Liam Gillick: Why Work? (2010)

Art is a place where the rules of engagement are open to question. The knowledge worker also appears to challenge rules of engagement but can only do so in the production of software or a set of new fragmented relationships. The artist can create alienated relationships without all these intricacies.

Why Work? was first presented in New York as part of the Goethe Institut Wyoming Building series What Is the Good of Work? organised by Maria Lind, Director of the Bard College Center for Curatorial Studies and Simon Critchley, Chair of Philosophy at the New School. This short text comprises the presentation made by artist, Liam Gillick – who responded to Lind and Critchley alongside Professor Gianni Vattimo on January 30, 2010.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Post-Office, May-June 2010, Auckland, New Zealand.

Publisher Artspace, Auckland
ISBN 978047316950
49 pages

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Možnosti studentského života (2010) [Czech]

Možnosti studentského života je průběžně rozvíjený projekt skupiny P. O. L. E. (aktuálně působící ve složení Vasil Artamonov, Alexey Klyuykov, Václav Magid, Tereza Stejskalová, Pavel Sterec, Tomáš Uhnák), který formou výstavy seznamuje s různými pojetími společenské role studujících.

Projekt má několik složek. Faktografická část poskytuje základní vhled do dějin studentstva jako společenského fenoménu. Tvoří ji jednak graf, jenž lokalizuje klíčové události a hnutí na časové a zeměpisné ose, jednak medailonky vybraných osobností studentského aktivismu. Teoretická část přibližuje formou citátů různé koncepce identity studujících. Jako zdroj těchto pojetí posloužily manifesty studentských hnutí a úvahy některých myslitelů. Další složka projektu má podobu multimediální instalace, koláže z plakátů a letáků či sestřihu videí a ukazuje obraz studujících jako specifické skupiny konzumentů, jenž je dnes prosazován reklamou a masmédií. Nedílnou součástí projektu jsou také bannery a další předměty používané při pouličních protestech. Tyto artefakty, ať už převzaté od různých studentských uskupení nebo vyrobené samotnými autory projektu, jsou v závislosti na kontextu prezentace aranžovány do podoby muzeální instalace nebo naopak začleňovány do aktuálně probíhajících protestů.

Původní verze výstavy byla připravena ve spolupráci se Studentskou komorou RVŠ pro galerii TranzitDisplay v roce 2009 u příležitosti sedmdesátého výročí 17. listopadu 1939. Aktualizované reprízy proběhly v roce 2011 v galerii D9 v Českých Budějovicích a v klubu K4 v Praze. Pro prezentaci na Filozofické fakultě UK v rámci Týdne neklidu autoři přepracovali projekt tak, aby se stal nedílnou součástí protestů proti připravované reformě vysokých škol.

Edited by Vasil Artamonov, Patrik Eichler, Miroslav Jašurek, Václav Magid, Tomáš Uhnák
Publisher tranzitdisplay, Prague
80 pages

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Drew Hemment, Charlie Gere (eds.): FutureEverybody: FutureEverything Report (2012)

“This is a report on FutureEverybody, the FutureEverything theme in 2012. It consists of short essays by participants in the FutureEverything 2012 festival [16-19 May 2012, Manchester, England] and an overview of the festival and conference programme by the curators. These offer reflections on the FutureEverybody theme, the art and design projects in the festival, and the issues and initiatives presented within the conference. Each year FutureEverything proposes and develops particular themes, in its annual festival and year round innovation labs. These themes are provocations, designed to open up a space for practice and debate, made tangible through art and design projects which seek to bring the future into the present.” (editors)

Publisher: FutureEverything, 2012
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License
63 pages

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Carrot Workers Collective: Surviving Internships: A Counter Guide to Free Labour in the Arts (2011)

“This guide has been produced by the Carrot Workers‘ Collective in London. It attempts to explore and debunk some commonly held myths around creative careers and provide some survival tools for those currently working in the creative sector. This guide asks: is unpaid interning essential for a job in the creative sector? Does interning and free labour automatically lead to paid work? Do those who work in the creative industry actually do creative work? Why do we often think that cultural work isn‘t ‘real work‘, and therefore that cultural workers don‘t deserve the same rights as everyone else? The contents of the guide are based on real life experiences of cultural workers in London who tell it like it really is, sharing the fears and desires that motivate their work, their experiences of disappointment and survival, and also, importantly, suggesting how we could organise our work otherwise.” (from the introduction)

