Disorganising Metabolisms

As part of Disorganising’s focus on alternative economic models in the arts, we were invited by the producers to map examples of artists creating long-term, artist-led infrastructures that respond to environmental and economic urgencies. We sought to understand how artists care for one another and the earth, and to learn from practices that challenge art world hierarchies while inventing new modes of circulation. We asked what kinds of creative, governing and methodological approaches might nurture shifts away from capitalist production and instead support the more-than-human metabolic biospheres we share.

We spoke with Mariana Martinez Balvanera, co-founder of Cocina CoLaboratorio, who works across shared tables to consider spaces of biocultural diversity in Mexico; Malini Kochupillai, founder of Tenacious Bee Collective in Himachal Pradesh, India; Ira Barker (Gunditjmara and Barkindji), who works with Indigenous growers Murnong Mummas on Djadja Wurrung Country; and Kathrin Böhm, founder of Company Drinks in Barking and Dagenham, East London. Each brings together scientists, researchers, artists and communities to restore and care for local and Indigenous foodscapes, while developing ways of working that move beyond extractive economic models and experiment with more sustainable forms of exchange. We remain grateful to all who contributed to these conversations.

Disorganising was a project between Melbourne-based artist-run initiatives West Space, Liquid Architecture and Bus Projects—an open and evolving platform for experimenting with alternative ways of organising and creating.