The Big Artist Strike

WELCOME -Speach by Das Comitee

Das Comitee vil gerne byde jer rigtig hjerteligt velkommen til strejke, vi er glade for, at så mange mennesker er kommet.

Vi vil gerne fortælle lidt om forhistorien til denne strejke.

El comité los saluda cariñosamente. Nos alegramos mucho que hayan venido tantos!

Queremos contarles algo sobre la hístoria de esta huelga.

This is a very warm welcome from Das Comitee - we are very happy that so many of you came!

We would like to tell you a bit about the history of this strike.

Das Comitee begrüßt sie ganz herzlich zum Streik. Wir freuen uns, dass so viele gekommen ist.

Wir wollen ein bißchen von der Geschichte dieses Streiks erzählen.

I maj 2009 sad vi, en samling af internationale kunstnere på et pizzaria på den første socialistiske gade i Berlin, Karl Marx Allé. Til stede var chilenerne, Heßinnen, Badenwürdenbergerinnen, danskere, grækere, og hamburgere.

En mayo 2009 se encontraron un par de artistas internacionales en una pizzeria en la primera calle socialista de Berlin, la Avenida-Karl-Marx. Dentro de eyos se encontraban chilenos, suabos, hessenos, daneses, hamburgenses, griegos.

In May 2009 a bunch of international artists met in a Pizzeria in Berlin which is situated on the first socialistic street, called Karl-Marx Allee. There were artists from Chile, Hessen, Baden-Württemberg, Denmark, Hamburg and Greece.

Im Mai 2009 haben wir uns mit einem internationalen Haufen von Künstlern in einer Pizzeria auf der ersten sozialistischen Straße in Berlin, Karl Marx Allee, getroffen. Anwesend waren Chileninnen, Hessinnen, Baden-Württembergerinnen, Däninnen, Hamburgerinnen und Griechinnen.

Vi talte om vores liv som Kunstnere. Vi diskuterede muligheden af at alle kunstnere i et stykke tid stoppede med deres kunstnerisk aktiviteter og ikke udførte de job de plejede at lave for at overleve. Altså, vi forestillede os at museer brød sammen og gallerier måtte lukke, cafeer måtte lukke, taxier kørte ikke længere, der blev ikke længere lavet mad, der ville ikke mere blive trykt ting, teatre måtte lukke, markedsforskning ville stå stille, ingen oversættelser blev lavet, ingen fik orgasmer mere, ældre mennesker blev ikke vasket, handicappede kunne ikke forlade huset, hotlines ville lægge brak, kontorer ville forblive beskidte, ingen ville donere blod eller organer, ingen internet-sider ville blive lavet, intet hundemad, ingen yoga, ingen julemarkeder!

Hablamos sobre neustra vida como artistas. Nos imaginamos que pasaría si dejaramos de trabajar por un tiempo en el arte o en nuestros trabajos para mantener la vida. Bueno, nos imaginamos que los museos y las galerías tendrían que cerrar, los cafés no funcionarían, los taxis no corrieran, siempre se cocinaría, nada se imprimiera, nada de investigaciones del mercado, cerrarían los teatros, nada de traducciónes, ningún orgasmo más, ningúnas clases, la jente de major edad no fuera lavada, la jente descapacitada no llegaria a sus departamentos, hotlines sin contesta, las oficinas quedarían sucias, ningúna donación de sangre, ningúna donación de órganos, ningúna página web más, nada de comida para los perros, ningún curso de yoga, ningún mercado navideño más!

We talked about our lives as artists and imagined the possibility that all artists would stop their artistic work as well as the jobs they do to survive. We imagined that museums and galleries have to close, cafes break down, no more taxis drive around, no one cooks in the restaurants, nothing is printed anymore, theatres have to close down, market research is standing still, no more translations are made, no more orgasms, there will be no more teaching anymore, old people do not get washed anymore, disabled people can not leave their homes anymore, hotlines are frozen, offices stay dirty, nobody donates blood, no more donations of organs, no more websites are designed, no more dogfood is produced, no more yoga teaching, no more christmas markets.

