Join us for the Amsterdam launch of Kuba Szreder’s ABC of the Projectariat: Living and Working in a Precarious Art World, organised by the Institute of Network Cultures in collaboration with the independent art bookshop San Seriffe.
The ABC of the projectariat contributes new thinking on and practical responses to the widespread problem of precarious labour in the field of contemporary art. It works as both a critical analysis and a practical handbook, speaking to and about the vast cohort of artistic freelancers worldwide.
In an accessible ABC format, the book strikes a unique balance between the practical and the theoretical: the analysis is backed up by lived experience, the arguments are rooted in concrete examples and there are suggestions for constructive action. Roughly half of the entries expose the structural underpinnings of projects and circulation, isolating traits such as opportunism, neoliberalism, inequality, fear and cynicism at the root of the condition of the projectariat. This discussion is paired with a practical account of different modes of action, such as art strikes, productive withdrawals, political struggles and better social time machines. Just as proletarians had nothing to lose but their chains, the projectarians have nothing to miss but their deadlines.
Kuba Szreder, supported by a digital randomizer, will present the contents of the book, followed by a short conversation with Sepp Eckenhaussen and the public.