//// Art in Permacrisis ////
Art in Permacrisis is a podcast on the organization of art workers in the face of the ever-growing stack of crises. How can artists make a living without selling their souls? Can we imagine and practice a sustainable art economy beyond precarity? How should we transform the circulation of artworks, the curriculum of art and design academies, the exhibition programs of museums, and the organization of collectives and unions? We invite speakers with combined backgrounds in art, theory, and organizing to share their insights.
Art in Permacrisis #1: Kuba Szreder and the Projectariat
Kuba Szreder is a lecturer in art theory at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and a freelance curator. He co-founded the Free/Slow University of Warsaw and the Office for Postartistic Practices. The main topic of our conversation is Kuba's book ABC of the Projectariat: Living and Working in a Precarious Art World. Read more and find the link list here.
Art in Permacrisis #2: Emanuele Braga and Universal Basic Income
Emanuele Braga is an artist, researcher and activist. Over the past decades, he has been involved in many important grassroots initiatives, including MACAO, a center for art and Culture in Milan, and the Institute of Radical Imagination. This conversation focuses mostly on Art for Universal Basic Income (manifesto), which was produced by the Institute of Radical Imagination in 2022, and which was co-edited by Emanuele, together with Marco Baravalle and Gabriella Riccio. Read more and find the link list here.
Art in Permacrisis #3: Katja Praznik and Feminist Art Unions
Katja Praznik is an associate professor at the University at Buffalo’s Arts Management Program and the Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies. Our conversation focuses on her book, Art Work: Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism, and the experience of founding the new art workers union ZASUK in Slovenia. Read more and find the link list here.
Art in Permacrisis #4: Yazan Khalili and the Crisis Economy Yazan Khalili is an artist, architect, and cultural activist living in and out of Palestine. Some of Yazan’s many roles are: PhD candidate at the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis, co-founder of Radio Alhara (since 2020), and co-founder of The Question of Funding-collective (since 2019). Our conversation focuses on crisis and the crisis economy as a defining force in the arts. We also discuss the practice of infrastructural critique, or how to build alternative art institutions from the bottom up. And, of course, we talk about Palestine. Read more and find the link list here.
Art in Permacrisis #5: The Budapest Conference Special (w/ Constant Dullaart)
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 fresh take on the notion of permacrisis, the development of AI, and the role of art. Read more and find the link list here.
Art in Permacrisis #6: Inte Gloerich and Decentralised Autonomous Organisations
Inte Gloerich is a critical media and technology researcher at the Institute of Network Cultures, and one of the core people behind the research community MoneyLab. Inte just finished a PhD on feminist blockchain imaginaries. We discuss blockchain beyond the hype, and beyond the wish to get rich fast. We discuss concepts and common dilemma’s, and briefly revisit what’s left of the NFT boom, but we mainly dive into the practices of contemporary DAOs, from Dayra, to Black Swan, The Sphere, Circles, and CultureStake. What works? What doesn’t work? How? And why? Read more and find a link list here.
Art in Permacrisis #7: Kate Rich and Radical Administration
Kate Rich is an artist, trader, and researcher. 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 usually remains in the background, even in social art practices. Read more and find the link list here.
Art in Permacrisis #8: Vermeir & Heiremans between Speculative Fiction and Operational Realism
Vermeir & Heiremans started their collaborative artistic practice in 2006, 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. We cover a lot of ground in our conversation, from financialisation for the public good to automated art dividends, real estate speculation, bottom-up policymaking, new ways of mutualization, and the lure of art cooperatives. Read more and find the link list here.
Art in Permacrisis is a collaboration between the Institute of Network Cultures and Caradt. It is part of the research program Creative Reset. The podcast hosts are Candela Cubria and Sepp Eckenhaussen. Tech by Tommaso Campagna. Editing by Tommaso Campagna, Candela Cubria, and Giulia Timis.