Wir haben über unser Leben als Künstlerinnen gesprochen. Wir haben uns die Möglichkeit vorgestellt, dass alle Künstlerinnen für einige Zeit aufhören künstlerisch zu arbeiten und die Jobs, die sie machen um zu überleben, niederlegen. Also haben wir uns vorgestellt, dass Museen und Galerien schliessen müssen, in Cafés keiner mehr bedient, kein Taxi fährt mehr, es wird nicht mehr gekocht, nichts wird mehr gedruckt, die Theater bleiben geschlossen, Marktforschung steht still, keine Übersetzung wird gemacht, kein Orgasmus mehr, kein Unterricht findet statt, alte Menschen werden nicht gewaschen, Behinderte kommen nicht mehr aus ihren Wohnungen, Hotlinebüros liegen brach, Treppenhäuser bleiben dreckig, keine Blutspende mehr, keine Organspende, keine Internetseite, kein Hundefutter, kein Yogakurs, keine Weihnachtsmärkte!

Hvis man derefter forestillede sig at kunstnere over hele verden for en tid holdt op med at lave kunst, ville ingen mennesker stå i vejen, ingen ville stå hos byggemarkedet og spørge om der findes en lim der kan lime vand på beton, ingen ville stolt slæbe affald rundt i gaden. Ingen ville gå en tur ned til bageren og derefter skrive en roman på 400 sider. Ingen ville udfordre folk i Kopiforretningen. Ingen ville finde kvarterer interessante som alle andre synes var katastrofer. Ingen ville pisse på et stykke kobber og fryde sig bagefter. Ingen ville slå en hest ihjel uden at ville spise den bagefter. Et pissoir var igen et pissoir. Verden var igen en pandekage. Et tomt pizzaria var igen et tomt pizzaria.

Og så havde vi prøvet at forestille os hvordan det ville være at strejke…

Luego si uno se imagina si todos los artistas dejaran de producir arte, no hubiera nadie que este en el camino, nadie que pregunte en un almacen de de construcción si existe una goma que pege agua con cemento, nadie instalaría orguyosamente basura en la calle, nadie quisiera pelearse con la jente en la tienda para sacar fotocopias. Nadie iría a una panadería para luego escribir una novela de 400 páginas. Nadie que de por conocer a barrios que otros encuentran que son una catástrofe. Nadie que se alegraría por orinar encima de un pedaso de cobre. Nadie que mataría un caballo así nomas. Un urinario seria denuevo un urinario. El mundo volviera ser una rebanada. Una pizzeria vacida volviera ser una pizzeria vacida.

Entonces nós imaginamos entrar en huelga.

If one imagines afterwards that all artists around the world all of a sudden stop making art suddenly no one would stand in the way anymore. nobody stands in a building centre and asks if there is a glue that sticks water on concrete, no one would proudly carry around rubbish in the streets. no one would just go to the bakery and write a novel of 400 pages afterwards. no one would challenge the people in the copyshops. no one would be interested in neighbourhoods others consider to be a catastrophy. no one would be happy about pissing on a copper plate. no one would slaughter a horse without using it afterwards. a pissoir would just be a pissoir. the world would be a disk again and an empty pizzeria would just be an empty pizzeria.

Then we imagined to be on strike.

Wenn mann sich danach vorstellt, dass alle Künstler auf der ganzen Welt auf einmal aufhörten Kunst zu machen; dann steht kein Mensch mehr plötzlich im Weg, keiner steht im Baumarkt und fragt, ob es einen Kleber gibt, der Wasser auf Beton kleben könnte, keiner würde stolz Müll durch die Straßen tragen. Keiner würde zum Bäcker gehen und danach einen 400-seitigen Roman schreiben, keiner würde die Leute im Copyshop herausfordern. Keiner würde Stadtteile interessant machen, die alle anderen als eine Katastrophe empfinden, keiner würde sich darüber freuen auf ein Stück Kupfer zu pinkeln, keiner würde ein Pferd schlachten ohne es dann zu verwerten. Ein Pissoir wäre wieder ein Pissoir. Die Welt wäre wieder eine Scheibe. Eine leerstehende Pizzeria wäre wieder eine leerstehende Pizzeria.

