Art as Service

The starting point of the project Services is the strict differentiation between artistic work which is project-oriented and that which is product-oriented. While the manufacture of artistic products is firmly embedded in the system made up of galleries, critics, collectors, exhibition spaces and museums, even during times of crisis, the organisational guidelines for artistic projects are completely unclear, even after more than twenty years of success, and each individual situation is left up to open agreement. It is typical of curators’ texts, for example, that artists who make do with a small fee or even none at all, or artists who accept bad working conditions etc., are portrayed as being particularly committed.

The situation regarding the interpretation of project-oriented practices is not much better. Important exploratory terms from the 70s do exist, such as "Post Studio Practice", "Site Specificity" and "Institutional Critique", however all of these terms neglect the direct practical reference to the institutional conditions. If we use the word "service", this means that artists are taking over curatorial or institutional functions (influencing, mounting and installing exhibitions, designing catalogues, performing didactic and publicity-related tasks etc.). Every fee implies a service. The same applies for contracts, however these are from the outset (as restoration or resale contracts) still directly bound up with an object or objects.

Closely related to the question of organisational guidelines for project-oriented work is the development of alternative structures for artists’ organizations or unions, as well as for independent exhibition spaces run mainly by artists.

The participants in the working group (artists and curators) will report on their experiences in these areas and will discuss the implications of these findings in terms of content, structure and politics. Background material from the 60s onwards will be collected for the exhibition, including contracts, agreements, correspondence, records and artistic concepts. The exhibition will contain only material which can be readily copied (duplicates, slides, videos). It aims to remain transportable, easily transferrable to other locations, and also hopes to stimulate further discussion and offer a high level of practical value to exhibition visitors.

Andrea Fraser i Helmut Draxler. Services. Conditions and Relations of Project-oriented Artistic Practices. Kunstraum der Universität Lünenburg, 1994

http://adaweb.walkerart.org/~dn/a/enfra/afraser1.html

Andrea Fraser, Services, 1994,
installation view