Carlota Mir

Cosmologies of Asylum: A Lumbung Collaboration Between Trampoline House and Project Art Works

This exposition is a harvest of ‘Massaging The Asylum System’, a year-long collaboration between refugee justice centre Trampoline House (DK) and neurodiverse collective Project Art Works (UK) by co-curator Carlota Mir. As a lumbung practice, harvest refers to artistic recordings of discussions and meetings. Together, we set out to explore how migrant and neurodivergent communities are affected by social systems of care and control, and we sought ways to massage the asylum system – yes, massage, like a real massage – so that it could become softer and more humane. Bringing together the vision and artistic tools from both organisations, our work became a temporary coalition of dissident bodies. Organised in a series of concentric circles and islands, the map revisits the ecosystem of the project and its traces: informal encounters, public conversations, art installations, and two workshop series in Copenhagen and Kassel, reflecting a multitude of voices from artists, collective members, facilitators, activists, publics, and the lumbung community. The collaboration between Trampoline House and Project Art Works was initiated by Carlota Mir and Sara Alberani in the context of documenta fifteen and funded with common resources from the lumbung Collective Pot.

With support from the Danish Arts Foundation and the Italian Council. Publication design: Laura Migueláñez and Orestis Nikolaidis. Thanks to lumbung inter-lokal, Trampoline House and Project Art Works communities for their generosity and the knowledge shared, which has made this harvest possible.

Biography

Carlota Mir (1991) is a researcher, curator, translator and educator currently based in Madrid. She graduated in Art History and French at the University of Sussex in 2013 and has lived and worked across Europe and Scandinavia for the past decade. Her research and curatorial practice centre an expanded notion of critical care coming from different socially engaged positions that intersect. Mir currently combines her PhD research at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna with her independent curatorial practice. She is currently leading the project Cosmologías Vulnerables in collaboration with Hablarenarte, Project Art Works and Museo Reina Sofía, which investigates the crossings between artistic practice, disability, neurodivergence and institutionality. She was also a member of the Artistic Team in the Danish refugee justice centre Trampoline House, a lumbung member at documenta fifteen. Mir is a co-editor of the forthcoming volume ‘Propositions on Translocal Solidarity’ (Archive Books, 2023). Her work has been published by Routledge and Sternberg Press, amongst others.