Common Ground, Komuna Warszawa 2020

Common Ground. Season at Komuna Warszawa (2020)
curated by Tim Etchells, Marta Keil and Grzegorz Reske

Artists: Tim Etchells, Natasza Gerlach, Marta Jalowska, Marcin Miętus i Rob Wasiewicz, Piotr Urbaniec, Zorka Wollny.

An area drawn on the map or marked with paths made by feet marching across the lawn every day. It can be meticulously fenced or unceasingly negotiated. With whom do you open a conversation about the rules? What keeps you talking? Who will never be allowed inside?

Common ground: an area that you co-create, that you take care of daily; a space where you can move freely - provided that you know the governing rules. It's a field that you identify with, or a place that you can’t look at anymore. It's a shelter and a privilege. Who does it actually belong to? Who decides about its limits and marks its borders? 

Common ground, shared ground, a shelter.
Underground.

"Common Ground" is the curatorial framework for 2020 proposed by Tim Etchells, Marta Keil and Grzegorz Reske, inviting artists to research and articulate current conditions of defining the space of what we have in common. We will pay particular attention to the areas that remain beyond the pre-defined borders. "Common ground" can be understood as a specific fragment of public space, or as a language, a method of working, a dialogue frames, a shelter. It refers both to the mutually agreed social frameworks, as well as diverse dimensions of what can be perceived and felt together: like sounds, but also weather - experienced by all, and lately changing status from a favourite small talk topic to a subject of crucial political debate (and action).