Somebody*ies is a transnational artist* collective that has existed in different constellations since 2020 and unites artistic positions from the three-country region (Germany, France and Switzerland). The collective represents the common concern to give more visibility to the history and work of FLINTA* and queer persons. The collective embodies a queer-feminist and anti-capitalist stance. In the jointly initiated exhibition projects, different artistic disciplines and different materials come together. As exhibition displays, they often choose unusual locations in public space that allow for a direct exchange with local residents and active community work.

 

In the interview, two artists of the collective, Nika Timashkova and Hannah Kindler, talk about their understanding of collective work and their own artistic practice. They talk about outdated artist genius and competitive mindset, solidarity and empowerment. 

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Out & About: You two have been working together in the collective for a few years now, how did you find each other and how did the collective form? 

Nika Timashkova: Hannah and I met through the Dutch Art Institute (DAI). On the first day of school, I recognized Hannah on the train, on the way to DAI. During our studies together, we developed a friendship that has lasted until today.

Hannah Kindler: We found out back then that I was from Freiburg and Nika was from Basel. When we moved back here, we were really happy to be near each other and to keep in touch. We then had a big exhibition together at E-Werk (Freiburg) and introduced each other to more and more people. So then Stella Meris joined us, they also live here in Basel.

NT: Already in 2019 we thought it would be nice to have a collective or network for women and also non-binary people to support each other. But the collective somebody*ies exists only since 2020. Atelier Mondial organized a project with artists from the border triangle and there we met Stella, Apo and Anna and decided to continue working together after the project.

“It is important for us to share our own network, contrary to the existing structures in the art world.”
Nika Timashkova

And what is the meaning of the name?

NT: In the past, still in a different constellation, we were called Miss_Platziert. At that time, the focus was more on women. But we changed, in our way of working and also on a personal level. In the course of this process, we realized that we wanted to address more than women in the classic sense.

HK: Miss_Platziert at that time mainly referred to being de-placed in society and the question of whether you are placed in a position by society or have the possibility to place yourself, maybe in a different place, where you feel better represented.

NT: Then we developed a work together that was about corporeality, different bodies, and about different “somebodies”.

HK: In the writing of the collective, we wanted to make clear that these different bodies can also have different gender identities.

Metamorphically assembled bodies and doll-like entities also recur in your personal artistic practices. Are there aspects that unite your artistic positions?

NT: We both work with textile and have similar research questions about the textile economy and its power structures; or about colonialism, that is, trade relations within the textile economy.

HK: We are both also very interested in theory, but nonetheless we are bodily beings and this coupling to the bodily experience of the world is also shown in our works.

NT: The costumes or puppets we often work with almost always have something to do with the body or parts of the body. Our practice with the costumes also resonates with the question of how clothing actually frames our bodies.

HK: Yes, the question of what does a piece of clothing to your sense of body. And there we come back to this connection of body and mind. If you can’t run because of a tight skirt, that also does something to your mental constitution.

NT: It’s about breaking out of these patterns, also physically and in your clothing. That’s already happening quite a bit, but in the mainstream or at weddings and celebrations there are still strong norms.

HK: I think the focus on the body also has to do with the fact that I, as a person read as female, am often reduced to my body. And that the way other people treat my body is a very specific one.

“I think the focus on the body also has to do with the fact that I, as a person read as female, am often reduced to my body.”
Hannah Kindler

How did the themes of feminism and queerness find their way into your artistic work, Hannah?

HK: I’ve thought for a long time, even before I made art, that I often perceive the world very differently than others. In my bachelor’s degree, I made a work that was about very personal experiences. Later, when I started reading feminist theory, I understood that my work has a lot to do with “standpoint knowledge” and that a lot of what interests me, already has a name. I’m interested in making people visible in their very individual experience of the world and showing that the experience of the world has to do with where you were born, how you look, how you were raised. I want to be more than just me, I want to experience how others experience the world and show how I see it. Echoing Donna Harraway, it’s about connecting a kind of network of realities through the experience of others to better understand what world is.

That’s where personal experiences come in, my own body experience for example. I define myself as she and they and don’t feel like I’m just female. Something I experienced quite early on and which has always caused an inner struggle. But I believe that you are never always the same person, you change constantly and depending on the context. I think making that visible is very important. I also do that in my artistic works through clothing, dolls or other figures that I see as a kind of extension of myself.

And how would you describe your artistic practice and the motivation behind it, Nika?

