Common Hands

http://www.iaspis.com/commonhands/

IASPIS SYMPOSIUM, AUTUMN 2005

In recent years, a renewed interest in collective work and activity can be discerned more and more clearly in the art world. Collaborations of various sorts Ð between artists and artists, artists and curators, artists and others Ð have begun to appear as alternatives to the predominant focus on the individual so often found in the art world. At the same time, these collaborative efforts often constitute a response to specific, at times local, situations, and they constantly run the risk of being swallowed up and incorporated into the very systems against which they are reacting. In a variety of projects, the form and basis of collective activities have been presented, examined, and called into question: how people work on a short-term basis, as well as on more long-term bases; how they spread their attention across various subjects, methods, lifestyles, different political orientations; how they hope for some kind of emancipation; and last but not least, what sort of satisfaction results from working in a group.* Taking the Matter into Common Hands is a symposium in two parts which, against the background of this development in the art world, seeks to map these activities and to discuss the working relations and conditions of artists and other producers of culture. It also aims at exploring the future prospects for the kind of collective action in the art world that is geared towards long-term research and production of knowledge.