To Discuss

Date: 23 May 2012, Wednesday
Time: 18.30

To Discuss
IV

“The Labor of Our Body and The Work of Our Hands”* with Zeynep Gambetti

In The Human Condition, Hannah Arendt discusses in detail the distinction between work, labor and action which was neglected by Marx’s theory of labor. Based on this distinction she defines three different forms of politics.

In this meeting, Zeynep Gambetti will talk about this distinction as well as its projections in social life and we would like to discuss with the participants of the meeting how the notions of work, labor and action could be operated in the process of the production of the artwork.

“In the most general sense, labor is immanent to the biological existence of humans; work is immanent to the material world produced by humans; and action is immanent to the realm of meaning.”

Zeynep Gambetti is teaching Political Theory at Bosphorus University since 2000. She translated to Turkish texts and books by David Harvey, J. K. Gibson Graham and numerous other writers. Currently, she is working on a book on Hannah Arendt.

(The discussion will be in Turkish. An article on this issue written by Zeynep Gambetti is available upon request.)

* An expression Hannah Arendt quotes from John Locke in The Human Condition.

Photograph: “Marcel Duchamp Plays Chest,” 1952, by Kay Bell Reynal.

This meeting is organized in the scope of the open meeting series “To Discuss” in the context of the research project “Like a Rolling Stone: Labor in Contemporary Art.” The project, curated by Önder Özengi and Pelin Tan, focuses on the notion of labor/work, production/working conditions of art producers and economies in contemporary art (2011 – 2013).

To Discuss
III

Wednesday, 25 April, 18.30

Looking with difference: On diverse economies

Construction and cultivation of alternative economies here and now, first and foremost, requires a perspectival shift in the way we conceive of the economic space and encircle the ethico-political coordinates of the economic. The “diverse economies project” initiated by J.K. Gibson-Graham and the Community Economies Collective aims to enact such rethinking of the economy. A brief presentation by Yahya M. Madra will be followed by a workshop in which case studies will be explored.

Yahya M. Madra teaches economics at Boğaziçi University and is an associate editor of the journal Rethinking Marxism.

Reading material: J.K. Gibson-Graham, The End of Capitalism (as we knew it): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy, Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1996. Especially Chapters 3, 8 and 11.

Photo: Yahya M. Madra, Detail from The People’s Library at Occupy Wall Street, November 2011.

(The discussion will be held in Turkish.)

This meeting is organized in the scope of the open meeting series “To Discuss” in the context of the research project “Like a Rolling Stone: Labor in Contemporary Art.” The project, curated by Önder Özengi and Pelin Tan, focuses on the notion of labor/work, production/working conditions of art producers and economies in contemporary art (2011 – 2013).

To Discuss
II

Friday, 17 January, 18.00

“independent, freelance, part-time, flexible, occupied, unemployed…”

Tanıl Bora, one of the co-authors of Boşuna mı Okuduk? [So we studied for nothing?] (İletişim, 2011), will open to discussion his observations and analysis of the “states” of the white collar unemployed in Turkey. He will focus on the recent new dimensions of unemployment, concerning white collar workers in particular, and their forms of self-perception of unemployment.

In this context, we hope to discuss comparatively with Bora the phenomenon of “precariat” in the field of art through our own experience and exchange ideas on the new model of labor emerging in the field of art, ensuing issues generated by these new modes, and alternatives.

Tanıl Bora writer-editor. Lives and works in Ankara.

(The discussion will be held in Turkish.)

This meeting is organized in the scope of the open meeting series “To Discuss” in the context of the research project “Like a Rolling Stone: Labor in Contemporary Art.” The project, curated by Önder Özengi and Pelin Tan, focuses on the notion of labor/work, production/working conditions of art producers and the livelihood economies in contemporary art (2011 – 2013).

To Discuss
I

Tuesday, 27 December, 18.30

“Art Without Work?” with Anton Vidokle.

The discussion will be focusing on the recent text of artist Anton Vidokle titled “Art Without Work” and will be based on the question of the division of “labor” and “work” in artistic production. (For the article see: http://e-flux.com/journal/view/260). “To Discuss” is the first meeting series of the research project Like a Rolling Stone: Labor in Contemporary Art. This project investigates: the notion of labor/work, the working conditions of art producers/workers and the livelihood economies in the contemporary art field. The project is curated by Önder Özengi and Pelin Tan.

Anton Vidokle is an artist based in New York and Berlin.