The Bread King Learns to Bake

April 28 – May 22, 2018

Pilot+Projects

1719 N. 5th St., Philadelphia, PA 19122

www.pilotprojectspilotprojects.com

The Bread King Learns to Bake: New Work by David Weldzius

April 28 – May 22, 2018

Opening Reception: April 28, 7-10 pm

In October 1941, Bertolt Brecht submitted a script to MGM Studios. In it, J. Fleischhacker, a Chicago businessman hires a poor migrant to bake bread for his growing culinary empire. The bread is so delicious that Fleischhacker often lingers in the bakery relishing the aromas and savoring every bite. In time, a new recipe is introduced which allows the bakery to increase production, albeit to the detriment of taste. In restructuring the business, the migrant baker is fired. However, Fleischhacker soon realizes his error. He enlists a team of chemists to inspect the crust of the migrant’s bread and recuperate her original recipe. Alas, their efforts are futile. With a pinch of realpolitik and a dash of proletarian moralism, the Bread King comes to realize that a good loaf of bread requires not only quality ingredients, but “one day of good work; one world of good neighbors; a heart of good will; and a good appetite.”

Not surprisingly, Brecht’s script was promptly rejected. The Bread King’s day in the Hollywood sun was never to come.

For his exhibition The Bread King Learns to Bake, David Weldzius uses Brecht’s script as a point of departure in developing new works that explore migration, labor, and land occupation. In a large-scale painting, Weldzius reproduces an unfinished quilt that his great-grandmother stitched from red, white, and blue work garments after immigrating from Lithuania to Chicago last century; in a series of ceramic works, Weldzius distills the lyrics of popular labor songs in order to draw comparison between the proletariat’s alienation from production in the twentieth century and the precariat’s alienation from secure employment in the twenty first; while in a short video work, Weldzius ruminates on Brecht’s lasting influence on the cinema of Jean Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet.

In addition to these works, Weldzius will exhibit four bronze plaques each inscribed with the words “SPACE WITHIN THESE LINES NOT DEDICATED.” In Philadelphia, this declaration is commonly cast in bronze and set into sidewalks to demarcate property lines. As a result of “prescriptive easement,” a remnant of colonial law, vacant land may be bequeathed to occupants who make use of it continuously for 21 years. The plaques, then, protect landowners from so-called “adverse possession,” informing citizens that, although the property is accessible for pedestrian crossing, it is not zoned for public use, nor can interlopers claim residence there. In setting copies of these plaques into the floor of Pilot+Projects, Weldzius aims to draw attention to the condo developments that will soon border the building’s North, East, and South easements, thereby deferring the sale of the property—a prospect the landlord will consider after Pilot+Projects’ lease expires in August 2018.

In 1988, the Catholic Workers of Philadelphia converted an abandoned lot near Pilot+Projects into a community garden, eventually gaining ownership through adverse possession. On May 1, 2018, the land will be returned to the original owner by court order. For the duration of Weldzius’s exhibition, legal documents and press related to the ongoing dispute, Catholic Workers v. Mayrone LLC, will be on display for public viewing. The artist is optimistic that this case study will call to mind the surplus of disused land surrounding Pilot+Projects, inviting residents to imagine a social-ecology that nurtures the reproduction of commonwealth above the reproduction of luxury housing.     

Concurrent with his exhibition at Pilot+Projects, Weldzius’ photo-essay “Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Four Meditations on the Old and New Spirits of Capitalism” will be published in XTRA Contemporary Arts Quarterly. Here, Weldzius has trained his camera lens on Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, once home to the largest steel producer in the world, now home to the Sands Bethlehem Casino. Taken together, his writing and photography considers globalization’s effect on the “forgotten men and women” of the present day. For further details, please visit: https://www.x-traonline.org/article/slouching-towards-bethlehem-four-meditations-on-the-old-and-new-spirits-of-capitalism/

No title (from the series Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent), 2018
6 ¾ x 10 5/8 x 2 1/8 in. porcelain
Lyrics courtesy of Woody Guthrie

No title (from the series Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent), 2018
6 ¾ x 10 5/8 x 2 1/8 in. porcelain
Lyrics courtesy of Larry Tamblyn

One (after Domicella Wasgardis-Stejskal), 2018
72 x 96 in. oil, acrylic, crayon, linen, grommets, rope

“La Finquita Community Garden Press” and “Philadelphia Catholic Worker v. Mayrone LLC,” 2018
Binders on custom bench, dimensions variable

Workers Leaving the Factory (after Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub), 2018
Music courtesy of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Ascension Oratorio ‘Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen’ (Chorus), BWV11
12 min 50 sec HD video

Homesick (after Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub), 2018
13 x 11 in. pigment print

Easement, 2018
Original inscription at Federal Reserve Bank
10 N. Independence Mall, Philadelphia, PA 19106
12 ¼ x 12 ¼ x 5/8 in. silicon bronze