EL FER i el no fer

EL FER i no fer (The Doing and the Not Doing) is a performative and documentary research project investigating time, labour, exhaustion, and a society increasingly structured around permanent productivity.

Developed as one of the manifestations of The Laboratory of Doing Nothing, the project combines visual art, daily performances, collaborative research, teenage working groups, and a five-chapter audio collage constructed from reflections and testimonies on work and non-productivity.

Rather than presenting a singular narrative, the project unfolds as a fragmented puzzle of voices, images, actions, and suspended situations exploring the social pressure to remain constantly active and useful.

Many participants contributed to the collaborative performances of doing nothing or shared statements and experiences for the audio collage, transforming the project into a collective reflection on labour, time, inactivity, and social expectation.

Forms

Five-chapter audio collage book — a sound work constructed from interviews and reflections on labour, productivity, and non-activity Daily performances of doing nothing — recurring collective situations inviting participants to share periods of intentional inactivity within the exhibition space

Teenage work group — a collaborative research group reflecting on work, usefulness, and social pressure from the perspective of younger generations

Installation with five-channel video tower — almost still video works presented together with illuminated QR cubes leading visitors to the online audio files

Photographic series — photographs pinned throughout the transitional exhibition space, resembling “on vacation” signs and documenting traces of suspension, absence, and interrupted activity

Online platforms and archives — a digital extension of the project documenting and distributing the research process

The project’s website The fer i no fer blog

Context

The project was presented in a solo exhibition at Centre Cultural Casa Elizalde in November 2015, bringing together the different performative, documentary, visual, and sound elements developed throughout the research process.

The exhibition space was structured through different spatial and atmospheric situations connecting collective inactivity, documentary reflection, sound, and visual suspension.

As part of The Laboratory of Doing Nothing, the project expanded the research into collaborative and documentary methodologies, introducing interviews, online archives, collective performances, and pedagogical structures as central artistic forms. The project was developed with the support of Nau Côclea under the direction of Clara Garí.

Credits

Concept and direction: Christina Schultz

Supported by: Nau Côclea

With the support of: Clara Garí

Developed in collaboration with participants, interview contributors, teenagers, and collaborators involved in the collective performances and audio research.

Back to main projectDoing Nothing Lab

In this room every day people gathered with me to do participate at the performance of doing nothing. Here are 20 teenagers.

The other dark room contained a tower of 5 different almost still videos and the 5 QR cubes with inner light. The code leads you to the online audio files.

The space that linkes the dark and the light room together carried fotographs untidily pinned to the wall, as the ON VACATION posters they show.

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