Seminar: September 4–7, 2015
Mini book fair: September 5–6, 6–8pm
Nova Kino / Nova Hotel
Cicignons plass
Trondheim
A Real Work of Art
September 2–20, 2015
Opening: September 2, 6pm
RAM Gallery
Kongens gate 3
Oslo
www.transformativeartproduction.net
www.levart.no
Since the neoliberal attack on public institutions of art and art education, artistic work has become an entrepreneurial activity within a restrictive framework conditioned by the expanding art market and hegemonic political agendas prescribing the usefulness of art. The division of labor in the creative and knowledge industries has formed huge masses of artists that serve as a “reserve army” for cheap creative labor.
In recent years artists have organized themselves in new ways, developing strategies to agitate for better labor conditions and certain standards of payment for artistic work.
Major discussions dealing with the conditions of artistic production address the precarity that artistic labor has in common with other branches of “immaterial” and reproductive (“invisible”) labor. In this context, artistic work is seen as a model for highly exploitative working relations in late capitalism. To understand what kind of precarity is at stake, one needs to take into account the whole process of production and the position of the artist within it.
Obviously, we should distinguish between the precarity of Thai berry pickers working in the forests of Finland and Norway and the position of artists who, believing in the idea of “liberated work,” have to labor under precarious conditions. Less obvious, but no less real, are the different levels of precarity due to the social stratification of the art world.
In examining these differences and contradictions, with conditions varying considerably between the peripheries and centers of capital, between the global South and North, can the general precarity of art production be seen to function as a common denominator in artists’ struggles for better working conditions? Or do we need a different political basis for coalition-building that would be realized in a different model of production? In such a setting, can the autonomy of artistic production become an emancipatory force? Or should artists join social movements and political parties of the new left that aim for non-capitalist transformation?
Seminar:
This seminar, “Art Production in Restriction: Possibilities of Transformative Art Production and Coalition-Building,” brings together artists, writers, critics, and curators who are active in groups that are struggling for better working conditions in the arts and society at large. Over the course of two days, participants will discuss theoretical conceptions of artistic labor and precarity, exchange local and transnational experiences in confronting the neoliberal entrepreneurial mode of art production, and strategize models of transformative and emancipatory art production and organizing.
Featuring: Airi Triisberg, Corina L Apostol, Danilo Prnjat, Gregory Sholette, Ivor Stodolsky, Jean-Baptiste Naudy, Jelena Vesić, Jesper Alvær, Jochen Becker, Kuba Szreder, Lise Skou, Lise Soskolne, Marina Vishmidt, Marita Muukkonen, Marius Lervåg Aasprong, Minna Henriksson, Mourad El Garouge, Noah Fischer, Raluca Voinea, and Sissel M Bergh
The online compendium of the participating artists, writers, critics, and curators is accessible on the seminar webpage.
Exhibition:
Featuring: Corina L. Apostol (ArtLeaks), Federico Geller, Fokus Grupa, Nikolay Oleynikov (Chto Delat?), and Iulia Toma
September 2, 6pm
Opening of the exhibition A Real Work of Art – art, work, and solidarity structures with a promotion of the ArtLeaks Gazette #3. It will be accompanied by the lecture “Art Workers Between Precarity and Resistance: A Genealogy” by Corina L. Apostol (ArtLeaks).
The seminar and the exhibition are curated by Rena Raedle and Vladan Jeremic.
Raedle and Jeremic were invited as guest curators at LevArt (project space Levanger) and RAM Galleri (Oslo) in 2015 as part of an ongoing project collaboration between the two institutions.
Financial support for this project/seminar was provided by Arts Council Norway and Nordic Culture Point. Preliminary research for this project was done during a residency of the artists at The Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale.
