A new production centre, set in an undetermined future. What is being produced here? People with their own wills, interests, and desires are being equipped with the physiological, cognitive, psychological and social core competencies in order to transform them into human resources. Welcome to Labour Power Plant!

This fictional institution, which is portrayed in Schmalisch’s and Schlicht’s eponymous film and various exhibitions as well as a theatre play, may appear dystopic at first, all of its elements, however, are based on real-existing strategies and methods of preparing people for work in job centres and society at large, acting out the social construction of the commodity labour power.

Besides documenting the body of work around Labour Power Plant, the publication brings together a wide range of theoretical perspectives – investigating “humanist” management strategies, the history of freelance work, the appropriation of originally critical art forms, the concept of labour power, film historical reflections on filming “Capital,” and the use of dance notation systems in the industry – but also “transcripts” from working life as well as other materials and interviews gathered in the course of the research.

Romana Schmalisch is a Berlin-based filmmaker and artist who studied Fine Arts and New Media at the Berlin University of the Arts. Robert Schlicht is a Berlin-based filmmaker and artist who studied Philosophy at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Since 2004 Schlicht and Schmalisch have collaborated on numerous projects at the interface of film and theory to examine how historical processes and societal structures can be represented in film. The theme of labour in capitalist societies is a focal point in their films, exhibitions and lecture series. Their films and artworks have been shown in cinemas, festivals, and art institutions worldwide, such as Berlinale; HKW Berlin; n.b.k. Berlin; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, FRAC Grand Large—Hauts-de-France; FRAC Sud and Mucem, Marseille; Centre Pompidou, Paris; CCCOD, Tours; Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers; Kunsthalle Wien, NN Contemporary Art, Northampton; collective gallery, Edinburgh; Centre for Contemporary Art at Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Songwon Art Center, Seoul.