(EN) “Towards an International of Art Workers and Beyond"
“Towards an International of Art Workers and beyond": on April 13th and 14th, 2023 was held a two-day inter-European (administrative and geographical) organizations' meeting, organized by La Buse at Triangle - Astérides (Marseille, FR).
Its ambition: to initiate a series of discussions and presentations of the work to date of allied organizations through two days of European-organization meetings. The collective also wishes to evaluate the possibilities of mobilization and mutualization of tools at the European level with the idea of finding partners to co-administer the whistleblowing platform created in 2019. The themes chosen for this first meeting mainly concern the working conditions in the art world in France and abroad, as well as tools for prevention, reporting and protection against abuse. We are aware that some topics will not be adequately covered, as these two days cannot aim at being exhaustive. However, as part of a more regular series of meetings, we hope that other meetings will follow this first one by tackling new angles (around sexist, sexual and racist discrimination and violence, status proposals, working conditions, etc.), bringing together people or organizations directly involved in each theme.
INVITED & INVITING ORGANIZATIONS
airdemidi.org
artworkersitalia.it
bbk-berlin.de
garageneve.tumblr.com
la-buse.org
lafap.be
instagram.com/lemassicotaix
lesmotsdetrop.fr
installateurs-oeuvres-art.blogspot.com
snapcgt.org
staa-cnt-so.org
uks.no
visarte-geneve.ch
wagesforwagesagainst.org/fr
trianglefrance.org/fr
Its ambition: to initiate a series of discussions and presentations of the work to date of allied organizations through two days of European-organization meetings. The collective also wishes to evaluate the possibilities of mobilization and mutualization of tools at the European level with the idea of finding partners to co-administer the whistleblowing platform created in 2019. The themes chosen for this first meeting mainly concern the working conditions in the art world in France and abroad, as well as tools for prevention, reporting and protection against abuse. We are aware that some topics will not be adequately covered, as these two days cannot aim at being exhaustive. However, as part of a more regular series of meetings, we hope that other meetings will follow this first one by tackling new angles (around sexist, sexual and racist discrimination and violence, status proposals, working conditions, etc.), bringing together people or organizations directly involved in each theme.
INVITED & INVITING ORGANIZATIONS
airdemidi.org
artworkersitalia.it
bbk-berlin.de
garageneve.tumblr.com
la-buse.org
lafap.be
instagram.com/lemassicotaix
lesmotsdetrop.fr
installateurs-oeuvres-art.blogspot.com
snapcgt.org
staa-cnt-so.org
uks.no
visarte-geneve.ch
wagesforwagesagainst.org/fr
trianglefrance.org/fr
This page reports on the two-day event, including video documentation of the four round tables, translated and subtitled (FR and EN), a chaptered overview of key information, as well as references and links.
DOCUMENTATION VIDEO DAY 1 (EN) : “Towards an International of Art Workers and Beyond"
The video has been chaptered as follows (summary).
SUMMARY OF DAY 1
0_ Introduction: the stakes of these International Meetings, by Emilie Moutsis from La Buse collective.
Coordinating on a European scale about identified issues (1) sufferings and abuse in the artistic field: making them visible and fighting them; and about (2) workers’ status of the sector: acting to establish rights and work organization in this professional field to emancipate work.
1_ a_ “EXPERIENCE FEEDBACK ON THE EUROPEAN SCALE”.
Introduction of the 1st Round Table and the guest speakers.
Understanding the parameters and working conditions of the field in the different countries that are represented, and how the professional organizations (collectives and unions) organize themselves to make them visible and transform them.
1_ b_ Moderator: Micha Ferrier-Barbut - sociologist, consultant in cultural enterprise management.
Short presentation of her work on a European scale in the contemporary art and music sectors: global observations on psychosocial risks, the lack of professional organization for workers in the art sector, explained by the history of work in the sector.
1_ c_ The methodology to be adopted for these meetings.
Meeting each other: reasons for being, paths. Tools presentation, allies and means of financing of each organization, to inspire each other mutually and to find a common ground.
1_ d_ Presentation of Engagement Arts (French-speaking Belgium, since 2017) by Anneleen Lemens.
Grassroot organization. Discussion groups and tool sharing against discrimination and abuse in the sector. Publication of online tools and resources.
Public subsidies suspended.
1_ e_ Presentation of UKS (Norway, since 1921) by Ina Hagen.
National organization for professional artists, the largest one (700 members) under the national union for visual artists (NBK).
Funded by artists to organize exhibitions and address working conditions.
Unions established as direct negotiators with the State since the 1930s.
Organized as a union since the 1960s, with a democratically elected board, that works on political lobby and strategic work, and runs an exhibition space through an open call, juried by the board.
Gathers and shares knowledge through exhibitions/Uses and combines exhibitions and statistics as tools (i.e. in 1964: organization of an exhibition about artists living conditions after a survey).
1974: large cross-disciplinary solidarity movement, which introduced grants, wages, etc.
Recent work: Addressing young artists' vulnerability and immigration policies. Introducing a reporting system for power abuse and harassment cases. Establishing the artist housing association.
Baseline work: Protection of economic, social, and ideal rights of artists, regardless of their background.
1_ f_ Artists’ status in Norway and Belgium.
1_ g_ Presentation of GARAGe (Geneva, Switzerland, since 2018) by Ramaya Tegegne.
Relation with the organizations Visarte Genève & Wages For Wages Against.
Campaign for the artists’ remuneration in Switzerland.
Survey of artists’ working conditions commissioned by the canton.
Remuneration scale and model contracts: tools that have been developed, awaiting validation by the authorities, and that will be managed by Visarte Genève.
Administrative support workshops for artists. Publication of online tools and resources.
Public subsidies suspended.
1_ h_ Artists’ status in Switzerland.
1_ i_ Presentation of BBK (Berlin, Germany, since 1950) by Frauke Boggash.
Professional association founded by artists, independently founded by memberships.
Political advocacy and statistical work on issues like: discrimination and abuse, age poverty, gender discriminatory income, work studios availability and affordability.
Two subsidiary associations, funded by the city: Kulturwerk (art workshops) and Bildungswerk (professionalization programs).
~ 3K members over ~ 10K artists in Berlin: why isn’t unionization more SEXY? Since it gives power.
1_ j_ Let’s talk about funding.
1_ k_ Conclusion of the 1st Round Table by Micha Ferrier-Barbut.
Reactionary and institutional modes of action to be combined.
Common observations of the generalized precariousness in the sector. Inverted Maslow’s hierarchy pyramid of needs.
Observation of the changing perception of artists as workers, the issues of labor rights and the administrative and legal framework of professions in the sector (contracts, remuneration, collective organization, recognition by public authorities/policies, relationship to financiers).
