KONANTÜ

Konan­tü works are small group activ­i­ties per­formed col­lec­tive­ly and col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly with­in a closed or demar­cat­ed area.

Konan­tü works are car­ried out by a set num­ber of par­tic­i­pants from the gen­er­al pub­lic. There are no pre-req­ui­sites for par­tic­i­pa­tion. Par­tic­i­pa­tion is vol­un­tary and unre­mu­ner­at­ed. Konan­tü offers to all its par­tic­i­pants food and drink , com­men­sal­i­ty being an inte­gral com­po­nent of the work.

Konan­tü pro­vides the frame­work and the con­di­tions for the work to take place. A spe­cif­ic set of instruc­tions is giv­en at the begin­ning of each ses­sion, often involv­ing dia­grams , detail­ing the pat­tern or sys­tem of the activ­i­ty to be car­ried out. Accord­ing to the giv­en task, the par­tic­i­pants inter­act with each oth­er, some­times using inter­me­di­ary objects, in a spon­ta­neous and con­struc­tive way to pro­duce a cumu­la­tive, col­lec­tive creation.

Konan­tü works com­bine for­mal spa­tial or ver­bal pat­terns with nat­ur­al social con­nec­tion. The works intend to incite an instinc­tive asso­ci­a­tion by means of con­trived con­fig­u­ra­tions and com­bi­na­tions. The par­tic­i­pants, the­o­ret­i­cal­ly unknown to each oth­er at the out­set, enter into a coor­di­nat­ed engage­ment to car­ry out the activ­i­ty, with the ful­fil­ment of the pre­scribed pat­tern cor­re­spond­ing to a cul­mi­na­tion of mutu­al grat­i­fi­ca­tion and social affinity.

Konan­tü works are accom­pa­nied by music in some form, pri­mar­i­ly per­cus­sion or chant, either spon­ta­neous­ly pro­duced by the par­tic­i­pants with rudi­men­ta­ry instru­ments or with the col­lab­o­ra­tion of guest musicians.

Konan­tü works rely on sys­tems of chance. Par­tic­i­pants are placed togeth­er at ran­dom, typ­i­cal­ly by select­ing a card. The lot­tery guar­an­tees fair and equal treat­ment of all par­tic­i­pants when deter­min­ing their place­ment with­in the struc­ture, and also facil­i­tates het­ero­ge­neous social mix­ture in the work.

Konan­tü envi­sions an art that can only be ful­ly real­ized by its pub­lic par­tic­i­pants, an art that is simul­ta­ne­ous­ly cre­at­ed and con­sumed by its vol­un­tary con­stituents. Konan­tü works are nev­er intend­ed as per­for­mances or pre­sen­ta­tions for an audi­ence; the par­tic­i­pants are the pub­lic. Konan­tü works are indif­fer­ent to non-par­tic­i­pat­ing onlook­ers. Konan­tü pro­pos­es an art with no mate­r­i­al prod­uct or mar­ketable by-prod­uct. Konan­tü oper­ates both with­in and beyond the stan­dard field of con­tem­po­rary art, indif­fer­ent to the cat­e­go­ry of estab­lish­ment with­in which Konan­tü works can take place. Konan­tü main­tains a prac­tice that is a flu­id col­lec­tive: Embrac­ing decen­tral­ized author­ship, it is the fruit of the aggre­gate con­tri­bu­tion of all past and future collaborators.

Court­ney Smith & Iván Navarro

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