21 March, HIAP Project Space

Welcome to the book launch of Art Workers – Material Conditions and Labour Struggles in Contemporary Art Practice at the Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP) in the HIAP Project Space (adjacent to the Gallery Augusta in Suomenlinna, Helsinki) on Saturday 21 March at 4 pm. A short book presentation is followed by a discussion addressing the issues of art and labour from a local perspective with guest speaker Nora Sternfeld, professor for curating and mediating art at the Aalto University.

The questions to be discussed in the event are: What are the material conditions of contemporary art production? Why is exhibition practice based on the unpaid labour of artists? Why do artists pay to make an exhibition instead of getting paid? How to struggle against precarious labour? What are the models of art workers’ organising? How to rethink the agency of artists’ unions and associations?

The book Art Workers – Material Conditions and Labour Struggles in Contemporary Art Practicepresents case studies from the local art contexts of Estonia, Finland and Sweden, collects artist-testimonies, discusses activist practices and maps out contemporary and historical forms of organising within the international art field.

The book is edited and co-written by Erik Krikortz, Airi Triisberg and Minna Henriksson, and includes further contributions by Corina L. Apostol, Michael Baers, Fokus Grupa, Minna Heikinaho, Vladan Jeremić, Elina Juopperi, Jussi Kivi, Barbora Kleinhamplová, Jussi Koitela, Raakel Kuukka, Marge Monko, Zoran Popović, Precarious Workers Brigade, Taaniel Raudsepp & Sigrid Viir, Krisdy Shindler, Tereza Stejskalová, Lotta Tenhunen.

Graphic design by Summer Studio
Published in English, 2015
232 pages
ISBN 978–91–637–7946–6