Manifesto for Maintenance Art, 1969!

Proposal for an Exhibition “CARE”

In 1969 Mierle Laderman Ukeles wrote the MANIFESTO FOR MAINTENANCE ART, 1969! Proposal for an Exhibition “CARE,” in which she rigorously declared maintenance and care work to be art: “I do a hell of a lot of washing, cleaning, cooking, renewing, supporting, preserving etc. Also, (up to now separately) I ‘do’ Art. Now, I will simply do these maintenance everyday things, and flush them up to consciousness, exhibit them, as Art.” The four-page document contrasts avant-garde art committed to innovation with the art of continuous maintenance, the idea of linear development and progress with repetitive care work, and ultimately the death instinct with the life instinct—while insisting on the inseparable link between them.