Hybrid online and in-person
October 13–14, 2023
A two day hybrid online and in-person initiative of Arts of the Working Class in cooperation with Kunstmuseum Stuttgart.
Who are the culture and art workers of today, What are they confronted with? What do they represent? How can art and cultural workers imagine spaces of representation that enable interdependent practices? How can institutions support and be part of self-organization in the cultural field?
Many people from across the spectrum of artistic and educational backgrounds continue to invisibly exist and participate in the production of a disparate, deregulated cultural field. However, an emerging artistic working class does not insist on its independence. Instead, we work explicitly collaboratively and in collectives, recognizing our socio-ecological, socio-cultural, and socio-economic interdependence, intertwining infrastructural and organizational work with the production of art itself.
A shared point of focus between the exhibition Sieh Dir die Menschen an! Das neusachliche Typenporträt in der Weimarer Zeit (Look at The People! The New Objectivity “Type” Portrait in the Weimar Period) on show at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and the street newspaper Arts of the Working Class is the image of workers and the transforming perception of culture and art workers in particular.
Through the two-day hybrid in-person and virtual Art Workers’ Summit on October 13–14, 2023, contemporary relationships to the means of production and one’s own (collective) body, along with perspectives of visibility and political assertiveness, will be explored and set in the museum context through keynotes, workshops, and artistic interventions from feminist, Marxist, bureaucratic and intersectional perspectives.
While artists of the Weimar Republic examined the faces of workers, a more general audience today may have little concept of the contemporary faces of cultural practitioners who are actively engaged in organizing meaningful interaction and collaboration. In an era in which imagery has diversified and visual trends are ephemeral, the search for a representational face may appear to have been overcome, but the question remains as to whether art workers can become visible and identifiable.
Schedule
Friday, October 13, 2023 2:30–6pm
Online: Zoom Link, code: Unions. Keynotes by Yin Aiwen on “The Solidarity Trinity”, and Dana Kopel on “The Organization of Art Workers within Museums”.
Saturday, October 14, 2023 2–7:30pm
Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Reuchlinstrasse 4B, 70178 Stuttgart, Germany. Workshop by Alexander Koch about “The Role of Commissioners in Cultural Production”. Discussion with Zoë Claire Miller (bbk berlin), Alice Pedroletti (AWI), and Eric Golo Stone (Künstlerhaus Stuttgart) on “The Joy and Pain of Contract and Policy Making”.
Artistic documentation
We have invited Naomi Rado (curator and writer, member of Synnika e.V.), Jeronimo Voss (artist and educator, member of Synnika e.V.), Marta Stanisława Sala (artist) and Dina El Kaisy Friemuth (artist) to document the events.
Accessibility
We strive to be accessible. We will have the individual program parts subtitled live with Otter.ai. For further inquiries regarding assistance, directions, or wheelchair accessibility, please contact hey [at] artsoftheworkingclass.org.
To ensure your participation, you can register for the entire event or individual program points by October 11, 2023 at fuehrung [at] kunstmuseum-stuttgart.de—spontaneous participation is also possible.
With the support of and in collaboration with Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Stadt Stuttgart, and Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden.
