27 – 28 November 2010

Location: IASPIS, Konstnärsnämnden, Maria Skolgata 83, 2nd floor. www.iaspis.se

Please join us for a two-day workshop discussing cultural production in relation to the conditions of production in contemporary capitalist society.

Saturday 27th of November 2pm – 6pm
A close reading together with Alexei Penzin (Chto delat?/What is to be done?) of his recent interview with Paolo Virno, The Soviets of the Multitude: on Collectivity and Collective Work, followed by a discussion.

Sunday 28th of November 10 am – 5pm
A day of sharing thoughts and experiences of contemporary production situations and conditions. Presentations by all participants, followed by a discussion.

The workshop is hosted by Ontheconditionsofproduction, a research group consisting of Kajsa Dahlberg, Kim Einarsson, Mattin, Michele Masucci, Lisa Rosendahl and Fredrik Svensk. Together we have been trying to understand the conditions of the production situations we are part of in contemporary capitalism, as well as the condition of the art world as a whole. Starting from an interest in the ideological frameworks that underpin contemporary art production – such as, for example, structures of authorship and ownership, the relationship between process, product and value production, and the division of labour between artists, curators, audiences and institutions – and how they can be changed, a set of questions have become urgent in our research: 1) What are the conditions we live under? 2) What does production mean today? 3) How could we move towards real emancipatory conditions: What do we want? What would it require? What are we already doing? What is not enough? What should we stop doing?

After a year of research we are still in the dark and looking forward to opening up our process to new encounters and reflections!

The workshop aims to address economical, ideological, conceptual, material, psychological, historical, ecological et cetera conditions of production based on individual or collective experiences and reflections, in order to increase our understanding of the current situation and how it could be changed.

To participate we ask you to bring a contribution relating to your thoughts and experiences of production today. All kinds of contributions are welcome: personal reflections, anecdotes, statements, questions, acts and other. Presentations should be a maximum of 12 minutes each.

To contribute and participate please register by email no later than 19 November: ontheconditionsofproduction@gmail.com

For further information, please contact:
ontheconditionsofproduction@gmail.com

Please circulate this call widely!

The workshop is produced by BAC in collaboration with XPO and IASPIS as part of the seminar program accompanying the exhibition Image at Work.

On the Conditions of Production
In 2009, BAC initiated the long term project On the Conditions of Production. The aim of the project is to establish a framework at BAC for hosting a range of different enquiries into the contemporary conditions for art production, made in collaboration with Swedish and international artists, curators and writers.

On the Conditions of Production will not follow a predetermined structural framework, but will define itself through the activities of its participants. A key feature of the project is to invite a smaller number of artists and cultural practitioners to engage long term with the emergent subject matter, as well as a wider circle of occasional guests, collaborators and partnering organisations. The project will include various phases of visibility and opaqueness articulated through different forms of research and presentation in accordance with the activities of its participants. Each part of the project will be conceived together with different partners.

The starting point for the project is both the changing Swedish and international contemporary art landscape, and BAC:s own history as an organisation for the production and mediation of contemporary art and its current phase of redefinition. At the centre of the enquiry lies the question of the effects of the increasingly dissolving boundaries between positions that historically have been seen as separate – such as public institutions and private interest, commerce and critique, process and product, artist and curator, and author and audience.

The aim of the project is to use BAC:s current phase of redevelopment as an opening to provide a platform for engaging with and thinking beyond the current frameworks for contemporary art production. The goal is to theoretically and practically test new ways of formulating the relationship between artistic process, art institution and society.

The project has received generous support from Stiftelsen Framtidens Kultur/The Foundation for the Culture of the Future