2_ a_ “PRESENTATION OF EXISTING TOOLS”.
Introduction of the 2nd Round Table Ronde and guest speakers.
The need to collectivize tools to provide security and an administrative framework of artistic professions.
Tools and levers of action: whether or not they are legally admissible and legitimacy issues.
2_ b_ Presentation of Wages for Wages Against (Geneva, Switzerland, since 2017) by Tiphanie Blanc.
Organization initiated by artist Ramaya Tegegne faced with the difficulty of being paid for the artistic work. Contact with the WAGE organization (New York) which has been fighting this same problem for over more than 15 years, for inspiration.
- 1st step: discussion groups, highlighting 2 observations.
1- The problem is shared, global and not individual. 2- The problem is systemic and not contingent on the means of the territory (Geneva is a well-endowed territory regarding the visual arts and yet perpetuating the same dynamics of oppression and poverty as in poorer territories and countries).
- Research work with an international focus + Campaign for the artists’ remuneration in Switzerland.
(i.e. via a survey to artists invited at the Swiss Cultural Center, highlighting that the non-remuneration only and always concerns visual artists. Results submitted to Pro Helvetia (financing organization) questioning the reasons therefore: since then, Pro Helvetia conditions its subsidies on systematic remuneration.
- Creation of the GARAGe group, in particular to establish remuneration scales.
- Two-volume editorial project (testimonies, interviews, pooling of reflections).
- “How are artists chosen?” survey underway, on the logic of awards in the sector, via the Swiss Arts Awards prize.
2_ c_ Presentation of Engagement Arts (French-speaking Belgium, since 2017) by Anneleen Lemens.
- 1st step: weekly female-exclusive open gatherings in Brussels.
- Today: an organization with a core of 10 people + 3 to 4 annual open gatherings in 3 cities.
- Reading of anonymized testimonies in an important theater in Brussels: a bomb event in the field.
- Invited by organizations and schools to gather information through testimonies in situ and produce an analysis on particular issues.
A frustrating work consisting of continuously pressing on the same button: the encountered problems are the same, and yet the people in power tend to minimize or reject the produced assessment.
- Open-letters, as a last resort: going public has proved to be successful but opens to legal hazards (defamation).
- Focus more on prevention than reaction, by way of lectures and workshops in schools.
How to go from a gut feeling to a more objective form, in order to address structural issues in the form of policy-making? How to go beyond the criticism of “not being scientific enough”, used as a disarming tool? The importance of personal experience as well as numbers.
- Publication of collective fanzines + other resources online.
2_ d_ Presentation of La Buse (France, since 2018) by Aurélien Catin.
- 1st stage: public meetings around the art world as a workplace.
- Today: a core group of 10 people running activities and training each other.
- “Community organizing” or networking of unions, collectives and individuals in the sector.
- School-based interventions.
- Two main projects since 2019: 1- The “artists-creators’’ status in France.
- Tools for improving immediate conditions, day-to-day issues.
Pillars established empirically, but echoing the founding objectives of unionism (Fr) of the Amiens Charter : 1- Work for social transformation or said revolution. 2- As long as there is no revolution, solidarity tools have to be created.
1- Word towards the creation of an art worker status: seeking labor rights and collective guarantees, on the scale of the class of workers, beyond the sector. In particular via two Tribunes - co-signed with unions, to put pressure on institutions from below - the 2nd of which is entitled: “Guaranteeing the right to continuity of income for art workers”.
2- Creation of a reporting Platform of abusive practices (anonymous form on a secure site): collection of testimonies, redirection to lawyers, jurists, unions, psychologists.
2_ e_ Artists’ status in France.
In substance, the artist-author (“creator”) regime is split between several conditions: intellectual owner + self-employed worker (by task) + employee (Social Security recognizes certain employee rights).
The idea is to pursue the search for wage rights, and to attach these rights to the person (as is retirement), which means detaching them from employment. This means establishing a wage that precedes activity, as a right common to all workers: moving towards a political right to a wage, for artists too.
One of the first rights sought is unemployment insurance, which provides artists-performers with a continuity of income, even though they have intermittent employment contracts.
2_ f_ The failure of the reporting Platform of abusive practices: the tool behind these Meetings.
Convinced from the outset that the tool would be a failure given the capabilities of the collective (La Buse): the aim was to raise awareness of the lack of such a tool in the sector. The history of this tool and the drama that accompanied it demonstrate the need for its existence, within a more robust structure.
Active for only 6 months, the Platform was undermined by a public structure (Frac) which sued the collective for defamation, while a tragedy ensued within this same structure: the suicide in the workplace of a person in great pain, who had testified on the Platform.
2_ g_ Presentation of Mots de Trop (France, since 2019) by Sophie Vela.
Organization focusing on study conditions, and more specifically on systemic and intersectional discrimination. Initiated by 3 female students, facing anger and feeling of helplessness, composed by 7 people today.
- 1st step: collection of testimonies in the Rennes art school, finding that the problem was generalized rather than specific to one teacher.
- Opening of a call for testimonials Platform (2020, still open), for all schools, relating to “micro-aggressions”: i.e. those minimized from the outside (term that does not designate a hierarchy) - considered as jokes or generational problems and therefore, not serious. Currently collecting 500 testimonies.
- Production of posters, displayed in large format in schools, association, always 4 testimonies coming from 4 different schools, relating to 4 different types of different discriminations (disability, racism, sexism, classicism, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia…)
- Publication of a practical guide for students in distress.
Containing a range of resources to get informed: recognition of discrimination; legal resources; reminder of the law; associations to contact; index of art workers unions and collectives; testimonies from other art school collectives (showing fields of action, inspiring and giving strength); statistical information produced: the origin of testimonies (almost all schools in France + some in Belgium) and the contexts of discrimination situations (during courses, exams, entrance exams). The latter led to a criticism of a methodology of art school pedagogy: individual meetings, which cannot produce witnesses and leave many people in distress.
- Supporting victims by acting as a witness: gathering associated testimonies, reporting to the administration, opening of an investigation, dismissal of the teacher
- Difficulties encountered: volunteer workload, psychosocial risks, problems with administration.
2_ h_ Conclusion of the 2nd Round Table by Micha Ferrier-Barbut.
Common observation of the invisibility of the everyday forms of abuse, debated and unrecognized, under the legal radar.
Importance of personal experiences and emotions in administrative work.
Hence the importance of collecting testimonies despite the several difficulties involved (psychological, legal, material) because giving a voice is like making a situation visible, which will then become acceptable to the public authorities capable of acting on the condition of its quantitative aspect.
Making working conditions visible to act on issues on status, remuneration, labor rights. Raising visibility - to give ourselves the capacity to act on - dysfunctional structures, precariousness, mistreatment, harassment, tragedies.
