Seminar 1 
Marta Echaves / Antonio Gómez Villar / María Ruido
Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 March 2018, 6-9pm. Virreina LAB
Free entrance. Limited places
 

Working Dead. Post-work scenarios is a research project that uses written and audiovisual material to explore the boundaries of work after the digital and robotic revolution, but above all after the paradigm shift brought about by cognitive-cultural capitalism and its diverse and increasingly informal and hyper-flexible types of work contract.

This research has been carried out without losing sight of class consciousness within the national context, the racialised structure of the transnational workforce and the current gender divisions which, despite new variables, remain solidly in place within the global workplace. It therefore advocates recognition of a series of practices and critical theories which, for decades now, have been redefining the concepts of work and employment and the relationship between production and reproduction.

In this scenario, the reworked definitions of Marxism, but above all decolonial and feminist criticism, have constantly proven to be rich sources of fertile questions with huge political significance, thus forming an essential aspect of the research. As such, our first public seminar focuses on the relationships between production and reproduction, new definitions of work and the economy itself from the perspective of feminist thinking, new types of associations and unions, and the relationships between income, class, time and gender.

If the concept of work has been redefined several times over the course of history, and if, as the Working Dead project postulates, we are currently undergoing a full-blown change to the productive economy, how will the post-work scenario affect the sustainability of life and reproductive work? What new debates does the post-industrial perspective open up in relation to gender and sex? Where and how do we construct our processes of subjectification and embodiment in a global workplace defined by immaterial work? What place is reserved for the material sustenance of life, the body that cares and caregiving? And, in this apparently deliquescent world, what other ways of organised cooperation and struggle can we envisage if traditional unions have become institutions of kowtowing agreement?

On 21 and 22 March, we will come together to think about these and other related questions at La Virreina Centre de l’Imatge.

Guests:

Wednesday 21 March (6–9 p.m.): Matxalen Legarreta and Marta Malo de Molina

Thursday, 22 March (6–9 p.m.): Las Kellys (+ Organizar lo (im)posible) and Agrupación Feminista de Trabajadoras del Sexo (AFEMTRAS)

Matxalen Legarreta. Degree in Sociology from the UPV/EHU and International Doctorate in Sociology from the same university. She has undertaken postgraduate studies both at the UPV/EHU (University Specialisation in Applied Social Research) and at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Specialising in the Sociology of Consumption: Market Research Theory and Practice). She has been a lecturer at the Sociology 2 Department at the UPV/EHU since 2008. Her main areas of research are: domestic work and caregiving, gender inequalities, time-budget surveys and the sociology of time. She works from a feminist perspective focused on the sustainability of life. She is a member of the AFIT Feminist Anthropology Research Group.

Marta Malo de Molina. Translator and "militant researcher", she has spent more than a decade participating in and promoting research focused on and guided by emancipation practices. She has been a member of numerous collectives and driven platforms for action such as Eskalera Karakola, El Laboratorio II, Precarias a la deriva, Observatorio Metropolitano (where she carried out research on neoliberal government and borders together with Débora Ávila), El Ferrocarril Clandestino, Yo sí Sanidad Universal and Radio Onda Precaria, among many others. Co-author of the book Ensayos y experiencias entre investigación y militancia [Essays and experiences in research and activism] (Traficantes de sueños, 2004), she has taught for the Campus Relatoras feminist training platform and the Nociones Comunes political training project, and has written a number of articles for newspapers and magazines such as El Diario, Diagonal, Nodo50, etc.

Las Kellys. Las Kellys is a nationwide, self-organised association for hotel chamber maids. The name “Las Kellys” comes from a popular tongue-twister that goes: “la Kelly, la que limpia” (Kelly, the one who cleans). In this case, they clean hotels.
Their manifesto sets out a series of demands regarding working conditions and social recognition.
The association was officially launched on 11 October 2016 in Barcelona and has since expanded to eight regions around Spain.
For more information on Las Kellys, including their manifesto, go to: https://laskellys.wordpress.com/quienes-somos/

“Organizar lo (im)posible”.  A short film by Tonina Matamalas and Carme Gomila in collaboration with Las Kellys Barcelona and Cooperativa de Tècniques. Documentary-animation, 15 min. (2017): Las Kellys, the chambermaids’ association with eight groups around Spain, is fighting to improve working and living conditions. This documentary, which mixes animation with real images, lasts about the same time it takes a chambermaid to clean a room — 15 minutes — and deals with health and healthcare, tourism policies, the feminisation of job insecurity, migration, organisation and resistance, aspects which intertwine to reveal the complexity faced by these workers. What is more, this animated short has been made with the involvement of all the members of Las Kellys Barcelona.

Tonina Matamalas Ensenyat. Andratx, 1987. She holds a degree in Fine Art from the Universitat de Barcelona. As an illustrator who specialises in live drawing and graphic recording, she works in the area of drawing, documentaries, 2D animation and art and education. She is a member of the collectives www.maixap.tv and www.projecteuter.org, and contributor on the experimental animation and screen printing workshop www.czentrifuga.de.

Carme Gomila Seguí. Maó, 1987. After obtaining a Degree in Fine Art from the Universitat de Barcelona, she completed her training at the Universidad de Guadalajara (Mexico) and with a Masters’ in Digital Arts from Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Her current work includes the creation of visual material for shows, running audiovisual workshops and developing projects based around technology and feminism. She is a member of the collectives ATZUR.info, Cooperativa de Tècniques and MAIXAP.tv, as well as the Can Batlló publishing collective.

AFEMTRAS. The Agrupación Feminista de Trabajadoras del Sexo (AFEMTRAS; the Feminist Sex Workers Group) was created in 2015 by sex workers at the Villaverde industrial estate in Madrid. It was formed in reaction to the harassment and abuse of power generated by the Citizens’ Security Law, whose restrictions include preventing sex workers from offering services to clients and threatens both parties with fines. Not only is AFEMTRAS fighting to repeal the law, but it also works towards mutual empowerment, growth and support, coexistence with local residents and business owners and, above all improvements to the working conditions and social recognition of this sector, which has historically been criminalised and marginalised.