ArtLeaks: (An)Other Art World(s)? Imagination Beyond Fiction

What are the problems and challenges posed by the contemporary art system? What does it mean to be an agent of change in the art world today? How do we move beyond exposure and breaking the silence towards sustainable forms of engagement? What are the potentials of a new comparative institutional critique, written by cultural workers, and which forms could it take?

Today, the production of culture is an expanding sphere of activity: on the one hand, it is the space where new meanings and forms of subjectivity are created and where the most radical forms of activity are tested – yet at the same time it is precisely at this juncture where we encounter some of the most glaring forms of exploitation and control, where the gain of profit seems unrestricted and speculation is embedded in the very logic of production. At the same time, cultural processes cannot be reduced simply to production schemes. The system of production and reproduction of hierarchies and values inevitably comes into conflict with the very nature of free creative acts. Culture must retain its amateurish, joyful approach, to freely share its values with society – it should refuse to conform directly to the vulgar logic of sale and speculation.

We invite you to imagine a different system of art and culture, which would not only guarantee decent working conditions to the majority of its participants, but also stimulate the creation of an emancipatory cultural sphere. What are the conditions and possibilities of alternative art worlds? How can we engage and use our imagination, avoiding, at the same time, the traps of utopian thinking? 

These are some of the questions at the center of the new issue of the ArtLeaks Gazette, entitled “(An)Other Art World(s)? Imagination Beyond Fiction.” The gazette will be presented in a site-specific display at Divus London by Corina Apostol, opening on Friday, July 25th.

Free and open to the public.

This research exhibition includes a selection of visual works from the ArtLeaks Gazette No. 2 by: The Assembly for Culture Ukraine, Daniel Blochwitz, OFSW (Citizen Forum for Contemporary Arts), Occupy Museums, Iulia Toma, SOS (The Self-Organized Seminar),

with an Art Workers’ Struggles Timeline designed by Corina L. Apostol and an ArtLeaks posters’ timeline including designs by Eduard Constantin,Vladan Jeremić and Nikolay Oleynikov. Visitors are also welcome to browse through a selection of ArtLeaks cases from our Archive and our recent publications: The ArtLeaks Zine, The ArtLeaks Gazette No.1 & 2. 

The ArtLeaks Gazette is an activist publication produced by core members of ArtLeaks, an organization founded in 2011 as an international platform for cultural workers where instances of abuse, corruption and exploitation are exposed and submitted to public inquiry. Through our gazette, we stress the urgent need to seriously transform these workers’ relationships with the institutions, networks and economies involved in the production,reproduction and consumption of art and culture. We pursue these goals through developing a new approach to the tradition of institutional critique and through fostering new forms of artistic production that might challenge the dominant discourses of criticality and social engagement that tame and contain creative forces. 

For more information about current and part issues please go here: http://art-leaks.org/artleaks-gazette/

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