Art in Permacrisis #8: Vermeir & Heiremans between Speculative Fiction and Operational Realism

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, February 20, 2025

In 2006, Vermeir & Heiremans started their collaborative artistic practice, when they defined their apartment in Brussels as an artwork and created the Art House Index. In the following decades, they developed a deep artistic research practice focusing on the interplay between art, speculation, finance, and real estate. Ronny Heiremans and Katleen Vermeir have also [...]

Art in Permacrisis #7: Kate Rich and Radical Administration

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, January 28, 2025

For this episode I had a conversation with artist, trader, and researcher Kate Rich. We discussed ‘feral trade’, an international grocery business set up by Kate, for which her traveling (art world) friends and acquaintances act as couriers. We then talked about ‘radmin’, a long-term effort to radicalize the administrative work that’s always there, but [...]

Is There an Art of the Working Class?

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, January 16, 2025

Germany is declining rapidly. However, during a visit in July 2024, I discovered that some good things can still be found on the streets of Berlin. Amid the activities of the Konteksty Post-Artistic Congress 2024, the main reason for my trip, I enjoyed the summer sun and a coffee on a terrace somewhere in Neukölln [...]

The Slovak Culture Strike: An Interview with the Open Culture! Team

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, January 15, 2025

Slovakia is in political turmoil since the conservative populist and Putin-versteher Robert Fico won the 2023 elections. Following the authoritarian playbook, the new government has targeted cultural organisations, especially those associated with LGBTQ+-communities, with a series of repressive laws and political appointments. To fight back, a group of cultural workers formed the Open Culture! platform, [...]

Art in Permacrisis: Organizing Art Workers in the World beyond Art

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, January 6, 2025

A lecture for the conference MetaForumX: PermaCrises in Budapest. In the age of permacrisis, we are increasingly being governed by crisis narratives, which both marginalize and instrumentalize art. But what if we cannot afford to not engage with crisis logic, crisis definition, and critique?

The Artist’s Union and the Social Organisation of Precarious Workers

By Mia van den Bos, January 6, 2025

Artists are the archetypal precarious worker. Artists are by-default self-employed and juggle multiple projects in an industry without a collective labour agreement or structural entitlements such as paid sick leave, holiday or old-age pensions. This reality is stark when you consider the significant capital flows within the industry—sales on the global art market reached a [...]

Art in Permacrisis #6: Inte Gloerich and Decentralised Autonomous Organisations

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, December 20, 2024

For the 6th episode of Art in Permacrisis, we talk to Inte Gloerich. Inte is a critical media and technology researcher, and a colleague at the Institute of Network Cultures. She is one of the core people behind the research community MoneyLab. Inte also just finished a PhD on feminist blockchain imaginaries. We discuss blockchain [...]

Art in Permacrisis #5: The Budapest Conference Special (w/ Constant Dullaart)

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, November 27, 2024

We kick off a new season of Art in Permacrisis with a short special episode. From the 25th until the 26th of October, we were in Budapest for a conference of media artists and researchers called MetaForumX: PermaCrises. One of the contributions to MetaForum was a podcast created by media artist Constant Dullaart. It’s a [...]

Nu uit! Network Notion #3 – Plaats vergaan: Politiek en praktijk van atelierontwikkeling

By Roel Griffioen, November 18, 2024

‘Het atelier’ is in de kunstgeschiedenis meermaals doodverklaard – eerst door de opkomst van conceptuele kunst, later door de digitale revolutie. Maar wie naar de hedendaagse kunstpraktijk kijkt, ziet dat kunstenaars en cultuurwerkers hun werkruimtes onverminderd hard nodig hebben. Ook beleidsmakers blijven, om hun eigen redenen, gek op ateliers. Zij zien atelierbeleid als duizenddingendoekje om [...]

Art in Permacrisis on Radio Alhara

By Sepp Eckenhaussen, September 4, 2024

Starting on the 5th of September, 2024, our podcast Art in Permacrisis will be aired on Radio Alhara every first Thursday of the month between 10:00 am and 11:30 am (Bethlehem time). Radio Alhara is a Palestinian online radio station with an international, multilingual program with music, art, struggle and solidarity. Its identity is shaped [...]