Our Tomorrow w/ Mold Collective
Berlin, 16.11.21
Interview:
Mold Collective is Louise Croff Blake, Magdalena Jadwiga Härtelova, Diane Barbé, and Madelyn Byrd.
▣ What is the inspiration and vision behind Mold Collective?
MOLD grew from our mutual needs to talk about art - our own and others' - in the context of our dysphoria with late capitalism. As earth-lovers, we share a deep motivation to leave things a little better than we found them. We seek to address the intuition that something is greatly amiss in our reality, while, at the same time, we cultivate a sense of wonder at our planet, our communities, and the complex relationships between ancient and future knowledges.
If it sounds esoteric, then that's because we're just that type of people. In each of us is a dynamic range between practical reasoning and amorphous dreamworlds. We've realized that in harnessing this range together, we find the tools we need to process this very messy paradigm we share as contemporary arts practitioners.
In some way the driving force behind MOLD seems to me to be a simple wish to be together in a focussed way, and in that way we are like any other art collective. This is good. It can be said that we are living the vision then, because we get together, support each other, tell each other about our projects, come up with collective ones, exchange ideas and argue. We also create small protocols and nuanced ways of communicating and being together. It is simple and it is special because we continue to commit to doing this together in a world where moving slowly is not considered productive, where focused care and investment into others without a planned return or a goal of one big "project" is rare.
▣ Can you share a little bit about what you’ve included in this mix and your process?
We tried to pick tracks and sound bits by people that we believe already work towards, which also means inhabit, utopia. These utopias are far from ideal places and that is the point, because as we know, utopia is nowhere, it is a destination that will never be reached. Maybe it is what will be left when Earth will be eaten by the Sun one day...
The songs we chose use poetry, mood, and nostalgic reference to capture the bittersweetness of our utopia. We also make a point to center BIPOC, queer&trans, and women artists. Needless to say, our utopia is post-heteropatriarchal, anti-capitalist, and anti-colonial.
As we pooled our music together, we noticed common threads of dissonance as well as resonance; we each found songs to help express the fear and grief surrounding our idealisms.
▣ Can you share some of your individual and collective utopian dreams?
Unsurprisingly, MOLD's shared vision of utopia is tinged with anxiety. Rather than focus on an escapist fantasy land, we all realize that this idea of 'paradise' will still contain darkness. Our utopia just isn't flat. This three-dimensionality is in part due to our understanding that utopia cannot be achieved alone; and in the collective forging process, compromise is necessary. Conflict is something to neither fear nor avoid. The difficulty and the dedicated work behind building a better future is part of its beauty and richness. Eden is boring; MOLD's utopia is complex and lush, where the false barrier between 'human' and 'nature' is dissolved. We collaborate as a part of a global ecosystem, marrying the weirdness of digital futurism with a return to biophilia.
Today, we dream of the end of the nation-state, of not having to worry about how to pay my health insurance, of a friend who wants to be a mom feeling like she can do it without the fear of being disregarded and stretched too thin, I dream of the return of Native land, of a world without millionaires (let alone billionaires), of forests, and I dream of public toilets being free.
Tracklist
- Ana Roxanne - Rainy Day On The Cosmic Shore
- Diane Barbé - Utopia
- Li Yilei - Wei
- Seefeel - As One
- Chas Smith - Beatrix
- rRoxymore - Home Is Where the Music is
- Oneohtrix Point Never - Tales From the Trash Stratum
- Zbynek Vostrak - scales of light
- DJ Sprinkles - Lost Area (June)
- Evil Medved - Recording_74
- Sarah Davachi - Sybil
- ssabae - Grillons Fm Sonate
- Nala Sinephro - Space 8
- Joanne Christensen, Arlene Dunlap, Richard Dunlap, Garry Eister, Daniel Lentz - Slow Motion Mirror
- Fuga Ronto - Journey Unknown
- Rosicrucian - Knives ov Resistance
- Healion - I’ll See It When I Believe It
- Spivak - Make It Make Sense
- Cibo Matto - Sugar Water
- Golden Ivy - Klappen
- Harold Budd - To Begin Then Not Now
- Leanne Betasamosake Simpson - Under Your Always Light (Howie Beck, Jason Collett Remix)