KUNSTITÖÖTAJAD, ÜHINEGE!

Seminar kunstitöötajate töötingimustest, sotsiaalsetest garantiidest ja organiseerumismudelitest

Aeg: 19.-20. november 2010
Koht: projektiruum MÄRZ (Olevimäe 7)
Korraldaja: Kaasaegse Kunsti Liidu töögrupp


Seminari eesmärk on vahetada kogemusi, kuidas on (vabakutseliste) kunstitöötajate töötingimuste ja sotsiaalsete turvalisusega seonduv problemaatika reguleeritud erinevates Euroopa riikides ning milline on loomeliitude roll kunstitöötajate sotsiaalsete huvide esindamisel. Arutlusele tulevad küsimused: Kuidas tagada vabakutselisele kunstitöötajatele elementaarsed sotsiaalsed garantiid nagu õigus tervishoiule, reproduktsioonile, pensionile jne. Kuidas tagada kunstitöötajatele võimalus professionaalsest tegevusest elatuda? Milline on loomeliitude roll kultuuri-ja sotsiaalpoliitikate mõjutamisel? Millised võiksid olla loomeliidu kui ametiühingu tegevussuunad?

Seminar toimub inglise keeles. Esimesel päeval tutvustavad kutsutud organisatsioonid ja intsiatiivid oma praktikat ja töömudeleid. Seminari teine päev koosneb töötubadest, mille eesmärgiks on rahvusvaheliste kogemuste valguses välja töötada konkreetseid ettepanekuid ja mudeleid, kuidas tõstatada ja lahendada kunstitöötajate töötingimuste ja sotsiaalsete garantiidega seotud probleeme Eesti kontekstis.

Seminar saab teoks tänu Eesti Kultuurkapitali ja Taani Kultuuri Instituudi toetusele.


Seminari programm:






Friday, November 19
12:45 Introduction
13:00 Maria Chehonadskih – Post-Soviet Precarity: Informal Relations and “Protections of Proximity” in cultural production
14:00 Anna Curcio – Edufactory Collective
15:00 Brian Enevoldsen & Stine Ofelia Kildevang – UKK (Unge Kunstnere og Kunstformidlere, Young Artists and Artworkers)

16:00 Lunch

17:00 Daniela Koweindl – Precarious Working! Precarious Living! – Precarious Fighting?
18:00 Sezgin Boynik & Minna L. Henriksson – Art Networks and Cultural Policies in Post-Yugoslav Spaces
19:00 Vladan Jeremic – Two Case Studies: Association of Visual Artists of Serbia and Other Scene


Saturday, November 20

12:00 Discussion: organizing models of art workers
14:30 Lunch
15:30 Discussion: working conditions of art workers
17:30 Discussion: social security of art workers



Ettekannete lühitutvustused:
Maria Chehonadskih: Post-Soviet Precarity: Informal Relations and “Protections of Proximity” in cultural production
The starting point of this presentation will be an analysis of Post-Soviet situation of precarization after political and social transformations in 1990. Shock therapy and a sharp decrease in production led to massive unemployment that was in no way regulated by the state. This presentation problematizes the first forms of self-enterprises as a new system of nonstandard employment: when unemployed people united into groups and networks or operated independently, hiring others as “day” workers. As a system of labour relations, precarity emerged spontaneously and at the grassroots level, via family ties and friendships, informal relations between former colleagues, and a broad network of mutual assistance and mutual dependence. Broad-based creativity as a means of surviving under new conditions also affected the field of cultural production, which had to be renewed and provided with new institutional foundations. It looks at the mechanisms of informal relations in cultural production and goes through it as a base for working and living conditions. The art community is united according to the principle of “protections of proximity,” the basis of which is not political identification, but territorial and professional community. For a long time, it were not the mechanisms of state regulation that defended people from social risks, but networks of mutual aid and support formed among relatives. This presentation asks about the possibilities to organize cultural workers in Post-Soviet situation, focusing on alternative forms of social protection and strong de-politization processes.