Introduction of the 2nd Round Table Ronde and guest speakers.
The need to collectivize tools to provide security and an administrative framework of artistic professions.
Tools and levers of action: whether or not they are legally admissible and legitimacy issues.
2_ b_ Presentation of Wages for Wages Against (Geneva, Switzerland, since 2017) by Tiphanie Blanc.
Organization initiated by artist Ramaya Tegegne faced with the difficulty of being paid for the artistic work. Contact with the WAGE organization (New York) which has been fighting this same problem for over more than 15 years, for inspiration.
- 1st step: discussion groups, highlighting 2 observations.
1- The problem is shared, global and not individual. 2- The problem is systemic and not contingent on the means of the territory (Geneva is a well-endowed territory regarding the visual arts and yet perpetuating the same dynamics of oppression and poverty as in poorer territories and countries).
- Research work with an international focus + Campaign for the artists’ remuneration in Switzerland.
(i.e. via a survey to artists invited at the Swiss Cultural Center, highlighting that the non-remuneration only and always concerns visual artists. Results submitted to Pro Helvetia (financing organization) questioning the reasons therefore: since then, Pro Helvetia conditions its subsidies on systematic remuneration.
- Creation of the GARAGe group, in particular to establish remuneration scales.
- Two-volume editorial project (testimonies, interviews, pooling of reflections).
- “How are artists chosen?” survey underway, on the logic of awards in the sector, via the Swiss Arts Awards prize.
2_ c_ Presentation of Engagement Arts (French-speaking Belgium, since 2017) by Anneleen Lemens.
- 1st step: weekly female-exclusive open gatherings in Brussels.
- Today: an organization with a core of 10 people + 3 to 4 annual open gatherings in 3 cities.
- Reading of anonymized testimonies in an important theater in Brussels: a bomb event in the field.
- Invited by organizations and schools to gather information through testimonies in situ and produce an analysis on particular issues.
A frustrating work consisting of continuously pressing on the same button: the encountered problems are the same, and yet the people in power tend to minimize or reject the produced assessment.
- Open-letters, as a last resort: going public has proved to be successful but opens to legal hazards (defamation).
- Focus more on prevention than reaction, by way of lectures and workshops in schools.
How to go from a gut feeling to a more objective form, in order to address structural issues in the form of policy-making? How to go beyond the criticism of “not being scientific enough”, used as a disarming tool? The importance of personal experience as well as numbers.
- Publication of collective fanzines + other resources online.
2_ d_ Presentation of La Buse (France, since 2018) by Aurélien Catin.
- 1st stage: public meetings around the art world as a workplace.
- Today: a core group of 10 people running activities and training each other.
- “Community organizing” or networking of unions, collectives and individuals in the sector.
- School-based interventions.
- Two main projects since 2019: 1- The “artists-creators’’ status in France.
- Tools for improving immediate conditions, day-to-day issues.
Pillars established empirically, but echoing the founding objectives of unionism (Fr) of the Amiens Charter : 1- Work for social transformation or said revolution. 2- As long as there is no revolution, solidarity tools have to be created.
1- Word towards the creation of an art worker status: seeking labor rights and collective guarantees, on the scale of the class of workers, beyond the sector. In particular via two Tribunes - co-signed with unions, to put pressure on institutions from below - the 2nd of which is entitled: “Guaranteeing the right to continuity of income for art workers”.
2- Creation of a reporting Platform of abusive practices (anonymous form on a secure site): collection of testimonies, redirection to lawyers, jurists, unions, psychologists.
2_ e_ Artists’ status in France.
In substance, the artist-author (“creator”) regime is split between several conditions: intellectual owner + self-employed worker (by task) + employee (Social Security recognizes certain employee rights).
The idea is to pursue the search for wage rights, and to attach these rights to the person (as is retirement), which means detaching them from employment. This means establishing a wage that precedes activity, as a right common to all workers: moving towards a political right to a wage, for artists too.
One of the first rights sought is unemployment insurance, which provides artists-performers with a continuity of income, even though they have intermittent employment contracts.
2_ f_ The failure of the reporting Platform of abusive practices: the tool behind these Meetings.
Convinced from the outset that the tool would be a failure given the capabilities of the collective (La Buse): the aim was to raise awareness of the lack of such a tool in the sector. The history of this tool and the drama that accompanied it demonstrate the need for its existence, within a more robust structure.
Active for only 6 months, the Platform was undermined by a public structure (Frac) which sued the collective for defamation, while a tragedy ensued within this same structure: the suicide in the workplace of a person in great pain, who had testified on the Platform.
2_ g_ Presentation of Mots de Trop (France, since 2019) by Sophie Vela.
Organization focusing on study conditions, and more specifically on systemic and intersectional discrimination. Initiated by 3 female students, facing anger and feeling of helplessness, composed by 7 people today.
- 1st step: collection of testimonies in the Rennes art school, finding that the problem was generalized rather than specific to one teacher.
- Opening of a call for testimonials Platform (2020, still open), for all schools, relating to “micro-aggressions”: i.e. those minimized from the outside (term that does not designate a hierarchy) - considered as jokes or generational problems and therefore, not serious. Currently collecting 500 testimonies.
- Production of posters, displayed in large format in schools, association, always 4 testimonies coming from 4 different schools, relating to 4 different types of different discriminations (disability, racism, sexism, classicism, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia…)
- Publication of a practical guide for students in distress.
Containing a range of resources to get informed: recognition of discrimination; legal resources; reminder of the law; associations to contact; index of art workers unions and collectives; testimonies from other art school collectives (showing fields of action, inspiring and giving strength); statistical information produced: the origin of testimonies (almost all schools in France + some in Belgium) and the contexts of discrimination situations (during courses, exams, entrance exams). The latter led to a criticism of a methodology of art school pedagogy: individual meetings, which cannot produce witnesses and leave many people in distress.
- Supporting victims by acting as a witness: gathering associated testimonies, reporting to the administration, opening of an investigation, dismissal of the teacher
- Difficulties encountered: volunteer workload, psychosocial risks, problems with administration.
2_ h_ Conclusion of the 2nd Round Table by Micha Ferrier-Barbut.
Common observation of the invisibility of the everyday forms of abuse, debated and unrecognized, under the legal radar.
Importance of personal experiences and emotions in administrative work.
Hence the importance of collecting testimonies despite the several difficulties involved (psychological, legal, material) because giving a voice is like making a situation visible, which will then become acceptable to the public authorities capable of acting on the condition of its quantitative aspect.
Making working conditions visible to act on issues on status, remuneration, labor rights. Raising visibility - to give ourselves the capacity to act on - dysfunctional structures, precariousness, mistreatment, harassment, tragedies.
