Paper short abstract:

This contribution is set up as a reflection on an artistic installation by visual artist Wim Wauman, within a woodworker’s showroom. In the installation, the artisan’s workshop – and the artist’s studio - is conceived as a laboratory for the creation of objects crossing boundaries of crafts and arts

Paper long abstract:

This contribution is set up as a reflection on artistic research dealing with craftsmanship under the conditions of contemporary global modernity. It primarily focuses and comments on an installation by artist Wim Wauman (wimwauman.com) in a woodworker's showroom, which will be presented during the 'Coup de Ville' Triennial in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium (Sep 9th-Oct 9th, 2016). In the installation, the artisan's workshop - and the artist's studio - is conceived as a laboratory for the creation of objects with a highly ambiguous status, mediating the spheres of production and consumption, crafts and arts, making and thinking.

Our contribution will show how the installation re-imagines the practice of craftsmanship - which applies skill and material-based knowledge to localized, relatively small-scale production - and how this relates to the current context of globalized mass production and consumption. By showing the process of 'making' as an exploration of material contingencies, which is however not separated out or consciously opposed to meaning-making, we will reflect on the artisan's place in a culture which is increasingly mediated by new consumptive environments and digital technologies, as well as by renewed attempts to regain control over sociotechnical systems, aiming to democratize the tools and knowledge of technical production.