Title:
Talisman Production Workshop
Place:
Fridericianum Museum, KasselFor the DAVRA collective x rurukids (ruangrupa’s art program for kids) workshop for children during DAVRA’s 40 days public program in documenta 15, I decided to combine two things: a talisman-tumar and treasures that we hid as children under the ground, which have a unifying element: soil. Everything that was so precious to us in our childhood: candy wrappers, buttons, flowers and leaves we hid under glass in the ground. It was a secret sacred place where we kept the objects valuable to our hearts. How happy we were to find this treasure after a month or in spring after winter and melted snow. At different times as amulets folks of Central Asia made leather pouches with claws of a bear, paws of an owl, prayers from the Quran, necklaces made of stone and metal with images of idols (for example, Albasty) and without idols. Nomads also put handfuls of soil in their tumar and carried it with them as a veneration and remembrance of their homeland.
During the workshop we made amulets for bad luck, bad energy and obsessive thoughts out of bird feathers, beads, marmalade candies, anise and vanilla sticks, twigs and finds, coins from journeys, fingerprints on clay - anything that had meaning for us, which we invented and believed ourselves.