NT: I was born in Ukraine and deal a lot with cultural identity. In Switzerland, besides many positive experiences, I am also confronted with prejudices. When I was very young, I wanted nothing to do with it and assimilated strongly. But now I want to make exactly that a topic and open a conversation to make visible these circumstances and realities of life that others also experience, who don’t speak or look 100% like everyone else. Especially in Basel, so many people have a migration background, so I find it simply strange that people assume that there is some kind of “Swiss norm”, both linguistically and outwardly.

In my work, it’s important to me not to point fingers, but to playfully implement and break down the cultural and gender-specific. I play with stereotypical attributes such as long fingernails, high heels or hair extensions that are linked to gender or certain cultural ideas. And I’m always trying to work with these attributes and reappropriate them, raise questions or show that it’s not so simple after all.

Going back to the collective, what motivates you to work collectively rather than solitarily?

HK: We felt that we needed an alternative support structure, also because when we all apply individually for Open Calls we are often played off against each other. Especially Nika and I, because we use similar materials.

NT: For me, it’s also about thinking of the structures bigger than yourself. And if you get an opportunity to gain visibility, maybe invite someone else to join you and share that opportunity without losing anything.

“For me, it’s also about thinking of the structures bigger than yourself.”
Nika Timashkova

HK: The collective also helps to find out what open calls there are in the first place, to make contacts or to get to know new curators and art spaces. There’s just so much that’s additional to the artistic practice that you actually have to constantly push, that we thought if we work on all this stuff together, then we’ll all benefit from it.

Do you see collective work fundamentally as a counter-design to the often hierarchical structures of the art world?

HK: For us, collective work is primarily about a representation of what was already there before. We’ve shown each other our portfolios anyway and given each other feedback. We’re closely connected anyway, and that’s just not represented when you start from a single artistic genius – it’s made invisible. And that’s why for me it’s mainly a counter to the idea of the artist genius, usually male, sitting there all in his studio, having great thoughts and creating valuable art. For me, it’s about depicting reality and showing that we are social with each other, that we meet, and that our ideas coming out of a common thinking, not in isolation.

NT: Exactly. It is important for us to share our own network, contrary to the existing structures in the art world, where everyone has their own contacts, curators and collaborations. It’s about complementing each other and supporting each other with the different talents and capacities we have. Because not every person can do everything; some in our collective are good at layout, some are good at writing, or are very good at networking. We try to show that we complement each other as a collective, instead of putting one person in the foreground. This idea of solidarity is important for us.

HK: When someone has really made it big, that person usually has a whole team behind them that gets paid. And if we’re being completely honest, you have to get there first. And until you reach that point, you do it with friends and colleagues. Communicating that honestly and not pretending to be beamed down to earth as a genius is an important concern for us.

What is your experience – do your efforts fall on fertile ground or do you still encounter a system in the funding structure or in exhibitions that is primarily oriented towards individual artists and makes collective work difficult?

NT: The difficulties are that curators often still start from the idea of genius and the individual. We have often had the case that in exhibitions only one person was named as the artist, even though the work was created as a collective effort.

HK: That’s true, some people tend, because they are so used to the system, to highlight one person from the collective, whom they may already know, and to consider the others more as a “background band”. And that’s something where we have to drive a clear line within the collective. It’s a tightrope walk, because on the one hand we make contacts as individuals and that’s okay, because we are also individuals despite being a collective. And yet it must be clear that we are part of a group in which we all have equal rights.

NT: And of course it’s different when we are invited as a collective for an exhibition, then five have to be paid instead of one.

How would the art world or even the funding landscape have to change to be more accessible to you and your project?

NT: The hurdles of applications would have to become much lower. We just got an application approved and in it we got one month’s salary per person, which is great. But in preparation, we put in a lot more time and resources.

What kind of projects have you implemented as a collective in the past and what are your concerns with your projects?

HK: For example, we developed the “Walk Their Path” series. That’s about more visibility in public space for FLINTA or queer people who have streets named after them. We made a conscious decision in this project not to depend on art institutions, but to use public space. The project is designed in such a way that there is direct contact with local people. At the same time, we also present the project online on our website. Next, we would like to make the connection to art institutions and implement a kind of mirror exhibition in an art space in Weil am Rhein.

NT: With this, we would also like to compare the two formats, first the project in public space and then in white space. In the public space, of course, you reach completely different people who otherwise don’t live in the art bubble.

 

Artists of the Collective:
Nika Timashkova, Hannah Kindler, Stella Meris, Christina Huber, Anna Byskov, Apo Yasa

Interview by Catherin Schöberl