Art Labor Demos is a collection of songs about my experiences in the field of art. They talk about money, the changing dynamics between friends when they work together, about difficult feelings, criticism, budgets and collective processes – in short, about a precarious field of labor. A field where hierarchies, spectatorship and the male singular genius narrative are questioned. A field in which art engages with activism, makes itself a tool for emancipation and idealism - and, of course where it fights to be fairly paid and regarded as work.
Please find the lyrics below:
Art Market
Victim Patterns
Vol Fo Lux (radio edit)
Nice
A Language Without Violence
Freedom
Professional Blues
Bourgeoisie
Most of these songs are unreleased. I am in the process of recording them. If you want to accelerate this process, please support via PayPal by clicking on the original Roger Fähndrich coin. As a thank you for your contribution you will get access to one of the songs.
In the meantime, you can listen to Art Market, Freedom and Professional Blues on 'Download This Album For Free', here:
Bandcamp,
Spotify,
Deezer,
Apple Music
Art Market
There's a certain feeling
and it's here all night and day
it might intensify specially in may
or was it june?
yeah 'cause by that time even the good people are making selfies in the mirror with the names written on
maybe they tell themselves:
hey, that's where I belong!
I pretend to make art
still I try to make a living
I pretend to make art
still I try to make a living
I see us all being fucked by some businessmen
keep being nice to the rich 'cause they will help you make a living
we got the time to read some books and think of the symbolic gesture of
putting a roof timber in the edge of that room
and the winners are announced as such on a fancy website
Website!
There's a certain feeling mixed of jealousy and abstract promises
and I am tempted to say we'd be better off together
but that might be a concept just as poor and weak as all the other concepts
that we made up in our creative minds
still the winners are announced on a fancy website
Website!
Art! Market!
Art Market appeared on Download This Album For Free
A Language Without Violence
I want to find another way
I want to wake up to a brighter day
I want to get what I really want
I want the nerve to handle my feelings
I want to establish what hasn’t been established before
I want to establish what hasn’t been established before
’s gonna be such a joyful day
although in the beginning we will have to use words
yeah in the beginning we will have to use techniques
techniques that we know from the past
in order to overcome them we will have to exchange our tools
I need you all join
we will merge
we will merge
let’s have a joyful exchange
I want to write another story
I want to use other words
maybe let us invent another language
a language without violence
a language without violence
without hierarchies
that prevents power from occurring
I want to live in another world
I want to live in a world in which the economic problem
is rather a common problem and not an individual problem
I don’t want to be an individual who has the solve the problem on its own
I don’t want to be an individual who has to solve the problem on its own
Let’s have a joyful exchange
I want to live in another story
at least I want to have the feeling to continue a story
alienated and cracked up I scream
but I don’t know what for
all I know is I surely don’t want to use the formulas and the techniques that I know from the past
cynicism is such an old and lame bore
I want something to live for
let’s have a joyful exchange
Bourgeoisie
I wanna be with the Bourgeoisie
Gimme the money
Gimme the mansion
Gimme the poodle
Gimme the SUV
I wanna be with the Bourgeoisie
Gimme the garden
Gimme the Gucci
Gimme abundance
Gimme the newest MacBook Pro
I wanna be with the Bourgeoisie
L’art, c’est la douleur
L’art, c’est la douleur
L’art, c’est la douleur
L’art, c’est la douleur
I wanna be with the Bourgeoisie
Freedom
They say freedom
freedom is a good thing to have
but what is freedom
if you still have a job
Freedom appeared on Download This Album For Free
Nice
How good everything was
And how interesting everything was
How insightful everything was
How sensitive everybody was
how considered everybody was
and how nice everybody was
And how everybody
was equally valued
and how in general everything was equally valued
every being was equally valued
and even every non-being was equally valued
Just how good, beautiful, careful, soulful and nice
everybody was
How concerned everybody was
and how attentive everybody was
in regards to everybody else’s concern
and how safe everybody was
to talk about how vulnerable everybody was
And how everybody
was equally valued
and how in general everything was equally valued
every being was equally valued
and even every non-being was equally valued
Just how good, beautiful, careful, soulful and nice
everybody was
And how fair everybody was
And how right everybody was
And how white everybody was
And how white everybody was
How white everybody
Professional Blues
Musicvideo Professional Blues
I don’t wake up in the morning
I wake up at 2 in the afternoon
The world became a cruel place
So let the biggest narcissist rule it
I won’t surrender, I won’t surrender to professionalism
I won’t surrender, I’ll better stay professional hobo
Cuz I have seen what they’ve been doing to all the professionals
Collecting likes has never been my favourite occupation
So let’s give it up for the big flood of information
Let’s give it up
Let the biggest narcissist rule the internet
I can’t believe that beyond all that surface lays anything real
So let’s try to keep things simple
Cuz people’s attention won’t last long
Victim Patterns
How come we found ourselves in the midst of this situation
I thought we were friends
you say, I need that much
I say, that much seems too much to me
you say, you don’t trust me when I say that I need that much
I say, actually all I can do in this matter is to trust in your word
I don’t dare
to say that
you don’t care
about my contribution
I feel unseen and undervalued and now there’s no budget left
you are imperative and all-knowing because you did most of the work
but you did’t write down your hours, did you?
how can I be sure they are towering just like you say?
I just have to trust your words
while they emerge from victim patterns
victim patterns, poverty mindset
I just have to trust your words
while I could be trusting in numbers
All I came to do here
is in service of the whole
and designed in a way that
that I don’t have to rotate in my grave
Vol Fo Lux
I want you to know
that my request would be to take it slow
so please let’s do another round
I long to hear everybody’s voice before
we make a decision
we’re so safe rotating in this circle
this comes in handy since
any further eruption would reveal
more of that which we lack and therefore crave
I have nothing to add
but that your argument is considered
and the holes in it seem consistent
your advertisement as usual convincing
the suggested turnaround feels familiar and convenient
even if it leaves us with yet more work
for which we are neither payed nor motivated
let’s make a fuss
let’s organise the class
dare to share
declare the care
what’s fair is fair
dini meer!
we are back at square one
I am so done
can we move on?
I love the way we are getting there
signs must be read
and freedom must be chosen
truth must be spoken
for the dirt is accumulating under the rug
I have seen myself
sweeping it there
let’s make a fuss
let’s organise the class
common don’t leave me alone
or must I send you back
to school of love
go back to square one
Credits
Roger Fähndrich
Music, lyrics, guitar and voice, Graphic design
Andrej Marffy
Drums on Art Market, Nice, Freedom, Professional Blues, Victim Patterns Bass and arrangements on Nice
Stefan Hasler
Mixing and Mastering Nice
Jacob Vanneste
Drums on Vol Fo Lux
Hendrike Scharmann
Viola and voice on Vol Fo Lux
Jesse van Winden
Invitation, selection, artistic direction
Supported by
State of the Arts
Published on the occasion of
A Sustainable Dialogue 1, On Redistribution
An event to activate the Fair Kin Arts Almanac
organised by State of the Arts and LaFAP in collaboration
with NICC, supported by Jubilee
Invited by Radio Memorandum
in the framework of Publiek Park
1 October 2023, Music Kiosk Albertpark, Antwerp
Many thanks to
Diana Duta, radical_house, Meyboom Artist-run Spaces
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