AMANDA: CLAY IN YE STOMACHS by Olga Micińska

conversation between Olga Micińska and Andrea Verdecchia, with a short reading at 6.30pm

Amanda is an incidental periodical and a glossy magazine on technological matters. As a self-published initiative by artist Olga Micińska, it aims to establish an emancipatory platform bringing together various perspectives on technical knowledge in contemporary and future-oriented contexts. Amanda is greatly inspired by Tradeswomen – a quarterly magazine for women in blue-collar work, published in the 80s and the 90s in California, which at the time managed to create a network of support among its readers, challenging the gendered divisions in the domain of manual labour.

The second issue of Amanda titled “Clay in Ye Stomachs” focuses on the social, political and personal importance of the ability to build, which too often is alienated from most people and delegated to construction work specialists or ruling bodies. The contributions encourage a reflection on the matter through themes like instinctive children’s play, animal construction skills, natural building methods,gestures of disobedience and solutions for cooperative formations.

Contributors to the publication include: Damien Brailly, Avril Corroon, Lui Enomoto, Forerunner, Girls and Queers to the Front, Les Ateliers del Bosc, S*an D. Henry-Smith, Michiel Huijben, Olga Micińska, Narges Mohammadi, Joanna Piotrowska, Anna Siekierska and Alicia Spence.

Amanda: Clay in Ye Stomachs has been officially published by Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, and is made with the support of Het Cultuurfonds, Mondriaan Fund and Irish Museum of Modern Art.

Olga Micińska is a practicing woodworker, visual artist and educator. In her interdisciplinary approach she combines practical aspects of craft with fantastical anecdotes, while projecting grounds for cooperation, knowledge-sharing, and handling of the material and non-material resources.

Andrea Verdecchia is an architect specialised in housing, affordability and co-production developments. He is a co-founder of Time to Access, an Amsterdam-based platform devoted to the development of radical architecture.