[artinfo] Artist Organisations International (AOI)

[e-flux]

Artist Organisations International (AOI)
9-11 January 2015

HAU Hebbel am Ufer (HAU1)
Stresemannstr. 29
10963 Berlin
Germany

T +49 (0) 30 259 004 27
<mailto:tickets at hebbel-am-ufer.de>tickets at hebbel-am-ufer.de

<http://interspire.e-flux.com/link.php?M=116335&N=10961&L=21282&F=H>www.artistorganisations.org
<http://interspire.e-flux.com/link.php?M=116335&N=10961&L=21283&F=H>www.hebbel-am-ufer.de

Initiated by Florian Malzacher, Jonas Staal and Joanna Warsza

With Artists of Rojava, Artists Association of 
Azawad (Mazou Ibrahim Touré & Moussa Ag Assarid), 
Center for Political Beauty (Fabian Eggers, John 
Kurtz & André Leipold), Chto Delat (Dmitry 
Vilensky), Concerned Artists of the Philippines 
(Lisa Ito), Forensic Architecture (Lorenzo 
Pezzani), Grupo Etcétera (Federico Zukerfeld & 
Loreto Garín), HudRada (Lada Nakonechna), Gulf 
Labor (Natascha Sadr Haghighian), Haben und 
Brauchen (Ina Wudtke & Inga Zimprich), Immigrant 
Movement International (Tania Bruguera), 
Institute for Human Activities (Renzo Martens), 
International Institute of Political Murder (Milo 
Rau), Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland (Yael 
Bartana & Susanne Sachsse), PAF - Performing Arts 
Forum (Jan Ritsema), Office for Anti-Propaganda 
(Marina Naprushkina), Schoon Genoeg! (Matthijs de 
Bruijne), The Laboratory for Insurrectionary 
Imagination (John Jordan), The Silent University 
(Emily Fahlén & Ahmet Ög˜üt), WochenKlausur 
(Hannah Rosa Öllinger & Manfred Rainer) et al.

Chairs: Ekaterina Degot, Charles Esche, Vincent 
W.J. van Gerven Oei, Matteo Lucchetti, Marion von 
Osten and Margarita Tsomou  


Artist Organisations International (AOI) brings 
together over 20 organizations, founded by 
artists, confronting the current crises in 
politics, economy, education, immigration and 
ecology. Artist Organisations International 
explores the current shift from temporary, 
precarious art projects to long-term structures 
of engagement built by artists. Which specific 
artistic values and political potential do such 
organizations have? How do they perform? And what 
could their concrete impact be in various 
political and social agendas?

The economic crises, the global erosion of civil 
rights and the massive rise of social movements 
have demanded new models of structural 
participation from politically engaged artists. 
The shift from the working model of the project 
to that of the organisation no longer reduces 
artistic engagement to the singular figure of the 
author and expands its scope and influence-for 
example by seeking larger alliances with or 
creating new forms of educational and community 
structures, non-parliamentary groups, liberation 
movements, unions or even political parties.

While some artists primarily use the concept of 
an organisation or institution as an artistic 
form (or perhaps as a metaphor) which serves 
their artistic vision most properly, for others 
organisational structures are the necessary means 
to realize specific political objectives. The 
invited artist organisations operate as actual 
organizations-and at the same time they are often 
works of art themselves or use the possibilities 
of an artwork by stressing categories such as 
visual literacy of re-presentation and 
transformation. They all connect-with different 
emphasis-symbolic practice and structural effect. 

Working collectively has become the paradigm of 
artistic practice in the last decade. Choosing 
the form of an organisation is an expression of 
the longing for more sustainability and 
resilience, while on the other hand it maintains 
the performative notion of change and subversion: 
artist organizations are living organisms that 
permanently challenge power. Artist Organisations 
International introduces an array of those 
strategies as modes of resistance, emancipation 
and (self-)governance. By seeking new alliances 
Artist Organisations International aims to 
contribute to the strengthening of ties and 
collaboration between different artist 
organisations worldwide.