REFERENCES DAY 1 (FR/EN) - “Towards an international of art workers and beyond"
Round-table #1 - FEEDBACK FROM EXPERIENCES ON A EUROPEAN SCALE
Anneleen Lemmens (ENGAGEMENT ARTS)
ENGAGEMENT ARTS - Belgium:
https://engagementarts.be/fr/tools
Jan Fabre case:
The public prosecutor had requested three years' imprisonment for the famous choreographer, stage director and visual artist Jan Fabre, charged with violence, harassment, inappropriate sexual behavior within his company and indecent assault on a person. The court gave him an 18-month suspended prison sentence on April 29, 2022, as some of the charges were time-barred.
Notion of patchwork economy:
The term “patchwork economy" describes the patchwork of jobs and protections that punctuate the careers of many modern workers. This encompasses both gig workers and non-gig workers—all of whom struggle with gaps in the safety net in various ways. Examples: National Domestic Workers Alliance, New York Taxi Workers Alliance.
Artist Status (Belgium):
Full article here
Ilse Ghekiere experiment:
https://www.rektoverso.be/artikel/racism-and-sexism-in-art-education-a-subjective-mapping
Mentioned zine #1:
https://engagementarts.be/en/tools/_links/links/engagement_zine1.pdf)
Mentioned zine #2:
(https://engagementarts.be/en/tools/_links/links/engagement%20zine%202.pdf)
Sarah Ahmed Fanzine:
(https://engagementarts.be/en/tools/_links/links/Sara%20Ahmed_last.pdf)
Ina Hagen (UKS)
UKS (Unge Kunstneres Samfund/Young Artists’ Society) is an Oslo-based institution for contemporary art and a Norwegian membership organization.
https://www.uks.no/about/
Association of Norwegian Visual Artists (NBK) :
https://www.norskebilledkunstnere.no/english/
1971 exhibition -‘Kunstnerkår' exhibition organised in 1971 about artists’ living conditions as use of a survey was instrumental in the following mobilisation of artists that led to the establishing of the grant system that is still in place.
‘Kunstnerboligforeningen' (literally The Artists' Housing Association)
Kreativt Naboskap (2014, publication) :
https://issuu.com/transborderstudio/docs/publikasjon_issuu_komprimert_jpg
Mulighetsrom (2017, publication) :
https://www.tronsmo.no/bok/9788292960073/MULIGHETSROM-KUNSTEN_OG_KUNSTNERNESS_PLASS_I_BYEN
UKS Kunstnerbolig (2018, exhibition and publication as part of the european project URBACT: Reinventing the fringe)
https://www.uks.no/archive/kunstnerbolig/
Selvbyggeren (2021-23, public artwork and municipal report about the future integration of public art in city development projects).
https://koro.no/et-friskt-blikk-pa-byen/
Article about financing non-profit housing projects and also an upcoming series of interviews produced by Oslo Municipal Art Collection, who are the funders of the project. I am happy to link more of these sources if it is of interest.
https://www.cultura.no/arkiv/pengevirke/kunstnerboligforeningen
Verdensrommet - association sur les politiques d'immigration
https://www.verdensrommet.network
Tax on art sales (Norway) :
5% on each art sale in Norway, paid by the buyer, that goes to a collective fund that is owned by the union.
Ramaya Tegegne (GARAGe)
GARAGe - Geneva:
https://garageneve.tumblr.com/
GARAGe online tools:
https://infos-artistes-geneve.ch/
Other Visarte online resources:
https://visarte.ch/fr/prestations-de-service/
Frauke Boggasch (bbk Berlin)
bbk berlin – professional association of Berlin visual artists
https://www.bbk-berlin.de/
Public memorandum “Art in need" at the foundation of bbk berlin.
bbk berlin was founded in 1950 by artists including Renée Sintenis, Richard Scheibe, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Hannah Höch, among others.
Kulturwerk – bbk’s non-profit subsidiary
https://www.bbk-kulturwerk.de/
Bildungswerk – bbk’s non-profit subsidiary (holds the workshops + professionalizing courses for artists.)
https://www.bbk-bildungswerk.de/
Round-table #2 - PRESENTATION OF EXISTING TOOLS
Tiphanie Blanc (WAGES FOR WAGES AGAINST)
Wages For Wages Against - Geneva
https://wagesforwagesagainst.org/en
Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council
https://prohelvetia.ch/fr/
Mondrian Funds
https://www.mondriaanfonds.nl/en/homepage-2/
W.A.G.E. (WORKING ARTISTS FOR A GREATER ECONOMY), New York
https://wageforwork.com/
WFWA (Wages For Wages Against) at CSS (Centre Culturel Suisse à Paris) :
Exhibition at Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris - April 21st, 2018 “ESSAYER ENCORE, RATER ENCORE, RATER MIEUX” Invitation by Rosa Brux and Archives Contestataires
https://www.ccsparis.com/evenements/rosa-brux-avec-les-archives-contestataires/
WFWA editorial projects:
https://wagesforwagesagainst.org/en/publications/volume-1
https://wagesforwagesagainst.org/en/publications/volume-2
WFWA project at the Swiss art awards 2023:
https://swissartawards.ch/participants/2022-wages-for-wages-against/
Sophie Vela (Les Mots de Trop)
Les mots de Trop collective (FR)
https://www.lesmotsdetrop.fr/
Printable posters:
https://lesmotsdetrop.fr/download/Affiches_ContributionsA4.pdf
Guide:
http://www.lesmotsdetrop.fr/guide.html
Report of discriminatory behavior, harassment, VSS, set up by the French Ministry of Culture:
https://www.culture.gouv.fr/Cellule-de-signalement
Aurélien Catin (La Buse)
La Buse - Paris/Marseille
https://la-buse.org/
The 1906 Amiens Charter, founding document of trade unionism in FR:
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charte_d%27Amiens
Tribune #2 : “To call to End the Logic of Financial Aid and to Guarantee Income Continuity of All Art Workers"
https://la-buse.org/ressources/Petition-Buse-2-A-Call-to-End-the-Logic-of-Financial-Aid-and-to-Guarantee-Income-Continuity-for-All-Art-Workers
La Buse's platform for reporting and publicizing abusive practices. Aimed at all art workers, active in 2020, then put on pause:
https://la-buse.org/plateforme
Assessment of our platform for reporting abusive practices:
https://la-buse.org/ressources/Bilan-de-notre-plateforme-de-signalement-des-pratiques-abusives
Press release about the legal case with FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, and the terrible consequences linked to violent and toxic managerial practices:
https://la-buse.org/ressources/FRAC-Champagne-Ardenne-communique-de-presse-de-La-Buse
Previous day's workshops
Book survey of the book by Lily Zalzett, Stella Fihn, Te plains pas, c’est pas l’usine. L’exploitation en milieu associatif, 202, niet!éditions.
https://niet-editions.fr/catalogue/te-plains-pas-cest-pas-lusine/
With Emmanuel Simon & Laure Vigna from La Buse collective.
