Club Real
Lose Nature – Bring in Politics!
The Garden Democracy’s Palace of Justice
An 80-metre-long, vacant greenhouse in Donaufeld in the district of Floridsdorf is where the artist collective Club Real started their one-year field test in democratic policy in the autumn of 2018. The 450 types of organisms settling here were all represented in a cross-species parliament by human agents. After introducing legislative and executive branches of government, a real democracy needs a representative for the judiciary as well. The Garden Democracy’s Palace of Justice makes the audience judges over the organisms’ policies.
Club Real have eliminated the anthropocentric world view and the imperial separation between humans and natural resources in their Garden Democracy. In parliamentary sessions, they have negotiated the problems of cohabitation and the collective use of the space in the greenhouse. How did the meeting between plants, greenflies and snails in a parliamentary context go? What do Wolbachia bacteria really want? What do phytophagous beetles dream about? Bacteria, fungi, plants and animals are the citizens of a democracy, among whom the members of parliament were randomly drawn by lot.
Six months of democratic policy in the Garden Parliament have revealed the necessity of an independent judiciary. Are all adopted laws consistent with the Constitution and the Declaration of the Rights of Organisms? The Garden Democracy’s Palace of Justice makes the brut audience the judges of the organisms’ policies on April 26th and 27th.
In addition to performance and interactive audio installation, there will be a panel discussion with Jutta Wangemann, dr. Hannes Anbelang and experts in political science and biology.
Club Real is a group of artists that has been realising participatory, site-specific projects since 2000. Their installations, one-on-one encounters, political role play and participatory urban development projects invite visitors to reshape alternative concepts of reality. At the moment, Club Real are working on their project Beyond Nature – Garden Democracy in Vienna and in Berlin starting in 2019, a field test on democratic policy that experiments with a species-diverse form of government. At the 2019 Havana Biennale, they will realise a project entitled LASA 10 Carnival together with arte contextual centro LASA.
Credits
A project by Club Real, supported by KÖR – Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Wien in co-production with brut Wien.
With the kind support of the City of Vienna’s Cultural Department and the District of Floridsdorf.
Thanks to Sägewerk Holzhandel Franz Burger
Dates & Tickets
April 2019
17 € / 13 € / 9 €
17 € / 13 € / 9 €
studio brut
Zieglergasse 25, 1070 Wien
not accessible
Downloads
programme April – June (PDF)
