COLLECTIVE BARGAIN

COLLECTIVE BARGAIN was a participatory mobile installation-performance-intervention by ART&COM (Thiago Szmrecsányi & Natalia de Campos) & collaborators displaying information, media, talks, actions and ephemera related to collective gathering, healing, and the power of union in the contemporary social and political environment. During AiOP, COLLECTIVE BARGAIN moved along 14th Street in Manhattan to places of historical significance, for collective actions with special guests. 

Presented during  Art in Odd Places (AIOP) 2017: SENSE, a public art festival curated by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful with Rocío Aranda (El Museo) and Jodi Waynberg (Artists Alliance Inc). It took place from October 13-15 from 12-8pm each day: as a mobile intervention, with stops between Fifth-Eighth avenues, in an ellipse on the North and South sides of 14th Street in NYC.

The first iteration of COLLECTIVE BARGAIN was in Art in Odd Places, as street interaction, during the first presidency of Trump, in 2017. The United Artists & Activists Union was founded during the 3-day intervention. The n we came back with "Free Time in the Collective Bargain" in the Kingsmanor park in Queens in 2018, with Tracy Collins introducing Roger, our A.I. member of the UAAU, Natalia and Thiago interacting and presenting an installation for play. In its third iteration in  2019, "Manifesto of the UAAU" (pronounced “wow”) was presented as an interactive  performance in the Martin Segal Theater at the Graduate Center/CUNY, in “Playthings and Objects”, curated by Professor Edward Miller (Theatre and Cinema Studies at GC/CUNY). Natalia was dialoguing with Roger, who had evolved; Tracy Collins and Thiago Szmrecsányi were performing their rituals of making work onstage. The Defend Democracy in Brazil (DDB) street actions, particularly for the release of President Lula and to #cancelBolsonaro were interacting with Roger and Natalia, with participation of other DDB members, like Renata Ferreira as a dancer/activist.

A summarized schedule and a video with images of the first iteration  is provided in the link below.

These samples particularly demonstrate the type of street interaction that is relevant to WE ARE ALL IMMIGRANTS, with a set of activities in the public realm, engaging the participants in a variety of ways, responsive to the cityscape and the time of day in which they took place. As we remain in a “collective bargain”, and are under the second Trump presidency - elements of COLLECTIVE BARGAIN and UAAU will be utilized in the WAAI intervention.

Summarized schedule:

Collective Bargain - AiOP

Fri Oct 13, 2017

3pm - 4pm BARGAINING TABLE: Namaste Bookshop, 2 W 14th St

4pm - 5:50pm Special Guest: Akiko Ichikawa with Limited, Limited Edition

Waverly Job Center, 12 W 14th St and Abandoned DVD Store Discount Deals, 112 W 14th St

A roving gifting performance in which the artist gives away at low cost custom t-shirts with labor-friendly messages in Japanese on the street at several locations on 14th Street.

5:50pm - 6:10pm GATHER FOR WORKERS RIGHTS: Pratt Institute, 144 W 14th St

Artists & Activists get together for march

6pm - 8pm Special Guest: John Bonafede with Performance Artists Local One Million

Gallery 151, 234 W 14th St

A conceptual art project aims to bring awareness and fairness to this genre of contemporary art that it needs. Artists working in the media have no industry standard wages, very rarely any physical protection from audience members who interact with the performer (and vice versa)and there are rarely controls over unauthorized documentation,reproduction and distribution of the artists’ material. There is not one answer or regulation that fits the tastes of all artists in the genre but the conversation about these issues with any venue is wherethe P.A.U. intends to help start. 

6:15pm - 6:45pm Activist Toya Mileno speaks for Workers

Teamsters Local 237 Education & Training Department, 216 W 14th St

A speak out for workers common demands- educate and empowering.

7pm - 7:30pm Conversation with the artists: Natalia de Campos: Gallery 151, 245 W 14th St

Artists marketplace conversation with Natalia de Campos and other artists in the Art on Odd Places Festival

7:30pm - 8:30pm Informational; poster making; leave your demands with us: We the People, 233 W 14th St

7:30pm - 8:30pm Needs of Gathering, Healing and Solidarity

Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, 229 W 14th St and La Nacional-Spanish Benevolent Society, 239 W 14th S

Sat Oct 14, 2017

12pm - 1pm BRING US YOUR DEMANDS: 7th avenue and 14th Street, New York

We will be collecting labor demands for turning them into action. Stopby one of our associates and add your

demands

1pm - 2pm UAAU Membership: McBurney YMCA, 125 W 14th St

healing/gathering stretch/yoga class

2pm - 3pm Unionizing: what does that mean? at DC9, 45 W 14th St

Radio Talk

3pm - 4pm BROWN BAG LUNCH: Guitar Center, 25 W 14th St

Music, Lunch, Gathering of workers. Come have lunch with us while we plan collective actions

4pm - 4:45pm Special Guest: Mike C. speaks with Toya Mileno

Goodwill Industries Store & Donation Center, 7 W 14th St

Mike C. will lend his knowledge in helping workers organize and form unions , and strategies for getting people

together

4:45pm - 5:45pm Poster making

Thiago Szmrecsányi brings people's demands to the forefront in posters for a collective action on Sunday at 6PM

5pm - 6pm Healing + Rest: Namaste Bookshop, 2 W 14th St

6pm - 6:30pm Special Guest: Gammy interviewed: 12 W 14th St

Gammy (instagram: @gammykillz ) will speak with Toya Mileno & Natalia de Campos on the work that goes behind the scenes (and in front!) of organizing, creating visual content, and what motivates her to join efforts on behalf of workers.

6:30pm - 7:30pm BARGAINING TABLE: 12 W 14th St

Sun Oct 15, 2017

12pm - 2pm Poster Making: Guitar Center, 25 W 14th St

Demanding Rights

2pm - 3pm Assembly/ UAAU Membership informationGoodwill Industries Store & Donation Center, 7 W 14th St

#BlackLivesMatter

3pm - 4pm BROWN BAG LUNCH: Goodwill Industries Store & Donation Center, 7 W 14th St

Lunch, bring your own brown bag lunch, let's organize! Meet the artists and activists behind COLLECTIVE BARGAIN

and discuss your needs

4pm - 5pm Bring us your demands: Goodwill Industries Store & Donation Center, 7 W 14th St

Final poster making session and discussion of needs by workers of all professions

4pm - 5pm POSTER MAKING

Thiago Szmrecsányi brings people's demands to the forefront in posters for a collective action on Sunday at 6PM

5:30pm - 6:30pm Special Guest: Jane Dowd Oosterom Guided Meditation & Visualization: 2 W 14th St

Jane Dowd Osteroom (Namaste Book Club) will lead a guided meditation and visualization session to calm the self within and prepare us for our final gathering and bargaining session during the Assembly

6:30pm - 7:30pm Assembly, Protest + Information session: Waverly Job Center, 12 W 14th St

Come learn what are the demands collected from all professionals and all levels of satisfaction on the job and join us in an all-welcome collective action.

8pm - 8pm END - RIDE THE COLLECTIVE BARGAIN CART BACK TO THE LOWER EAST SIDE