Creative Commons BY 3.0 Unported License
68 pages

interview with the authors (January 2012)

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Johansson, Kuznetsov, Zimprich (eds.): Post Funding Eastern Europe (2007) [English/Ukrainian]

“The Center for Communication and Context (CCCK) has been developed during a residency period in Kiev in August 2006 as a collaboration between Ingela Johansson, Volodymyr Kuznetsov and Inga Zimprich. Within the exhibition Private With Public CCCK started to investigate its host-center’s history, ideological background and future perspectives. Getting involved with a former Soros institution the idea emerged to follow other cases of Soros Centers and to investigate other East-European institutions which were established with the help of or dependant on Western cultural funding. Under the term of Post-funding we would like to expand this project during 2007, researching emerging local financial models and the interdependencies developed in cultural East-West exchange.

Since our first visit to the Center for Contemporary Art, Kiev (CCA) the local situation transformed significantly. With the appearance of the Pinschuk Art Center CCA’s exclusive role to provide a window to and from the West has changed. Given the space to shift its focus CCA is reformulating its program aiming to provide more space for experimentation, research and exhibition practices beyond the merely visual. However, the relevant decision of the Renaissance Foundation whether to support the Center in the future is still pending.” (editors)

Editors: Ingela Johansson, Volodymyr Kuznetsov, Inga Zimprich
Published by CCCK – Center for Communication and Context, Kyiv; and R.E.P. (Revolutionary Experimental Space), Kyiv
28 pages
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license

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Bureau for Open Culture: On Symptoms of Cultural Industry (2011)

On Symptoms of Cultural Industry investigates the role of artistic and cultural production in relation to the economic and social life of North Adams, Massachusetts. Through original research interviews with employees of Sprague Electric–the manufacturer that originally occupied the massive industrial complex that is today MASS MoCA–and in response to living in this city, the work comprehensively manifests as performance, video, installation and a book. It forms an intimate portrait of a city that has transformed from an economy of manufacturing goods and materials to increasingly manufacturing culture and information.

By James Voorhies, with Timothy Nazzaro, Nate Padavick, Rachel Sherk, Cassandra Troyan
Presented as part of Open Engagement in Portland, Oregon, in May 2011, and at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, in July.
32 pages

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Shoot Shoot Shoot: The First Decade of the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative and British Avant-Garde Film 1966-1976 (2002)

Broadsheet for the film exhibition curated by Mark Webber and organised by LUX London. Includes film descriptions, chronology of events and developments 1966-76, and the article by A.L. Rees.

“The London Film-Makers’ Co-operative was founded in 1966 and based upon the artist-led distribution centre created by Jonas Mekas and the New American Cinema Group. Both had a policy of open membership, accepting all submissions without judgement, but the LFMC was unique in incorporating the three key aspects of artist filmmaking: production, distribution and exhibition within a single facility.

Early pioneers like Len Lye, Antony Balch, Margaret Tait and John Latham had already made remarkable personal films in England, but by the mid-60s interest in “underground” film was growing. On his arrival from New York, Stephen Dwoskin demonstrated and encouraged the possibilities of experimental filmmaking and the Coop soon became a dynamic centre for the discussion, production and presentation of avant-garde film. Several key figures such as Peter Gidal, Malcolm Le Grice, John Smith and Chris Welsby went onto become internationally celebrated. Many others, like Annabel Nicolson and the fiercely autonomous and prolific Jeff Keen, worked across the boundaries between film and performance and remain relatively unknown, or at least unseen.

The Co-op asserted the significance of the British films in line with international developments, whilst surviving hand-to-mouth in a series of run down buildings. The physical hardship of the organisation’s struggle contributed to the rigorous, formal nature of films produced during this period. While the Structural approach dominated, informing both the interior and landscape tendencies, the British filmmakers also made significant innovations with multi-screen films and expanded cinema events, producing works whose essence was defined by their ephemerality. Many of the works fell into the netherworld between film and fine art, never really seeming at home in either cinema or gallery spaces.

Shoot Shoot Shoot, a major retrospective programme and research project, will bring these extraordinary works back to life.

Curated by Mark Webber with assistance from Gregory Kurcewicz and Ben Cook.
Shoot Shoot Shoot is a LUX project.” (from Introduction)

Publisher Lux, London, May 2002
8 pages

project
more (touring programme, Lux Online)
overview of the touring programme (George Clark, Senses of Cinema)
DVD anthology (published in 2006)

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