Book survey of the Precarious Workers Brigade collective's critical resources manual, Training for Exploitation? Politicising Employability and Reclaiming Education, 2018, Journal of Aesthetics & Protest Press.
https://joaap.org/press/trainingforexploitation.htm
With Ana Vega from La Buse collective.
Workshop “Retirement at 18 is possible and desirable”.
With Aurélien Catin from La Buse collective.
View the online training course organized by the STAA-CNTSO as part of the mobilization against the proposed 2023 reform of France's pension system: En Retraite. Comprendre les enjeux de la réforme des retraites (Aurélien Catin), 2023.
https://youtu.be/_Ut1O2F6YbI?si=pbBSuEhkwonuuHGO
Article from the Quotidien de l’art on artists-authors’ retirement:
https://www.lequotidiendelart.com/articles/23631-retraite-les-artistes-aussi-se-battent-pour-leurs-droits.html
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Round-table #1 - FEEDBACK FROM EXPERIENCES ON A EUROPEAN SCALE
Anneleen Lemmens (ENGAGEMENT ARTS)
ENGAGEMENT ARTS - Belgium:
https://engagementarts.be/fr/tools
Jan Fabre case:
The public prosecutor had requested three years' imprisonment for the famous choreographer, stage director and visual artist Jan Fabre, charged with violence, harassment, inappropriate sexual behavior within his company and indecent assault on a person. The court gave him an 18-month suspended prison sentence on April 29, 2022, as some of the charges were time-barred.
Notion of patchwork economy:
The term “patchwork economy" describes the patchwork of jobs and protections that punctuate the careers of many modern workers. This encompasses both gig workers and non-gig workers—all of whom struggle with gaps in the safety net in various ways. Examples: National Domestic Workers Alliance, New York Taxi Workers Alliance.
Artist Status (Belgium):
Full article here
Ilse Ghekiere experiment:
https://www.rektoverso.be/artikel/racism-and-sexism-in-art-education-a-subjective-mapping
Mentioned zine #1:
https://engagementarts.be/en/tools/_links/links/engagement_zine1.pdf)
Mentioned zine #2:
(https://engagementarts.be/en/tools/_links/links/engagement%20zine%202.pdf)
Sarah Ahmed Fanzine:
(https://engagementarts.be/en/tools/_links/links/Sara%20Ahmed_last.pdf)
Ina Hagen (UKS)
UKS (Unge Kunstneres Samfund/Young Artists’ Society) is an Oslo-based institution for contemporary art and a Norwegian membership organization.
https://www.uks.no/about/
Association of Norwegian Visual Artists (NBK) :
https://www.norskebilledkunstnere.no/english/
1971 exhibition -‘Kunstnerkår' exhibition organised in 1971 about artists’ living conditions as use of a survey was instrumental in the following mobilisation of artists that led to the establishing of the grant system that is still in place.
‘Kunstnerboligforeningen' (literally The Artists' Housing Association)
Kreativt Naboskap (2014, publication) :
https://issuu.com/transborderstudio/docs/publikasjon_issuu_komprimert_jpg
Mulighetsrom (2017, publication) :
https://www.tronsmo.no/bok/9788292960073/MULIGHETSROM-KUNSTEN_OG_KUNSTNERNESS_PLASS_I_BYEN
UKS Kunstnerbolig (2018, exhibition and publication as part of the european project URBACT: Reinventing the fringe)
https://www.uks.no/archive/kunstnerbolig/
Selvbyggeren (2021-23, public artwork and municipal report about the future integration of public art in city development projects).
https://koro.no/et-friskt-blikk-pa-byen/
Article about financing non-profit housing projects and also an upcoming series of interviews produced by Oslo Municipal Art Collection, who are the funders of the project. I am happy to link more of these sources if it is of interest.
https://www.cultura.no/arkiv/pengevirke/kunstnerboligforeningen
Verdensrommet - association sur les politiques d'immigration
https://www.verdensrommet.network
Tax on art sales (Norway) :
5% on each art sale in Norway, paid by the buyer, that goes to a collective fund that is owned by the union.
Ramaya Tegegne (GARAGe)
GARAGe - Geneva:
https://garageneve.tumblr.com/
GARAGe online tools:
https://infos-artistes-geneve.ch/
Other Visarte online resources:
https://visarte.ch/fr/prestations-de-service/
Frauke Boggasch (bbk Berlin)
bbk berlin – professional association of Berlin visual artists
https://www.bbk-berlin.de/
Public memorandum “Art in need" at the foundation of bbk berlin.
bbk berlin was founded in 1950 by artists including Renée Sintenis, Richard Scheibe, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Hannah Höch, among others.
Kulturwerk – bbk’s non-profit subsidiary
https://www.bbk-kulturwerk.de/
Bildungswerk – bbk’s non-profit subsidiary (holds the workshops + professionalizing courses for artists.)
https://www.bbk-bildungswerk.de/
Round-table #2 - PRESENTATION OF EXISTING TOOLS
Tiphanie Blanc (WAGES FOR WAGES AGAINST)
Wages For Wages Against - Geneva
https://wagesforwagesagainst.org/en
Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council
https://prohelvetia.ch/fr/
Mondrian Funds
https://www.mondriaanfonds.nl/en/homepage-2/
W.A.G.E. (WORKING ARTISTS FOR A GREATER ECONOMY), New York
https://wageforwork.com/
WFWA (Wages For Wages Against) at CSS (Centre Culturel Suisse à Paris) :
Exhibition at Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris - April 21st, 2018 “ESSAYER ENCORE, RATER ENCORE, RATER MIEUX” Invitation by Rosa Brux and Archives Contestataires
https://www.ccsparis.com/evenements/rosa-brux-avec-les-archives-contestataires/
WFWA editorial projects:
https://wagesforwagesagainst.org/en/publications/volume-1
https://wagesforwagesagainst.org/en/publications/volume-2
WFWA project at the Swiss art awards 2023:
https://swissartawards.ch/participants/2022-wages-for-wages-against/
Sophie Vela (Les Mots de Trop)
Les mots de Trop collective (FR)
https://www.lesmotsdetrop.fr/
Printable posters:
https://lesmotsdetrop.fr/download/Affiches_ContributionsA4.pdf
Guide:
http://www.lesmotsdetrop.fr/guide.html
Report of discriminatory behavior, harassment, VSS, set up by the French Ministry of Culture:
https://www.culture.gouv.fr/Cellule-de-signalement
Aurélien Catin (La Buse)
La Buse - Paris/Marseille
https://la-buse.org/
The 1906 Amiens Charter, founding document of trade unionism in FR:
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charte_d%27Amiens
Tribune #2 : “To call to End the Logic of Financial Aid and to Guarantee Income Continuity of All Art Workers"
https://la-buse.org/ressources/Petition-Buse-2-A-Call-to-End-the-Logic-of-Financial-Aid-and-to-Guarantee-Income-Continuity-for-All-Art-Workers
La Buse's platform for reporting and publicizing abusive practices. Aimed at all art workers, active in 2020, then put on pause:
https://la-buse.org/plateforme
Assessment of our platform for reporting abusive practices:
https://la-buse.org/ressources/Bilan-de-notre-plateforme-de-signalement-des-pratiques-abusives
Press release about the legal case with FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, and the terrible consequences linked to violent and toxic managerial practices:
https://la-buse.org/ressources/FRAC-Champagne-Ardenne-communique-de-presse-de-La-Buse
Previous day's workshops
Book survey of the book by Lily Zalzett, Stella Fihn, Te plains pas, c’est pas l’usine. L’exploitation en milieu associatif, 202, niet!éditions.
