"Ne travaillez jamais!" (Never work!) #4: on The Politics of Interventionist Art: The Situationist International, Artist Placement Group, and Art Workers’ Coalition by Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen (professor in art and cultural studies, University of Copenhagen). First published in French on www.theoriecritique.com, “Le choix du petit” edition, Spring 2010. With Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen’s text, tracing the history of three groups of artists working in the 1960s and 70s, we delve deeper into our examination of the subject “art and work”, focusing on the modes of action developed by artists in the face of the art world (institutions, the market, etc.) in order to transform it or, for the most radical elements, destroy it. First, the Situationist movement fighting against the “society of the spectacle” made the artist into a critic of the established order. Then the Artist Placement Group imagined the artist not as a producer of objects but as someone committed to enterprises outside the field of art in order to create new situations and new connections to production and to work in general. And finally, the Art Workers’ Coalition, as an artists’ union, reimagined the artwork session in a time of dematerialisation and promoted the artist’s autonomy from museums and gallery owners. Beyond discovering and deepening our knowledge of these three groups, this historic approach allows us to put the place and the shape of political action into perspective when we see it done by artists of our time. 

To participate in the workshop and to receive the texts, please contact Clara Gensburger : c.gensburger@leslaboratoires.org

"Ne travaillez jamais!" ("Never Work!") a reading and discussion workshop open to all! While waiting for the Printemps des Laboratoires #2 (May 2014) focusing on the subject of "art and work", we propose a reading group to exchange ideas and come to grips with what is at the core of this rich issue, through monthly sessions and a body of literature supported by other material – texts, objects, films, documents, etc. We could discuss, among other things, the choice that some artists make to orient their practice to immaterial work, processing information and inhabiting social networks. In our reflection we will also include the question of remuneration and what it means, examining the specific cases of artists’ unions, studying the role of the artist as belonging to a capitalist semi-feudal system or occupying an oppressed and marginalized position, and many roles in between.

The meetings take place every second Tuesday of the month. This reading workshop is free and open to all: no specific knowledge is required, only the desire to read and participate to discussions!