We had invited the collective „Maternal Fantasies“ to our first LAB, with the focus on other art genres. The collective is an interdisciplinary group of international female artists and cultural producers based in Berlin. Currently it consists of 7 artist mothers and their total of 10 children and 2 babies.
Da keine des Kollektivs zu unserem LAB Termin Zeit hatte, habe ich Maicyra Leao, von Maternal Fantasies“ zu einem Interview getroffen und mit ihr über die Kernfragen des LAB`s gesprochen:

• Why does the word mother often have a negative connotation, especially in the art scene?

For the artists of the collective, the concept of motherhood is central. They shape their discourse through collective artistic processes. The collective includes the artists as well as their children. It is about the connection between care work and the creative process. In contrast to the art scene, where for mothers it is often a matter of separating family and care work from artistic work in order to be available efficiently, the work of the collective is about a clear integration of children and care work. Their artistic practice uses integrative, community-oriented experiments as alternatives to traditional structures of art production.

• What artistic perspectives do artists in parenthood develop during the pandemic?

The pandemic made the work of the collective almost impossible. Because the digital alternative would always have meant sitting in front of the computer with the children. But that quickly lost its appeal. So the adult artists remained in lively exchange to develop different writing practices with each other. Basically, however, each was far more concerned with organizing her own family life. Fortunately, there is the fruitful experience of the years before the pandemic, so there is enough motivation now to slowly pick up the thread of working together again, sharing space, time and authorship.

Maria Walser