https://niet-editions.fr/catalogue/te-plains-pas-cest-pas-lusine/
With Emmanuel Simon & Laure Vigna from La Buse collective.
Book survey of the Precarious Workers Brigade collective's critical resources manual, Training for Exploitation? Politicising Employability and Reclaiming Education, 2018, Journal of Aesthetics & Protest Press.
https://joaap.org/press/trainingforexploitation.htm
With Ana Vega from La Buse collective.
Workshop “Retirement at 18 is possible and desirable”.
With Aurélien Catin from La Buse collective.
View the online training course organized by the STAA-CNTSO as part of the mobilization against the proposed 2023 reform of France's pension system: En Retraite. Comprendre les enjeux de la réforme des retraites (Aurélien Catin), 2023.
https://youtu.be/_Ut1O2F6YbI?si=pbBSuEhkwonuuHGO
Article from the Quotidien de l’art on artists-authors’ retirement:
https://www.lequotidiendelart.com/articles/23631-retraite-les-artistes-aussi-se-battent-pour-leurs-droits.html
_________________________________________________________________________________________
DOCUMENTATION VIDEO DAY 2 (EN) : “Towards an International of Art Workers and Beyond"
SUMMARY OF DAY 2
0_ a_ Introduction to the 2nd day of International Meetings, by Emilie Moutsis from La Buse collective.
0_ b_ Brief look back at the 1st day of the International Meetings, by Emilie Moutsis from La Buse collective.
Like La Buse, collectives from Norway, Flemish Belgium, Switzerland and Germany work on making abusive situations and psychosocial risks visible, improving working conditions in the artistic sector.
Observation of the transversality with problems, linked in particular to the absence of a status allowing access to worthy collective guarantees, such as the continuity of income between jobs.
Note on the 3-afternoon workshops.
Collectives from Norway, Flemish Belgium, Switzerland and Germany, took part in the event.
- Book survey of the book: “Te plains pas, c’est pas l’usine”, about burnout at work in voluntary activism
- Book survey of the book: “Training for exploitation. Politicizing Employability and Reclaiming Education”.
- Workshop on the functioning of the pension system in France, already an online conference (YTB of STAA CNT-SO).
Note on an article published the same morning in the Quotidien de l’art on the topic of pensions for workers in the artists-authors’ regime.
1_ a_ “WORKING CONDITIONS AND INTERPROFESSIONAL SUPPORT”.
Introduction to the 1st Round Table and guest speakers.
Interventions:
a sociologist, consultant in cultural enterprise management, in the position of learner-knower, on working conditions issues;
a clinical psychologist, legitimizing the importance of the liberation of speech as a step towards action (the fight for rights), and the need for speech to go beyond the realm of art
two young so-called struggle unions and a union “D.I.L.F.”, of art workers/in training, on breaking down barriers and links (between individuals, schools, professions, unions, art and society);
the structure hosting the event, on the responsibility of diffusers towards art workers;
a network of structures: role of networks, horizontality, representation of professions.
1_ b_ Micha Ferrier-Barbut - sociologist, consultant in cultural enterprise management.
The work as multifaceted in itself, as a path to fulfillment (individual, collective).
Toxicity lies in working conditions: everything that affects the environment in which people work (remuneration, management model, meaning at work, recognition, employability, time intensity, emotional demands, autonomy, social relationships, value conflicts, safety, etc.).
Typical profile of artistic professions, delineating a typology of needs and psychosocial risks: rather well-educated backgrounds; people more educated than the average; importance given to questions of meaning and ethics, to autonomy; sensitivity to one’s own political and social place; great room for emotions and sensitivity.
Specific features of organizational (dys)functioning in the artistic field: weak social dialogue; invisibility of work; absence of objectification of work - open door to abuse; absence of collective agreements; precariousness; absence of status; modes of governance; infantilizing support system; etc.
Mention of post-COVID literature about meaning at work (autonomy, empowerment, recognition, emancipation). Expectations identified as those already characterizing the cultural sectors.
Importance of working on working conditions in one’s own sector.
1_ c_ Presentation of STAA CNT-SO (France, since 2020) by Emmanuel Simon.
Young union, child of COVID. Born from the observation of remuneration per task, the opposite of the salary attached to the person: will to conquer new rights as “workers” and not “artists” (unemployment insurance, recognition of illnesses and accidents at work, paid leave). Absence of rights due to the absence of related employer contributions (broadcaster contribution = 1.1%).
Industry union and not professional allows us to point out the existence of a class struggle, some players taking advantage of the others’ work.
Revolutionary union advocating self-management and taking back control of work and sovereignty over it.
Still too few in the unions. Joining a union to come together, uniting to work on the problems we tackle.
New local inter-union branches in the sector - i.e. in Marseille (STAA CNT-SO, SNAPcgt and Le Massicot).
1_ c_ Presentation of Le Massicot, an inter-creation school union (France, since 2020) by representatives of the Aix and AURA sections.
Considering art schools as places where the oppressions and inequalities of work in the field, as discussed here, crystallize.
- Initiated via an inter-school GA by ENSCI (Paris) during the first lockdown.
Collective observations:
1- Need for tools of defense, organization and struggle.
2- Need for a perennial structure: transmission, sustainability.
3- Need to be a group force: making connections and decompartmentalizing, between individuals, schools, unions, workers in training or not; reintroducing art into society.
- Ongoing inter-organizations and inter-schools struggle over endangered schools and pensions.
