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︎    ERADICATE ARTISTIC POVERTY    ︎    SET UP ONGOING, REGULAR MEETINGS BETWEEN LOCAL / REGIONAL POLITICIANS AND ARTISTS    ︎    ESTABLISH A LOCALIZED ARTISTIC WORKING GRANT PROGRAM    ︎    INCREASE QUANTITY AND AMOUNT OF ARTIST FEES PAID    ︎    ENCOURAGE INDEPENDENT INITIATIVES AND PLATFORMS    ︎    INCREASE ACCESS TO PROFESSIONAL ARTISTIC RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE    ︎    ESTABLISH AN INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED BFA, MFA, AND PHD ART EDUCATION    ︎    CREATE GREATER TRANSPARENCY, COMMUNICATION, AND PROCESSING TIME BETWEEN ARTISTS AND LOCAL FUNDING BODIES    ︎    IMPROVE ARTISTIC PARTICIPATION IN PUBLIC ARTS POLICY    ︎    PROTECT AND PROMOTE EXPERIMENTATION, QUALITY, CRITICALITY, INDEPENDENT, AND NON-COMMERCIAL ARTISTIC PRACTICE    ︎    FORGE ONGOING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ARTISTS, INDUSTRY, AND ACADEMIA    ︎    INCREASE REGULATION OF PRIVATE SECTOR ACTIVITY THAT DIRECTLY PROFITS FROM THE LOCAL VISUAL ARTS SECTOR     ︎    INVOLVE ARTISTS IN THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS OF LOCAL ARTISTIC PHILANTHROPY    ︎    ENSURE INCREASED GENDER, RACIAL, AND ETHNIC EQUALITY    ︎    MANDATE VISUAL ARTS PROGRAMS BE INCLUDED WITHIN GREEN / SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS   
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ELIMINATE ARTISTIC POVERTY



Baghaven, Skagen, Denmark
Saturday 15th October 2022 from 1 - 4 pm


“You would never go to a store and ask for a beer for free…”

Eliminate Artistic Poverty, Improve Working Conditions is a socially engaged, collective, and collaborative artwork that seeks to intervene and activate conversations around artistic economic models, artist’s working conditions, and the role of the art object across different socio-economic contexts.  By reconceptualizing a classic bodega beer as a collective artwork and negotiating its sale and distribution through different bars, restaurants, and cultural houses across Denmark, Aalborg Artist’s Association hopes to put into question and problematize socio-economic questions artists are facing.  In creating a uniquely rebranded beer that plainly and poetically discusses the problematic working conditions of the art sector and artist’s subjugation within this system, the aim is manifold — to raise awareness, reach new audiences, and socially activate conversation while also experimenting with economic models in different contexts for the art sector. 

As cultural economist Trine Bille has famously pointed out in a 2018 study, visual artists are the poorest occupational category in all of Denmark. Therefore, unlike Tom Marioni’s “The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the highest form of Art” or Superflex’s “Free Beer” project that invite the audience into art institutions to drink and make free beer, Aalborg Artist’s Association’s beer will more directly circulate within the capitalist framework of stores and bars being bought and sold like any other product. Although inspired by these previous beer projects, the Aalborg Artist’s Association artwork, in order to call attention to and integrate into other contexts outside the art sector and agitate conversation on the artist’s economic position with new audiences — will simultaneously exist as a “branded consumer good”. The idea of marketing a product to promote artistic “ideals” will not only facilitate discussion, but also help produce conversations as a fundraising model for an artistic political organization, where the profits will support Aalborg Artist’s Association’s ongoing work through this philanthropic “product”. Hopefully this will work toward - even if on a small scale - making new pathways to support artists and their improved social position, so that we can work toward Eliminating Artistic Poverty and bringing more interesting, better, and ethically produced art to the public.

Eliminate Artistic Poverty, Improve Working Conditions is a collaborative project initiated by Aalborg Artist’s Association and curated by Anne Møller Christensen and Sara Løvschall Grøntved. The project will take place across venues such as SKAL Contemporary, Palmehaven, f.eks., LIM, Blink, and Baghaven.

(DK)
"Du ville aldrig gå ind i en butik og bede om en øl gratis..."

Eliminate Artistic Poverty, Improve Working Conditions er et socialt engageret, kollektivt og kollaborativt kunstværk, der søger at gribe ind i og facilitere samtaler omkring kunstneriske økonomiske modeller, kunstnerens arbejdsvilkår og kunstobjektets rolle på tværs af forskellige socioøkonomiske sammenhænge. Ved at rekonceptualisere en klassisk flaskeøl som et kollektivt kunstværk og forhandle dens salg og distribution gennem forskellige barer, restauranter og kulturhuse i hele Danmark, håber Aalborg Artist’s Association at sætte fokus på og problematisere nogle af de socioøkonomiske spørgsmål, kunstnere står over for. Ved at skabe en unikt rebrandet øl, der tydeligt og poetisk diskuterer kunstsektorens problematiske arbejdsforhold og kunstnerens position i dette system, er målet at øge bevidstheden, nå ud til nye målgrupper og facilitere en  samtale om kunstneres arbejdsvilkår, samtidig med at vi eksperimenterer med alternative økonomiske modeller i forskellige kontekster for kunstsektoren.

I forskningsprojektet “Billedkunstens økonomiske rum” fra 2018 ledet af kulturøkonom Trine Bille fastslås det, at professionelle billedkunstnere er den fattigste erhvervskategori i Danmark. I modsætning til Tom Marionis værk The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the highest form of art eller Superflexs Free Beer-projekt, der inviterer publikum ind i kunstinstitutioner for at drikke og lave gratis øl, så vil dette projekt cirkulere mere direkte i en merkantil sammenhæng og Eliminate Artistic Poverty, Improve Working Conditions vil derfor sælges på bl.a. barer og restauranter for at skabe opmærksomhed på og integrere værket i andre sammenhænge uden for kunstverdenen og facilitere en samtale om kunstnerens økonomiske position med nye målgrupper. Ideen om at markedsføre et produkt for at fremme kunstneriske "idealer" vil ikke kun lette diskussionen, men også være med til at producere samtaler om alternative fundraising-modeller for en kunstnerisk politisk organisation, da overskuddet fra salget vil understøtte Aalborg Artist’s Associations igangværende arbejde for, selv i en lille skala,  at skabe nye veje til at støtte kunstnere og forbedre deres sociale position, så vi kan arbejde hen imod at eliminere kunstnerisk fattigdom og bringe mere interessant, bedre og mere etisk produceret kunst til offentligheden i fremtiden.

Eliminate Artistic Poverty, Improve Working Conditions er et kollektivt kunstprojekt initieret af Aalborg Artist’s Association og kurateret af Anne Møller Christensen og Sara Løvschall Grøntved. Projektet vises på tværs af en række platforme som blandt andre SKAL Contemporary, Palmehaven, f.eks., LIM, Blink og Baghaven.