SAVOIR-VIVRE #1
SOAP MAKING with Evi Lachana

Evi Lachana is an Athenian soap and cosmetics manufacturer who worked closely with Otobong Nkanga on the production of Carved to Flow for documenta17 in Athens/Kassel. Based at Piraeus, her family business Laouta produces cold-process soaps and cosmetics from Greek olive oil and hand-picked, locally sourced ingredients.

During the workshop the exhibition space will be transformed into a temporary soap and discussion laboratory. In dialogue with Evi Lachana and a passionate local collector of herbs and botanicals, participants will be invited to manufacture their own soaps and to further explore the ritual practices that underlie the production process of the product and Otobong Nkanga’s work.

Workshop for a maximum of 20 participants
Attendance is free
language: deu/ita/engl
Registration via [email protected]

ar/ge kunst savoir-vivre is a series of workshops conceived in parallel to exhitbion programme at ar/ge kunst. The title savoir-vivre is based on a re-reading of the terms savoir and pouvoir in the work of Gayatri Spivak, co-founder of postcolonial theory, where knowledge (savoir) is not only linked to power but also to the condition of being able to (pouvoir). This combination of verbs turns the institution into a public space of negotiation and agency where an exploration of different forms of skills and competences produces collective knowledge.

Inspired by Otobong Nkanga’s artistic practice, the focus of this year’s ar/ge kunst savoir-vivre is the production process that underlies a product. Together with invited experts, participants will question, unlearn and relearn the ritual practices that articulate the materiality or substance of the product, linking it to the artworks and practices in the exhibition.