<nettime> ArtLeaks Gazette No. 3 Open Call

["Corina L. Apostol" <corina.lucia.apostol@gmail.com>]

   Artists Against Precarity and Violence â Resistance Strategies,
   Unionizing, and Coalition Building in a Time of Global Conflict and
   Contradiction

    The ArtLeaks Gazette aims to shed critical light on both the
   challenges and obstacles inherent in the contemporary art world, in
   order to work towards constructive and meaningful transformations.
   Beyondâbreaking the silenceâ and exposing bad practices, we are
   exploring the ways in which art workers around the world are pushing
   towards changing their factories of art, embedded in larger
   socio-economic-political flows. We realize this is a difficult task, as
   the global condition since ArtLeaks was established in 2011 is quite
   different. The (art)world has changed and it seems that violence and
   hostility rule around the globe. The years to come seem like they will
   be even more full of conflict and contradiction. Due to the increase of
   global wars, the threat of climate breakdown, and other devastating
   realities, new media and technology are being used in a negative way,
   encouraging deeper precarity, austerity, and inequality. This is
   happening in the sector of arts and culture increasing the debt of
   artists and cultural workers. We believe that art workers need to
   formulate an answer to these challenges, to build global coalitions,
   and to unionize in order to counter precarity and violence in a
   countervailing way.

   The third issue of the ArtLeaks Gazette will bring together
   theoreticians and practitioners dealing with these urgent questions
   about models of organizations, unionizing, and strategies of
   resistance. This helps to illuminate new ways of production and
   coalition building in international and local environments that are
   increasingly hostile.

   Specifically, social institutions of the welfare state are in poor
   shape thanks to the neoliberal offensive now underway for several
   decades. This process affects art workers. For example, in so-called
   âcreativeâ European cities, significant numbers of registered artists
   function as a âreserve armyâ for cheap or even voluntary work.
   Conditions of artistic labor are summarily dismissed as unimportant,
   frequently among the upper echelons of the art management class, and
   sometimes even among artists that have either achieved economic
   hegemony or aspire to it. In some cases, when members of the art
   community do decide to speak out, they face the danger of being
   excluded from an exhibition or a project, or blacklisted from working
   in certain institutions.

   One of the problems lies in the fact that artists usually do not
   understand themselves as workers, but see themselves working against
   each other and feel that art production differs from the capitalist
   working relations of the greater economy. The challenge is to continue
   to question the autonomy of artistic production, to confront those who
   benefit with this mode of cultural profiteering, and to demythologize
   the production process of art itself.

   Several present-day activist art worker groups are beginning to look
   back to the late 1960s and early 1970s, and even further to the mid
   19th century, particularly in the 1930s, as moments of inspiration
   during social movements and political struggles, for the fight for art
   workersâ rights, reclaiming cultural institutions, art and/as labor in
   a global context. Indeed, we would emphasize todayâs art workers need
   more of that do-it-together spirit, a greater common interest and a
   more developed strategy and plan for transformation.

   Therefore, the key issue the third installment of the ArtLeaks Gazette
   wants to tackle is the question:âIs it possible to make an
   international coalition of artists on the basis of art workersâ
   solidarity and to struggle for better material conditions?â And if so,
   then what could be the mechanisms to build and spread the network and
   to make stronger demands? Are there modes of production that can
   support coalition building?

   We welcome contributions in a variety of narrative forms, from
   articles, commentaries, and glossary entries, to posters, drawings and
   films. The deadline for entries is the 5th of April, 2015.
   Contributions should be delivered in English, or as an exemption in
   other languages after negotiations with the editorial council. The
   editorial council of ArtLeaks takes responsibility for communicating
   with all authors during the editorial process.

   Please contact us with any questions, comments, and submit materials
   to:Â artsleaks@gmail.com.

   The on-line gazette will be published in English under the Creative
   Commons attribution noncommercial-share alike and its materials will be
   offered for translation in any languages to any interested parts.

   Limited printed copies will be available. We are calling on those of
   you who regularly print as a part of your work to help us get the ALG
   by committing to small print runs of 50-100 copies. We will make
   several PDF formats of the ALG to meet various digital needs, as well
   as an epub edition. We encourage contributors to be an active part of
   spreading the ALG by hosting it on their site and forwarding it on to
   their networks.

   The editorial council for the third issue is:Â Corina L.
   Apostol, Brett A. Bloom and Vladan JeremiÄ.
   For more information about previous issues of the
   gazette:Â http://art-leaks.org/artleaks-gazette/

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