Artist Organisations International. 5. Solidarity and Unionising (part 2)

Chaired by: Margarita Tsomou

With: Grupo Etcétera / International Errorist Movement; Institute for Human Activities; Schoon Genoeg!; WochenKlausur

Respondents: Christoph Gurk, Galit Eilat.

Grupo Etcétera / International Errorist Movement

Formed in 1997 in Buenos Aires, Grupo Etcétera is composed of visual artists, poets, puppeteers and actors who share the intention of bringing art to the site of immediate social conflict and of bringing this conflict into arenas of cultural production, including the media and art institutions. In 2005 Grupo Etcétera co-founded the movement International Errorist, which considers the notion of error as a fundamental human condition of the capitalist world that eschews mistakes and failures. Grupo Etcétera is represented by its founding artist Federico Zukerfeld.

Institute for Human Activities

In 2012, the Institute for Human Activities began “A Gentrification Program” on a former Unilever plantation in Congo. The IHA asserts that even when art critically engages with global inequalities, it most often brings beauty, jobs and opportunity to the places where such art is exhibited, discussed and sold, creating a gap with the zone of intervention of critical art. The IHA turns art’s potential for gentrification into a progressive and effective tool. Insitute for Human Activities is represented by founding artist Renzo Martens.

Schoon Genoeg!

Schoon Genoeg! [(Clean) Enough!] is the campaign of cleaners in the Netherlands that started in 2009 for better wages, working conditions, and social recognition. As part of this campaign the union organised the cleaners’ strike of 2010, which was the longest strike in the Netherlands since 1933 as well as the recent strikes in 2012 and in 2014. Other elements of the Cleaners Union’s actions included a temporary Afvalmuseum (Trash Museum) in Utrecht's Central Station as well the campaign to improve domestic workers rights and the ratification of ILO Convention 189 in the Netherlands. Schoon Genoeg! Is represented by artist and representative Matthijs de Bruijne.

WochenKlausur

Since 1993 the artist group WochenKlausur develops concrete proposals aimed at small, but nevertheless effective improvements to socio-political deficiencies. Proceeding even further and invariably translating these proposals into action, artistic creativity is no longer seen as a formal act but as an intervention into society. So far, 38 projects have been realised all around the world – from Alaska to Japan. WochenKlausur is represented by its members Hannah Rosa Öllinger and Manfred Rainer.

Artist Organisations International took place on 9-11 January in Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin.