Art Struggles: Confronting Internships and Unpaid Labour in Contemporary Art
This article explores the practices of recently formed and mainly UK-based art workers’ collectives against unpaid internships and abusive work. The modes through which these collectives perform resistance involve activist tactics of boycotting, site-specific protests, counter-guides, and whistleblo...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Paderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group
2015-09-01
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| Series: | tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/613 |
| _version_ | 1827836777952444416 |
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| author | Panos Kompatsiaris |
| author_facet | Panos Kompatsiaris |
| author_sort | Panos Kompatsiaris |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article explores the practices of recently formed and mainly UK-based art workers’ collectives against unpaid internships and abusive work. The modes through which these collectives perform resistance involve activist tactics of boycotting, site-specific protests, counter-guides, and whistleblowing and name and shame approaches mixed with performance art and playful interventions. Grappling with the predicaments of work in contemporary art, a labouring practice that does not follow typical processes of valorization and has a contingent object and an extremely loose territorial unity, this article argues that while the identity of the contemporary artist is systemically and conceptually moving towards fluidity and open-endedness, these groups work to reaffirm a collective in whose name it is possible to advance certain claims, assumptions, and demands. The contradictions and dynamics of art workers organizing against internships and voluntary work within a highly individualized, self-exploitative, and often privileged field are useful for informing labour organizing in the framework of ongoing capitalist restructuring. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T06:32:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4cfc44f28fa148dbb5ab21552e9cc3e9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1726-670X 1726-670X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T06:32:54Z |
| publishDate | 2015-09-01 |
| publisher | Paderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique |
| spelling | doaj.art-4cfc44f28fa148dbb5ab21552e9cc3e92023-09-03T01:29:59ZengPaderborn University: Media Systems and Media Organisation Research GrouptripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique1726-670X1726-670X2015-09-0113255456610.31269/triplec.v13i2.613613Art Struggles: Confronting Internships and Unpaid Labour in Contemporary ArtPanos Kompatsiaris0University of EdinburghThis article explores the practices of recently formed and mainly UK-based art workers’ collectives against unpaid internships and abusive work. The modes through which these collectives perform resistance involve activist tactics of boycotting, site-specific protests, counter-guides, and whistleblowing and name and shame approaches mixed with performance art and playful interventions. Grappling with the predicaments of work in contemporary art, a labouring practice that does not follow typical processes of valorization and has a contingent object and an extremely loose territorial unity, this article argues that while the identity of the contemporary artist is systemically and conceptually moving towards fluidity and open-endedness, these groups work to reaffirm a collective in whose name it is possible to advance certain claims, assumptions, and demands. The contradictions and dynamics of art workers organizing against internships and voluntary work within a highly individualized, self-exploitative, and often privileged field are useful for informing labour organizing in the framework of ongoing capitalist restructuring.https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/613Art LabourContemporary ArtInternshipsArt ActivismLabour Turn |
| spellingShingle | Panos Kompatsiaris Art Struggles: Confronting Internships and Unpaid Labour in Contemporary Art tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique Art Labour Contemporary Art Internships Art Activism Labour Turn |
| title | Art Struggles: Confronting Internships and Unpaid Labour in Contemporary Art |
| title_full | Art Struggles: Confronting Internships and Unpaid Labour in Contemporary Art |
| title_fullStr | Art Struggles: Confronting Internships and Unpaid Labour in Contemporary Art |
| title_full_unstemmed | Art Struggles: Confronting Internships and Unpaid Labour in Contemporary Art |
| title_short | Art Struggles: Confronting Internships and Unpaid Labour in Contemporary Art |
| title_sort | art struggles confronting internships and unpaid labour in contemporary art |
| topic | Art Labour Contemporary Art Internships Art Activism Labour Turn |
| url | https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/613 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT panoskompatsiaris artstrugglesconfrontinginternshipsandunpaidlabourincontemporaryart |