Materiality of Labor. Assembly. A Brick. A Piece of Cake

The essay is a translation of part of a master’s thesis written and defended at the Kunst im Kontext Institute at the Universität der Künste in Berlin; it consists of a theoretical section in the form of a book and a practical section in the form of video and drawn film. The product in the form of a book was inspired by the art of confectionery, which on the aesthetic plane links two professions the author was engaged in during the writing of her thesis – a saleswoman in a pastry shop and a graduate student. The theory provided here is in the form of legislation, and the artistic practice imitates the art of cooking. The work appears to be a material activity, and the value added to it or subtracted from it, an anthropocentric fiction.