Parasite Lottery

Adapting and fusing a lottery model for art funding that survives despite the dwindling of other cultural budgets and arisan, a commons-oriented micro-crediting system popular in Indonesia, Parasite Lottery invites four art organizations together as bidders, winners and hosts of lottery drawing events that are open to the public. The winners receive a sum of money to be used as a “fee for deviation”. In other words, the prize money should be spent on something that the winning organization would usually never have the budget for. For example, the money could equally be spent on “doing nothing”, just as it could be used for a project that was otherwise not possible, due to a lack of financial resources.

Beyond the prize itself, Parasite Lottery is a collective exploration of chance effects, not just in the thrill of winning, but also through a series of gatherings that will take place around it, including talks, food, and music. The latter will be produced by Wok The Rock in collaboration with Berlin and Yogykarta-based musician Frau (Leilani Hermiasih), and the lyrics will be written in collaboration with several Dutch art professionals. These invoke key issues relating to cultural policies and their effects on art organizations, ranging from austerity measures and precarity to the debt economy, and questions concerning sustainability and solidarity.