) will be organized around the question of collective form: participants will be separated into groups to play different collaborative games. We will test a dynamics of collective building practices, delve into problems of collaboration and competition and discuss the outcomes.

Tobias Putrih: Cascades—workshop

"Information cascade is a phenomenon described in information science and economic theory where an individual prefers to follow the behavior of her predecessor without regard to her individual opinion. In such case a group identity simply overrides individual’s rational decision making.

In a realm of making we can also talk about cascading behavior—collective building practice was in the western culture first fully institutionalized in the middle ages when Gothic cathedrals were build in a discontinuous process without standardized techniques by groups of masons without any plans or knowledge about structural mechanics. The final design was therefore result of a sequence of decisions by different building teams and clergy members following one another over several years or decades. In the early 20th century Gothic cathedrals and masons‘ guilds became Walter Gropius’ inspiration for the collective spirit of Bauhaus and in the 1960’s japanese architect Fumihiko Maki described a collective building practice as a Group Form and a guiding principle of. the Metabolist movement.

But collective building practice is not exactly an information cascade—the builders wanted cathedral to stand and survive. Cascade of builders and guilds was a guaranteed and established process. But there was a crucial builder’s dilemma—even if disobeying the rules or templates was not an option because the building could collapse, a builder could still have two choices—to follow and mimic the formal logic or pattern of the building or to try to disrupt it and enforce new logic and style.

During a workshop we will play a variety of collaborative and competitive building games. We will discuss games’ rules and templates. We will look into building dynamics of different groups and individuals and talk how such games are reflected in real life situations. And most importantly we will speculate how collectivity and authorship can co-exist within contemporary art."

Slovenian artist Tobias Putrih (*1972) is known for his work with everyday materials such as cardboard, styrofoam substances and plywood to produce a diverse range of fragile structures from small modular works to giant installations and cinema environments. He is also known in his work to push the limits and build structures that overhang and seem to be almost about to collapse. Tobias Putrih was resides and works in New York and Ljubljana. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia in 1997. He then studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in Germany winning the Vordemberge-Gildewart Foundation Award in 2002. Public Collections: Centre Pompidou, Musée National d ́Art Moderne, Paris; Musée d’art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg; Museu d’art Contemporani de Barcelona; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Fondazione Prada, Milan.