Und dann haben wir uns vorgestellt wie es wäre, wenn wir streiken!

Reality is not a commodity- speach by Nanna Gro Henningsen

I’m really happy to be here today – I want to say a big thank you to Das Comitee who organized this groundbreaking event. The Big International Artist’s Strike.

THERE WILL BE MADE NO ART TO DAY !!!

We have laid our brushes and jigsaws and computers and cameras down, we refuse to get any great artistic ideas today, and if a concept should sneak into our minds to day, we will reject it, we will suppress it, even if we have to drink really hard to forget the concept completely, we will make that sacrifice. We will make no art today!

So why are we striking?

Well maybe because we are the true proletariat of the cultural sector – nobody in the great big machine of cultural production make less money than we do, even the cleaning assistants at the museum make more money than we do. In average the cleaning assistant makes 35.000 kr more a year than the artist does.

That might be a good reason to strike

Or maybe because two thirds of the Danish museums and kunsthalle do not pay the artist any salary and do not support the artists production of the exhibitions they proudly present, and even though some artists do get some support from the arts council - one third of the artists get no financing at all when they produce exhibitions for public art-institutions.

This means that we – the proletariat of the cultural industry – the artists – we are financing more than one third of all the public contemporary art exhibitions, while everybody else in the building are getting paid for their work, we’re working for free.

That might be a good reason to strike

Or maybe we should strike because we have absolutely no social rights.

If you’re an artist:

- don’t ever get sick

- don’t ever get pregnant

- don’t ever get old

because we don’t have any rights to health insurance or sick leave, we have no

maternity leave and we have no pension fund.

And it is actually a bit strange, because if you look at the statistics, half the money we make come from day-jobs – we do a lot of teaching, cleaning, graphic design and heavy lifting. So you should think we had at least a 50% right to unemployment insurance, pension, sick leave and maternity leave. We have none.

In the past two years we have even been criminalized in the unemployment-insurance-system.

And why – I´ll tell you why: because we don’t do our share. According to the minister of employment every Danish citizen should do real, productive, proper work 38 hours a week.

When you count the day job and the work in the studio, most artists work approximately 50-60 hours a week – but apparently – Art is not considered real work.

That might be a good reason to strike

But there might be an even better reason to strike:

Because art is in constant danger of being reduced to just another commodity in the great experience-economy – just another thing to be bought and sold – The original concept of the experience economy is to make the buying of chicken, cheese and toilet paper into an “experience” – experience economy has nothing to do with art.

The dominance of experience economy does not signify that art or culture is going to play a more central role in society– it signifies that everything is for sale. It is an event-culture that waters down the idea of experience as a vital space for reflection and that blurs the basic value of art as a space for critical reflection and the challenging of our minds.

Sure art can be sold – well maybe not right now – but even so, art must never be reduced to a commodity or to harmless entertainment.

Art is never one-dimensional, the same piece of art can make your eyes water and you stomach turn, it can make you wanna sing or scream, it can bore you to death –

or it can make you think for yourself.

Art is that which asks you to look at the world from a different place.

Art is that which asks you to stop dead in your tired old tracks and look at things from upside down or maybe more just inside out –

Art is doesn’t tell you what to think – but just to think for yourself. To not let other people do your thinking for you.

There is a whole industry that offers to think for you, the media wants to think for you, the politicians wants to think for you, the commercials wants to think for you – our own thoughts have become a commodity that they are trying to sell back to us.

Everything has become a commodity. We sell the precious hours of our days to the employers, the media sell tragedies and scandals by the headline, and sometimes there isn’t even a real tragedy or a real scandal behind the headline, but you won’t know before you get to page 16, politicians sell our democracy bit by bit as cheap promises and fake ideas of security and order, intimate secrets are sold by web-cam, and fake images of reality are sold to us by humiliating ordinary attention seeking people on t-v for a cheap laugh.

Everybody is trying to buy something - a bit of authenticity, a bit of comfort a bit of reality.

But reality is not a commodity – and like art it should never be reduced to one.

Life is never one-dimensional and so art is never one-dimensional.

Art will ask you – to think for yourself and to think without prejudice.

But not to day – to day we are not gonna think at all, because to day we are on strike