- Le Massicot : a fighting union, double task:
x Organizing immediate defense of rights
x Organizing a radical change of social project, in a self-management, emancipatory and egalitarian perspective
Hence 4 main missions:
1- Organization of concrete solidarity in the face of student precariousness (i.e. distribution of basic necessities).
2- Systemic analysis of this precariousness/deterioration of working conditions.
3- Defense of rights - individual and collective (i.e. campaigns).
4- Organization of mobilizations (i.e. art schools in danger, pensions) and visibility actions (i.e. institutional disruptions) with other unions.
1_ d_ For a student salary.
Le Massicot’s material and moral demands: a worker status for students in training (in line with and in distinction from the 1946 Grenoble Charter which recognized students as young intellectual workers). This status gives access to studies; a further training; a way out of precariousness; the contribution (socialization of salaries).
1_ e_ Current context of art schools in France.
Situation in danger particularly with imminent closures and major budget cuts in public education.
1_ f_ Why is unionism so SEXY? Presentation of SNAPCgt (France, since 1977) by Robyn Chien.
Story of a unionization path: how a disillusioned young contemporary art start-up founder meets workers at STRASS and chooses to join the unions’ D.I.L.F. to live the Dream.
Union attached to the CGT, historic confederation of struggles for labor rights and wage gains: artists-authors are bound to its demands, including continuity of salary.
In complementarity with the other unions present here through its 40 years of experience, in terms of scales of intervention + seat on commissions (i.e. Afdas, Drac allocation commissions, etc.)
The union perspective helps us to understand the sources of difficulties in improving working conditions, which allows us to take better action on them. Taking action to improve working conditions is sexy!
1_ g_ Presentation of the welcoming structure, Triangle - Astérides (France, since 1992) by Victorine Grataloup.
Place of dissemination (structure involved in bringing together an artistic work and an audience): in the position of employer with respect to the artists-authors.
Direction = position and not a profession. Striking difference between our field and live performance: artists/collectives at the head/management of structures.
Victorine Grataloup comes from independent curating, from work collectives including artists.
- Role and responsibilities
Origine - 2 associations founded exclusively by artists: Astérides (1992) and Triangle France (1994), within La Friche belle de Mai (1992), a cooperative of mainly associative cultural structures, in Marseille. Hence a particular responsibility (compared to other art centers) towards artists and art workers.
Labeled art center of national interest: the public interest is at stake.
From within a structure, improving the functioning of the various programs means improving the working conditions of the artists-authors within it, but also of the employees, and raising the question of the remuneration of the public.
- Diffuser contribution
Simulation, commissioned by La Buse, of the increase of the year N-1 in the diffuser’s contribution proposed in the Tribune “Guaranteeing the right to continuity of income of art workers” and the Project Proposal Law “For a continuity of income for artists-authors” supported in particular by the SNAPcgt, the STAA CNT-SO, La Buse, the PCF culture commission.
In 2022, total artists-authors’ fees = €50,250
Current diffuser contribution 1.1% = €552, explains the very low guarantee of artists-authors.
Diffuser’s contribution claimed 5.15% = €2,588, not much compared with the budget.
Detailed breakdown of the fees paid to artists-authors by the structure.
- Quotes Philippe Batifoulier for his work as a historian of the General Regime of the Social Security (at the time of its creation: in self-management and offering much better conditions from a feminist perspective) - in relation to the work of Aurélien Catin.
- Interministerial instruction dated 12/01/23.
Circular issued from the Ministries of Culture, Labor and Health, indicating how diffusers can be relieved of the small contribution currently applied, i.e. when there is no strict dissemination of the artist’s work (i.e. research residencies). Important pedagogy to be done on the side of diffusers and unions so that diffusers ignore this recommendation and continue to remunerate (i.e. they do not deteriorate the working conditions of artists-authors).
1_ g_ Presentation of a network of contemporary art structures, Air de Midi (Occitania, France, since 2013) by Marine Lang & Manuel Pomar.
Manuel Pomar, artist, curator and co-director of Lieu Commun (an artistic place, a place for artists, en direction des publics, managed horizontally by 4 people), and from this position, co-president of Air de Midi: very few artists who manage structures, it is this voice that he carries within the network.
- 2005 - Originally: “Inventer le Présent”, an informal regional network of diffusers (without associative status) and managed by Frac Les Abattoirs.
- 2013 - Creation: struggle of member structures to establish statutes and move away from vertical functioning. Functioning based on the inter-knowledge of member structures.
- 2018 - Inspired by the LMAC (Laboratoire des Médiations en Art Contemporain) created in Midi-Pyrénées and extended to Occitania, implementation of a co-presidency (involving all the structures’ professions and not an exclusive representation by the management): art center management + Mécènes du Sud + artist-run space
- Today - 43 structures (museums, art centers, schools - from small volunteer structures to very large museums with 100 employees).
1_ h_ Example of professional Days organized by the network: “Taking care of art workers”.
Organized following numerous workshops during the lockdowns.
D1 : public / D2 : workshops in small groups, to allow freedom of speech.
Very moving and a lot of things said: will to continue to carry out this type of dedicated meetings, collectively, as a network.
Topics: (1) Suffering at work, how to identify and reveal a crisis situation? (2) Care at work, how to identify and prevent psychosocial risks? (3) Well-being at work, what are the different levers for action?
These days enabled us to reposition the network (1) on its role: fighting for better working conditions (rather than adopting a communicative role, as the structures’ actions had previously been) + (2) on the inclusiveness that it can bring to all types of professions: beyond the management, all people working in these structures, including artists.
1_ i_ Presentation of a clinical psychologist’s perspective on the particularities of artistic profiles in terms of work-related suffering and psychosocial risks, by Joëlle Grispin-Kamidian.
Personal path: studies at ENSAD (Paris, 30 years ago), graphic designer (for 15 years) - then faced with total ignorance of and isolation from rights (during and after studies). Today psychologist, she discovered La Buse’s work in 2021.
- Observations within the framework of orientation assessments (schools) + work with families (parents-kids) :
little cultural presence in families’ schooling/leisure activities, total ignorance (parents) of artistic professions, with representations close to false beliefs (all professions in the field/area in general described as uncertain, unreliable, out of the ordinary, marginal, whimsical, dependent on the history of “gift”: you are either gifted or you are not). But also: the idea of privilege associated with the artist in the collective unconscious.
- And yet, clinician observations:
attraction to artistic/creative expression reveals itself at an early age, as a necessity rather than a choice - then builds or not over the course of life.
- Premise:
Having an artistic desire is already to be in a state of struggle, because it means facing strong resistance and difficult conditions (precariousness, poverty, abuse), with extremely deleterious psychological effects: a feeling of isolation, humiliation, non-recognition of one’s identity, of one’s usefulness, not being taken seriously, a feeling of exploitation right from studies.
