[artinfo] Job Descriptions. Artists in a Changed World of Work

[Eva Gyarmati]

http://www.akbild.ac.at/portal_en/academyen/alumni/news/lectures/job- 
descriptions-artists-in-a-changed-world-of-work


Job Descriptions. Artists in a Changed World of Work

Date | 17.10.2008 - 18.10.2008
Venue | Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Schillerplatz 3, 1010 Vienna,  
room M13

Symposium organized in cooperation with the Montag Stiftung as part  
of the series „Heraus aus dem Elfenbeinturm“ (Leaving the Ivory Tower)*

Participants | Fahim Amir, Martin Beck, Sabeth Buchmann, Gunter  
Damisch, Katrina Daschner, Anthony Davies, David Komary, Isabell  
Lorey, Angela McRobbie, Karin Mairitsch, Dorit Margreiter, Gregor  
Neuerer, Ingrid Rascke-Stuwe, Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen, Wally Salner &  
Johannes Schweiger, Andreas Spiegl, Marion von Osten, Heimo Zobernig

Around the beginning of the 21st century, the role of the artist  
began to change fundamentally. Artists have ceased to be marginal  
figures and become the center of attention.

This is not only connected with an understanding of art oriented  
towards processes rather than products since the 1960s and thus  
positioning the artist in an extended aesthetic, social and economic  
field but also with the fact that "the artist's life," once envisaged  
as the opposite of middle-class normality, has developed into a model  
for more flexible contemporary working and living conditions. There  
can be no doubt that more and more artists are becoming active in  
working areas close and also less close to the arts. Without giving  
up forms of artistic thinking and acting, exhibitions in galleries  
and museums are regarded as just one field among many today. This  
will (perhaps) allow an understanding of artistic competence  
manifesting itself in a variety of ways.

The symposium is aimed at exploring the following issues linked with  
the changed situation:

     * Where does art make itself felt in a post-Fordian society?
     * In which professions is artistic competence called for?
     * How does the idea of artistic competence affect the notion of  
autonomous art and concepts derived from it?
     * What about an art university's educational mission against  
this background?
     * Which kind of research must an art university focus on?
     * How should such an institution present itself to the public?

Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen

Friday, 17 October 2008

3:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Welcome by Carl Richard Montag, Montag Stiftung Bildende Kunst, Bonn  
and Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen, rector of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

Introduction:
Ingrid Raschke-Stuwe, executive board of Montag Stiftung Bildende  
Kunst, Bonn "Leaving the Ivory Tower"

Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen: opening statement, presentation of the  
symposium's issues in dialogue with Andreas Spiegl, vice-rector for  
teaching and research

4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
Round table: Aspects of Practice
Which influence has the educational schedule had on artists' current  
activities, and what about an image of the artist that is up-to-date?

Graduates from other professional fields describe their current  
activities:

     * FABRICS INTERSEASON / Wally Salner & Johannes Schweiger,
     * artists and designers, Vienna
     * Karin Mairitsch, vicerector of Salzburg University of Applied  
Sciences
     * David Komary, curator and head of Galerie Stadtpark, Krems

Chaired by Fahim Amir, philosopher, cultural producer and adjunct  
faculty of the Institute for Education in the Arts at the Academy of  
Fine Arts Vienna

6:00 - 7:00 p.m.
"In Search of a Concept for New Culture Industry: From Cultural  
Production to Immaterial Labour"
Angela McRobbie, professor of communications, Goldsmiths College, London

Saturday, 18 October 2008

Lectures

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon
"Blueprint, Role Model, Political Subject.
The artistic subject between neoliberal invocation and exodus"
Marion von Osten, artist, author and head of the department for Art  
Education at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m.
"Culture & Finance: From Knowledge Economy to Information Wars"
Anthony Davies, art theorist and art critique, London

1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
"Self-Precarization and Refusal within the Exodus"
Isabell Lorey, political scientist, Berlin

2:00 - 3:00 p.m. lunch break

3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
The Limits of Autonomy / On the Role of the Artist
Statements by two professors of the academic staff

     * Dorit Margreiter, artist and head of the department for Video  
and Videoinstallation at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
     * Heimo Zobernig, artist and head of the department for Textual  
Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

4:30 - 6:00 p.m.
Can the Old Traditional Educational Structures be Maintained When the  
Position of Artistic Practice in Society Has Changed?

Panel on the educational program for artists with teachers from the  
academic staff:

     * Martin Beck, artist and chair of the Institute for Education  
in the Arts
     * Sabeth Buchmann, art historian and chair of the Institute for  
Art Theory and Cultural Studies
     * Gunter Damisch, artist and head of the department for Graphic  
Arts and Printmaking Techniques
     * Katrina Daschner, artist and academic staff of the department  
for Contextual Painting
     * Gregor Neuerer, artist and academic staff of the department  
for Art and Photography

Chaired by Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen

* "Heraus aus dem Elfenbeinturm" (Leaving the Ivory Tower) is a  
symposium series of Montag Stiftung Bildende Kunst, Bonn realized in  
cooperation with various art academies and aimed at countering the  
discrepancy between academic education and subsequent forms of  
professional practice.

The Montag Stiftung will also issue a documentation of the Vienna  
symposium. Published by Verlag für moderne Kunst, Nürnberg, the  
publication will be one volume in a series presenting gathered  
material on current issues of art education.