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# Family values
- URL: https://arts-of-the-working-class.ghost.io/text/family-values/
- Published: 2024-12-03T00:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-04T12:58:58.000Z
- Description: Issue #34
- Author: AWC Team
- Tags: #issue, #issue-34

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- Price: EUR 5.00

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Is our family like a tree, firmly rooted, or like a fan, unfolding in many directions? The notion of family has long been framed as a  
stable, secure entity. Yet today, family values are shaped by forces that generate profound insecurity— economic, ecological, and social. Drawing from Astra Taylor's insights in The Age of Insecurity, this issue exam- ines how systems designed to create security, like money and property, paradoxically deepen our anxiety and uncertainty.

As we approach the end of a year marked by wars and destabilization, we rethink the family nucleus as more than just a biological or historical unit. We explore it through artists like Ayumi Paul, Danh Vo, and Leiko Ikemura, who offer alternative visions of interconnectedness. Taylor’s argument that capitalism is an “insecurity-producing machine” applies here, as the traditional family model is manipulated by power structures to uphold inequality, creating both division and a false sense of safety.

Inspired by Japanese graphics from the Edo period (1603–1868), safeguarded at the Langen Foundation— celebrating its 20th anniversary as a family-run art collection—we explore how contemporary artists reinterpret the era’s sustainable practices of togetherness, where human and ecological bonds coexisted in both peace and crisis. Through artists like Michikazu Matsune and Ayami Awazuhara, we see how family ties, like other social structures, are fluid and shaped by their surroundings. Yet, as Taylor notes, insecurity invites solidarity. Even the privileged are not immune to financial or environmental precarity, as Joshua Citarella and Catherine Liu discussed in their conversation on the rise of the new managerial class.

As curator Sohrab Mohebbi reminds us, “Art is where we practice freedom,” and that freedom opens new possibilities for collective strength. In this light, artists like Paulina Nolte, Malte Bartsch, and Katrin Mayer explore how expanding our concept of families—and by extension, cities and societies—can offer a path toward resilience. We hope you enjoy this edition, carefully curated to introduce Arts of the Working Class in Japan first as an e-paper and now in print on the streets of Berlin and elsewhere.

***Impressum / Imprint***

**Founders / Publishers / Directors**  
Verantwortlicher i.S.d . 18 Abs. 2 MStV María Inés Plaza Lazo, Pauł Sochacki

**Managing / Artistic Director**  
Amelie Jakubek

**Editor in Chief**  
Dalia Maini

**Editorial Assistance**  
Rita Torres

**Artistic Project Development & Distribution**  
Theresa Zwerschke

**Administrative Assistance**  
Selma Louise Christoph

**Proofreading**  
William Kherbek

**Translations**  
Takashi Arai

**Designer**  
AWC feat. Manuel Bürger

**Online Design**  
Giorgia Belotti

**Circle of Support - Volunteers:**  
Donald Eubank, Hassoumi Moctar Agali, Amina Zerourou, Ruslana Shabelnyk, Nina Abba, Hannah Lu Verse, anna zrenner, Sophie Franziska Schultz, Kira Schmitz, Nadine Bajek, Cora Pagano, Yasemin Şenkal, Lukas Grube, Duarte Eduardo, Felix Dengg, James Rhys Edwards, Louisa Maria Stank, Sophie Hartleib, Teresa Mayr, Leo Baumgärtner, Katharina Thurow, Annalisa Giacinti, Mia Ribeiro Alonso, Line Lange, Noa Jarri

**Druck**  
Druckzentrum Osnabrück GmbH & Co. KG, Osnabrück, DE

**Alle Vertriebs- und Kund\*innenanfragen an die Verlagsadresse**  
Reflektor Monde gUG (haftungsbeschränkt)  
Schillerpromenade 10, 12049 Berlin  
hey@artsoftheworkingclass.org

**Arts of the Working Class can now be read digitally, too.** Please find our ven- dors who carry a STREAD badge and you will be able to scan a code to digi- tally buy a copy and additionally the STREAD issue of each month.

**Donate**  
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