European Cultural Policies 2015
Iaspis
European Cultural Policies 2015: A Report with Scenarios on the Future of Public Funding for Contemporary Art in Europe
A collaboration between Iaspis, eipcp and åbäke
– Release 20-24 October 2005 at the Frieze Art Fair, as part of Frieze Projects
– Workshop 18-20 November 2005 at Iaspis in Stockholm
European Cultural Policies 2015: A Report with Scenarios on the Future of Public Funding for Contemporary Art in Europe
A collaboration between Iaspis, eipcp and åbäke
– Release 20-24 October 2005 at the Frieze Art Fair, as part of Frieze Projects
– Workshop 18-20 November 2005 at Iaspis in Stockholm
It is 2015. Art is almost completely instrumentalised regardless of whether its financing is private or public. Art services are either national or European interests, where it is especially useful in the construction or reinforcement of specific identities. At the same time, art is a desirable commercial product. It is ideal for collecting and it contributes to regional development whilst providing society with new creative employment opportunities. Visiting art museums and centres is a popular, easily digested leisure activity. In 2015 art is also used to stave off undesirable fascistic and nationalistic tendencies in society.
This is one way of viewing the near future according to the eight contributors to European Cultural Policies 2015: A Report with Scenarios on the Future of Public Funding for Contemporary Art in Europe. The report is a collaboration between Iaspis (International Artist Studio Programme in Sweden) eipcp (European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies) and åbäke, an international design group based in London. The report has been produced on the occasion of the Frieze Art Fair in October 2005. At the Frieze Art Fair, the report will be distributed free of charge. The report will also be available as a pdf-file at www.iaspis.com and www.eipcp.net
The other way to view future development would be towards a more critically oriented art a cultural practice that finds its own route via the establishment of self-supporting micro-systems. This vision of art is not necessarily adapted for exhibitions and other established institutional formats while it would remain an important component of civil society. This more engaged system would encompass more forms of collaboration than present-day art appears to do, all according to the contributors to the report. But how would it be funded?
Workshop
From 18-20 November 2005 a workshop will be held at Iaspis in Stockholm in which tactics and strategies for concrete action based on the report will be discussed. With the authors: Hüseyin Alptekin (artist, Istanbul), Branka Curcic (editor of kuda.org, Novi sad), Rebecca Gordon Nesbitt (curator, London/Glasgow), Tone Hansen (artist and critic, Oslo), Frédéric Jacquemin (Fondation Hicter, Brussels) Oleg Kireev (art and media critic, Moscow), Gerald Raunig (theoretician, eipcp, Vienna) and Cornelia Sollfrank (artist and publicist, Berlin). The authors will give public presentations at Iaspis Friday 18 November and they will also particpate in a public workshop Saturday 19 November. Sunday 20 November is scheduled for closed discussions between the authors for the report.
The aim is to think through and discuss the various scenarios in order to start formulating methods for dealing with the situation. Are site-specific approaches necessary? How can networks and other alliances function? How realistic are alternative economies? What could be fruitful ways of approaching mixed economies? The workshop in Stockholm will later be followed up by workshops in Vienna and elsewhere. To register for the Stockholm workshop please contact extra@iaspis.com