Anna Curcio/edufactory: «What was once the factory is now the university». The edufactory project started off with this apparently straightforward affirmation, not in order to assume it but to question it; to open it, radically rethinking it, towards theoretical and political research. Using con-research as method edufactory inquires university transformations, knowledge production and forms of conflicts on a global scale. It was born in 2006 and at first it was a web based discussion around conflicts and transformations of the university. Today it runs as complex political machine and it includes several branches and activities. The presentation will give an insight to several edufactory activities and processes of transnational organization. Furthermore, Anna will discuss some of the key concepts informing the project – i.e. the hypothesis of cognitive capitalism, con-research and self-education, the production of the common.
Edufactory: www.edu-factory.org

Brian Enevoldsen and Stine Ofelia Kildevang from UKK are going to talk about the organization’s historical background and the specific political context in which the organization was formed, and present an overview of the political system UKK is part of today. They will elaborate on the internal structure of the organization - the distribution of power, decision-making, daily operations, economy etc. - and the internal discussions connected to upholding and maintaining an organization like UKK. They will give insight to current fields of activity and matters of special interest to the UKK, reflecting on the potentials and dynamics connected to this work. They will also touch on the problematics of becoming from an activist movement to an activist organization with actual political influence.
UKK (Unge Kunstnere og Kunstformidlere, Young Artists and Artworkers): www.ukk.dk

Daniela Koweindl/ IG Bildende Kunst: Precarious working! Precarious living! - Precarious fighting?

3.526 Euro is – according to the latest study (2008) – the median net income from art work of a woman artist in Austria – annually! Her median annual entire income (from all sources) is 13.042 Euro. A better, but still not convincing economic status would achieve her male colleagues: 18.833 Euro. 37 % of the artists have to make a living below the poverty level. This figure is five times higher than the figure for people depending on wage labour in general.
Additionally a lack of social security is state of the art: 16% of the artists are missing continuous health insurance, 30% have only fragmentary retirement pension insurance. Since 2009 unemployment insurance is optionally available for self-employed artists - but unaffordable. Artists without an EU/EEA-passport have further more to face racist alien’s acts as well as obstacles in administrative proceedings concerning residence and working permits. These conditions lead to severe restrictions in freedom of movement and freedom of art.
But how to fight against? How to improve the working and living conditions (not only) of artists? It's the daily business of e.g. IG Bildende Kunst, association of visual artists in Austria. Key activities like fights for social rights and for unrestricted mobility usually take place together with other artists associations (mainly within the umbrella organization Council of Culture), other NGOs, activists, … etc. Throughout the last years IG Bildende Kunst was engaged in developing several policy papers and lists of demands, concerning tiny measures as well as fundamental improvements. Whereas demands like „Basic income for everyone!“ or „Freedom of art! And the right to stay for everyone!“ are still far away from implementation, some small steps to improve the social status of artists could be achieved.
As a basic principle IG Bildende Kunst's does not fight (exclusively) for particular interests of (visual) artists, but takes problems in the art sector as initial points and – especially when demanding fundamental improvements – always considers a (more) universalistic perspective. Equal rights for everybody!
IG Bildende Kunst: www.igbildendekunst.at

Sezgin Boynik & Minna L. Henriksson: Art Networks and Cultural Policies in Post-Yugoslav Spaces
During artist-residencies between the years 2005 and 2009 Minna L. Henriksson has made maps about personal and professional relations in the art scenes of Istanbul, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Belgrade and Helsinki. She will present this series of works, which are subjective artistic researches based on unofficial information, but bring visible power positions, corruption and conquest of liberal cultural politics over the leftist. 
Relating to this series of works, and using the map of Zagreb as a case-study, Sezgin Boynik draws theoretical conclusions on the relation between art collectives, art networks and cultural policies in post-Yugoslavian condition. He is analyzing three aspects of cultural policy of collective art, namely the managerial, nationalist and representational aspects. 


