MAN is a research project by Lucia Babina and Henriette Waal that focused on the Naschmarkt, the “monumental” market of Vienna, designed by the architect Otto Wagner in the first decade of the Twentieth century.
MAN was staged in the Naschmarkt as part of the exhibition Into the City – Im Paradiesgarten, organised by the Wiener Festwochen and curated by Birgit Lurz.
The Market Academy Naschmarkt is an experimental factory for the invention of new practices and new forms of entrepreneurial attitudes. It is an engaging instrument, encouraging market people to come together and to make space for a collective regeneration of the market.
At the time of our art intervention, the Naschmarkt was about to go through a severe renovation phase. Together with the market workers we initiated a radical academy where the Naschmarkt cultural values and knowledge were preserved and redefined by the workers themselves. This collective effort entitled the participants to create the conditions for a transformation, which empowered them to redefine the market system, its identity and new parameters of sustainability.
MAN launched 5 actions: MAN-Reception, MAN-Knoedel Fakultaet, MAN-Talks, MAN-Pamphlet, MAN-Drechsler.