Seminar about survival strategies for art initiatives
How do we turn a crisis into an opportunity? What can we lose and what can we gain by taking risks? Does crisis mean unlimited creativity? The seminar “Playing Chameleon: Survival Strategies for Art Initiatives,” where directors of rather small art initiatives from all over the world will be discussing the impact of the economic crisis on creative activity, will take place on September 18th 2009 within the framework of Survival Kit.
This seminar intends to gather directors of different art initiatives whose creative work is characterized by a constant process of creation and a need to take various risks. One could look at these people as nomads who carry out their activity in a broad variety of ways resigning from fixed functions, territories and codes.
Talking about their previous activity the participants of “Playing Chameleon” will tell of the ideas, principles and strategies that have allowed their initiatives to change creatively overcoming the pressure of circumstance. Within the given framework the focus will be on the function of these creative initiatives in diverse socioeconomic contexts, considering the situation in New York, the epicenter of a liberal economy; in Moscow, a capitalist city with totalitarian characteristics; in Stockholm and Zurich as cities where culture is generously funded, as well as in Riga and Pärnu where the cultural support system is rather small and centralized. Participants in the seminar will be comparing the advantages of bigger institutions and individual initiatives, trying to answer the question – how can an artist survive in the given circumstances?
Participants of “Playing Chameleon”: Trong Gia Nguyen (New York), curator and artist Egija Inzule (Zurich), director of Showroom Rael Artel (Pärnu), director of Public Preparations Linards Kulless (Riga/Berlin), artist, curator Elena Yaichnikova (Moscow), curator Vita Zaman (New York / Vilnus), artist