Representative decision-making systems have been around for around eight hundred years. They have served us well, and have shaped what we today know as “democracy”. But, do they really work as efficient at this era of ours as they did in the past? Do they really represent our multi-mega national public? Are they as pure and untainted as they are meant to be? I believe that corruption, lobbying, financial interest, power games, combined with the extensive speed of communication and technology means, have made the core of the representative system gradually obsolete. Are we not just conserving this presumably precious value which we have created and held sacred for far too long and for far too much price? Can we not do any better?
In “Conserving the Representation”, the aim is to create a series of sculptures from the most influential, and most controversial parliament chambers from around the world. The chambers will be printed in 3D and are put inside of different glass containers, containing the most valued and popular alcoholic drink from that country, to be left for aging.
I think the time for another way of organizing ourselves is here, and we have the right tools to come up with this rethinking process. The proposed project has been founded based on another project which is already going on since 2015 called www.opensourcegovernment.org which is a collective attempt to make it possible for the citizens and the members of a society to be able to take part in the structure of their government or society, directly through open-sourcing the legislation.
In the case of this first sculpture from the series, I have submerged the chamber of House of Commons of UK in gin. The rest of the series is to be made and presented as a whole exhibition. Next one, De Tweede Kamer from the Netherlands.
This project has been generously supported by Stichting Stokroos and Fonds Kwadraat