THE HOUSE THAT MUM BUILT

Daniel Hopp, Lena Mai Merle & Alex Winterstein, 2022

“The House that Mum Built” took place in September 2022, spanning lectures, performances, concerts and screenings, all situated in the house that mum left, not vacant, but now adorned with artworks: filling the walls, spanning the living room, nestling amongst plants, shining out from closets and the attic. Over 70 artists convened to rid the house of its ghost: the project may have been spurred on by her departure, but Mother lingers on. Many passed through, often staying camped amongst the artworks, overstaying but not unwelcome.

Despite this “The House that Mum Built” isn’t exclusively about an individual, it also concerns Mother as a concept. Blurred binaries are present throughout: artist and curator; private and public; exhibition and artwork. The project exists within the equilibrium of these, a pliant starting point upon which to build a contradiction of curatorial seriousness and celebratory party, an architecture within itself. It aims not towards a concrete moment but a constant reformulation. Things move, are grown out of and are redone; wrong turns and interjections are embraced in the shared experience. Mother becomes an abstract for the organisers and participants they embody. It is not only about the support that is provided but also about space:

A mother gives the child space and nutrients, but it is the child which then establishes itself, at once tethered to and independent of Mother. Its life will oscillate between the formation and dissolution of identity within both the representation and performance of gender, ethnicity and class throughout all the houses it will visit.

In a project of such scope, one with no institutional involvement, there is constant freneticism and there can be no concrete plan, only an unconditional trust that Mother will deliver. She has to, she always does somehow.

- Text by Adam Grainger