Imaginistic Welfare Institute (2011)
Danish title; Imaginistisk Velfærds Institut.
Sculpture/ Installation.
Commissioned by University of Southern Denmark (SDU)

How can you save time on shopping, cleaning and cooking? Such questions concerned the report "Communal facilities for the relief of home work" from 1954 by a committee set up by the Ministry of Housing. That the state was dealing with things that belonged to private space was new at the time. But the problem of combining  family, children and full-time work  was acute then and still is today. The project is centered on the kitchen and the rationalization of everyday life that occurred when women began to participate in the labor market and link from there to new ideas about ecology, labor and urban planning. The exhibition includes proposals for a time-saving dish washing system with ecological side effects and a reformist urban plan. It's all tied together by an approximately 15 meter long table. Cooking or assembly line? The kitchen as intimate sphere or public space? Withdrawal of the welfare state or imaginistisk development?



Installation view.

From the government report - how to save time using prefabricated food elements. Movement study made by placing a light source on the womans arm while she is cooking the same dish in a traditional way and in a modern way. 


Detail of dish washing system. Dishes are put right into the Kitchen cabinet, eliminating one step in the dish washing process. At the same time, the water that drips from the dishes waters the plants nearby.

Proposal for urban plan (after Ebenezer Howard), considering the most important welfare institutions and their placement in relation to each other.


The Story of how Economic Democracy was very close to being implemented.


Three lamps; Expedition, Redistribution and CPR


Blankets.


Ideas about communal facilities for the relief of home work..




Supported by the Danish Arts Council Committee for National and International Visual Arts