Vladan Jeremic: During the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia structure of artists union was very developed and defined by the system of self-management and state bureaucracy. Each artists could have a status of co-called "independent free artists" with the possibility to get health care, studios, flats, insurance and pension, all given by the state. During the process of disintegration of Yugoslavia, the neoliberal reforms and the hard economical transition have transformed completely almost all official institutions into agencies or capitalist companies. Amazingly some of the artist unions have survived until today. Such an example is the huge Association of Visual Artists of Serbia (http://www.ulus-art.org/) with more than 2000 members that still kept almost all benefits from the former socialist system. One completely different example is a recently established platform of Belgrade independent cultural scene called The Other Scene (http://www.drugascena.org/node/2). The Other Scene gathers organizations, groups, and individuals involved in the improvement of legal and infrastructural status of the independent scene; redistribution of public spaces; increasing transparency of operational mechanisms and protocols of responsible institutions in arts and culture; as well as presence of the independent scene in media and public space. Strategies of the Other Scene in the field of cultural policies are: integration of the independent scene “bottom-up” (self-organization of actors), increasing of its visibility, dialogue/pressure on the responsible institutions and internal coordination of activities. In the presentation those two different models of organizations (ULUS and The Other Scene), will be critically presented and both models discussed with all their advantages and disadvantages and functions in local and in European context.


Esinejate lühitutvustused:

Sezgin Boynik (Helsinki) is a sociologist and writer. He is currently working on his Phd in Jyvaskyla University, Cultural Policy department on cultural politics of alternative cinema production in Socialist Yugoslavia during sixties and seventies. Previously he has published on Situationist International, History of Punk and on connections of nationalism and contemporary art.

Maria Chehonadskih (Moscow) is a theorist and curator. She is the editor of Khudozhestvennyi zhurnal/Moscow Art Magazine and member of initiative group «May Congress». She researches problems of precarity and cultural production.

Anna Curcio (Bologna) is a founding member of the edu-factory collective, political activist and independent researcher. She received her PhD in Sociology at the University of Calabria in 2005 and a Postdoctoral degree at the Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke University in 2009. She mainly works on social movements and labour struggles within the framework of post-Operaist debate. Her articles and book chapters have been published in Italian and international publications. She authored La paura dei Movimenti. Evento e genealogia di una mobilitazione (Rubbettino 2006) and co-authored Precariopoli. Parole e pratiche delle nuove lotte sul lavoro (manifestolibri 2005). Recently she co-edited The Common and the Forms of the Commune, a special issue of the journal Rethinking Marxism (22:3, 2010). She is a member of the UniNomade project and contributes to the newspaper il manifesto.

Brian Enevoldsen (Copenhagen) is vice president of UKK, the Danish union for artists and art workers. He has been a member of UKK since 2003 and active in the board since May 2010. He graduated from Funen Art Academy in 2007. In his art practice he often works with photography as an object of investigation. He is concerned with displacing imagery and other resevoirs of information by inserting them into other systems of representation and applying them as illustrative symptoms of the culture we inhabit.

Minna L. Henriksson (Helsinki) is a visual artist whose work is based on research. She is interested in recording and analyzing the hidden and obvious ideological sets and power structures in contemporary societies. She is currently based in Helsinki. In recent years she has been exhibiting and participating in artist-in-residency programs in southeastern Europe, and has lived in Istanbul.

Vladan Jeremic (Belgrade) is an artist, activist and keen observer of the art system and the relations between culture and politics. He holds M.A. in Arts, graduated Interdisciplinary Master’s Studies at the University of Arts Belgrade. Since 2002 he works together with Rena
Rädle as artistic couple. They are founders of Biro Beograd, an independent association that gives platform for critical practices that step beyond conventional forms of art, cultural and social research or activism in Serbia and in international context. Rädle& Jeremic are also active in the context of human rights, Roma and LGBT issues. They have exhibited solo exhibitions in Trondheim, Belgrade, Paris, Hamburg and Novi Sad. Recent solo exhibition under the title Psychogeographical Research was realised at the Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina in Serbia.
http://www.modukit.com/raedle-jeremic/
http://birobeograd.info

Stine Ofelia Kildevang (Copenhagen) is one of the two vice presidents in UKK, the Danish union for artists and art workers. She has been a passive member since 2003 and active in the board since May 2010. She received her MFA degree from Malmö Art Academy in 2009 and BA in Social Anthropology from the University of Copenhagen in 2000. She works conceptually in any media around questions concerning the human condition. www.stineofeliak.com

Daniela Koweindl is spokesperson of IG Bildende Kunst (visual artists' association: www.igbildendekunst.at). She is member of the editorial board of Kulturrisse (magazine for cultural policies: www.kulturisse.at). Once in a while she works as freelance journalist and project manager. Her key activities focus on cultural policies, social rights, anti-racism - equal rights for everybody!




Kontakt:
Airi Triisberg
56565953