RELAX, Resident Artist Lecture 2013

Marie-Antoinette Chiarenza (born in 1957 in Tunis, Tunisia) and Daniel Hauser (born in 1959 in Bern, Switzerland) began collaborating in 1983 and have been working under the name RELAX since 1997. The name stands for a stance that suspends speed and the pressure of expectations and tensions, creating space for reflection and fundamental questions. During their lecture for the 2013 Barbara Lee Lecture Series at Skowhegan, they highlighted several key notions in their work, such as value, property, responsibility, and memory. Their multimedia works challenge social values as well as the often uncritically perpetuated art canon and the hierarchical power structures of the art world.