María Inés Plaza Lazo likes to develop curatorial and communication strategies for others, individuals and institutions. She grew up in Guayaquil, Ecuador, lives and works between the streets of Berlin and the world. Together with Paul Sochacki, she founded the street journal on poverty and wealth, art and society „Arts of the Working Class“, which they edit and publish with Alina Kolar. „Arts of the Working Class“ contains contributions by artists and thinkers from different fields and in different languages. Its terms are based upon the working class, meaning everyone, and it reports everything that belongs to everyone. Everyone who sells this street journal earns money directly. Vendors keep 100% of the sales.
Statement María Inés Plaza Lazo:
If you could envision a ‘New Now’ for your city, what would that look like? It would be funny to give cities a new noun, instead of a now. Like, it’s not enough to say „a“ city anymore, but „common“ cities. Cities that belong to everyone. My answer is thus for a plural, since I live in Berlin, but my body and memory is tied to Guayaquil and Munich, the city where I experienced my first migration. The new noun then, common cities, are ruled by citizens‘ initiatives. The new now, sorry, noun, of Berlin, would be ruled jointly with democratically voted representatives of the Deutsche Wohnen und Co Enteignen, creating the first and largest governmental form ever created against rent maximization and protection of civil rights. No one needs to feel shame anymore to be unemployed, on the run, or broke. Arts of the Working Class turns into a currency of mutual aid.
Photo: Stephanie Neumann