08.12.2006–04.02.2007
Exhibition

In Between: Diverse Activities
Annual Exhibition of the Members of the Salzburger Kunstverein

Opening: 7 December 2006, 7 p.m.

Curators Talk Dezember 14, 2006, 7 p.m.

Discussion January 19, 2007, 7 p.m.
with Emilio Ganot (Laureate 2006),
Marianne Lang (White Club),
Peter Riegersperger (Subnet),
Peter Haas (Artist),
Gabu Heindl and Claudia Slanar (Curators) and Hemma Schmutz (Director)

Lecture with Marion von Osten (Artist and Curator, Berlin/Vienna/Zurich), January 29, 2007, 7 p.m.

In the current post-Fordist organisation of labour, communication, cooperation, flexibility and mobility are concepts according to which subjects on the labour market are meant to orient themselves. Affective, artistic work and life projects associated with it, which were once seen as revolutionary, are now held up as models and welcomed by the neo-liberal economic system. The question of forms of resistance now however centres not least on the question of the possible locations where they can occur … We assume that most artists cannot live from their art and have to pursue various other activities. These can be directly connected with one another, be affective in a similar way, or take in completely different fields. At any rate, between these spheres there is a discrepancy that seems to be caused largely by a strange dichotomy in the work of artists: there is mostly an enormous difference between the personal, ideational and social value connected with this work, and its directly measurable economic value (sale price). The other activities, on the other hand, serve to make a living, but are often concealed and seen as merely a means to an end. Flexibility, “precarisation, ” or the singularity of a “Me Plc ” represent only one group of practices that can define the artistic location, however. In our opinion, this discrepancy becomes apparent in the amount of space and time granted to these activities, and in their “results ”.

Our questions in “In Between: Diverse Activities ” now centred on this discrepancy: How is work valued in which context? What intersections are there between the various activities? How is the “in between ” defined and what potentials can be derived from this? With this in mind, we were inviting all the members of the Kunstverein to take part in the annual exhibition without their being subject to any mechanisms of exclusion such as thematic guidelines or selection by jury. The works entered will be presented in a classic exhibition display. The artefacts (see invitation letter) referring to the various other activities were also on view, accompanied by further information. Finally, the Kunstverein and its members are to be represented within a mapping of the geographic structure, and the spaces where they live and work made transparent. We hoped that this would highlight the tension between valuation and its criteria, show what different biographies are possible within an artists’ association, and stimulate communication and reflection on the location of artistic production within a social and economic system – the city of Salzburg!

Together with the Province of Salzburg, the Salzburg Kunstverein gave an award of sponsorship worth 3,000 euros to the artist Emilio Ganot.