Furthermore, people in the artistic field work on the sensitive reflection of reality: this implies sensitivity, even hypersensitivity and hence great fragility.
- In this context, la question of rights is fundamental:
at the individual level (legitimacy - an essential feeling for the recognition of one’s identity) and societal level (inscribing art in society - carrying a message that goes beyond the realm of art to touch society in its different strata).
1_ j_ Conclusion of the 1st Round Table by Emilie Moutsis from La Buse collective.
Observations.
- We can no longer live with the romantic myth of art: the naturalized instability of our professions prevents us from working.
- We do not have donations, we are not eccentric: we have values and desire, which we do not want to give away to Capitalism.
That is why art is not enough, and we seek and find meaning in our common struggles and organizations: it is this reality that we convey today.
SUMMARY OF DAY 2
0_ a_ Introduction to the 2nd day of International Meetings, by Emilie Moutsis from La Buse collective.
0_ b_ Brief look back at the 1st day of the International Meetings, by Emilie Moutsis from La Buse collective.
Like La Buse, collectives from Norway, Flemish Belgium, Switzerland and Germany work on making abusive situations and psychosocial risks visible, improving working conditions in the artistic sector.
Observation of the transversality with problems, linked in particular to the absence of a status allowing access to worthy collective guarantees, such as the continuity of income between jobs.
Note on the 3-afternoon workshops.
Collectives from Norway, Flemish Belgium, Switzerland and Germany, took part in the event.
- Book survey of the book: “Te plains pas, c’est pas l’usine”, about burnout at work in voluntary activism
- Book survey of the book: “Training for exploitation. Politicizing Employability and Reclaiming Education”.
- Workshop on the functioning of the pension system in France, already an online conference (YTB of STAA CNT-SO).
Note on an article published the same morning in the Quotidien de l’art on the topic of pensions for workers in the artists-authors’ regime.
1_ a_ “WORKING CONDITIONS AND INTERPROFESSIONAL SUPPORT”.
Introduction to the 1st Round Table and guest speakers.
Interventions:
a sociologist, consultant in cultural enterprise management, in the position of learner-knower, on working conditions issues;
a clinical psychologist, legitimizing the importance of the liberation of speech as a step towards action (the fight for rights), and the need for speech to go beyond the realm of art
two young so-called struggle unions and a union “D.I.L.F.”, of art workers/in training, on breaking down barriers and links (between individuals, schools, professions, unions, art and society);
the structure hosting the event, on the responsibility of diffusers towards art workers;
a network of structures: role of networks, horizontality, representation of professions.
1_ b_ Micha Ferrier-Barbut - sociologist, consultant in cultural enterprise management.
The work as multifaceted in itself, as a path to fulfillment (individual, collective).
Toxicity lies in working conditions: everything that affects the environment in which people work (remuneration, management model, meaning at work, recognition, employability, time intensity, emotional demands, autonomy, social relationships, value conflicts, safety, etc.).
Typical profile of artistic professions, delineating a typology of needs and psychosocial risks: rather well-educated backgrounds; people more educated than the average; importance given to questions of meaning and ethics, to autonomy; sensitivity to one’s own political and social place; great room for emotions and sensitivity.
Specific features of organizational (dys)functioning in the artistic field: weak social dialogue; invisibility of work; absence of objectification of work - open door to abuse; absence of collective agreements; precariousness; absence of status; modes of governance; infantilizing support system; etc.
Mention of post-COVID literature about meaning at work (autonomy, empowerment, recognition, emancipation). Expectations identified as those already characterizing the cultural sectors.
Importance of working on working conditions in one’s own sector.
1_ c_ Presentation of STAA CNT-SO (France, since 2020) by Emmanuel Simon.
Young union, child of COVID. Born from the observation of remuneration per task, the opposite of the salary attached to the person: will to conquer new rights as “workers” and not “artists” (unemployment insurance, recognition of illnesses and accidents at work, paid leave). Absence of rights due to the absence of related employer contributions (broadcaster contribution = 1.1%).
Industry union and not professional allows us to point out the existence of a class struggle, some players taking advantage of the others’ work.
Revolutionary union advocating self-management and taking back control of work and sovereignty over it.
Still too few in the unions. Joining a union to come together, uniting to work on the problems we tackle.
New local inter-union branches in the sector - i.e. in Marseille (STAA CNT-SO, SNAPcgt and Le Massicot).
1_ c_ Presentation of Le Massicot, an inter-creation school union (France, since 2020) by representatives of the Aix and AURA sections.
Considering art schools as places where the oppressions and inequalities of work in the field, as discussed here, crystallize.
- Initiated via an inter-school GA by ENSCI (Paris) during the first lockdown.
Collective observations:
1- Need for tools of defense, organization and struggle.
2- Need for a perennial structure: transmission, sustainability.
3- Need to be a group force: making connections and decompartmentalizing, between individuals, schools, unions, workers in training or not; reintroducing art into society.
- Ongoing inter-organizations and inter-schools struggle over endangered schools and pensions.
- Le Massicot : a fighting union, double task:
x Organizing immediate defense of rights
x Organizing a radical change of social project, in a self-management, emancipatory and egalitarian perspective
Hence 4 main missions:
1- Organization of concrete solidarity in the face of student precariousness (i.e. distribution of basic necessities).
2- Systemic analysis of this precariousness/deterioration of working conditions.
3- Defense of rights - individual and collective (i.e. campaigns).
4- Organization of mobilizations (i.e. art schools in danger, pensions) and visibility actions (i.e. institutional disruptions) with other unions.
1_ d_ For a student salary.
Le Massicot’s material and moral demands: a worker status for students in training (in line with and in distinction from the 1946 Grenoble Charter which recognized students as young intellectual workers). This status gives access to studies; a further training; a way out of precariousness; the contribution (socialization of salaries).
1_ e_ Current context of art schools in France.
Situation in danger particularly with imminent closures and major budget cuts in public education.
1_ f_ Why is unionism so SEXY? Presentation of SNAPCgt (France, since 1977) by Robyn Chien.
Story of a unionization path: how a disillusioned young contemporary art start-up founder meets workers at STRASS and chooses to join the unions’ D.I.L.F. to live the Dream.
Union attached to the CGT, historic confederation of struggles for labor rights and wage gains: artists-authors are bound to its demands, including continuity of salary.
In complementarity with the other unions present here through its 40 years of experience, in terms of scales of intervention + seat on commissions (i.e. Afdas, Drac allocation commissions, etc.)
The union perspective helps us to understand the sources of difficulties in improving working conditions, which allows us to take better action on them. Taking action to improve working conditions is sexy!
1_ g_ Presentation of the welcoming structure, Triangle - Astérides (France, since 1992) by Victorine Grataloup.
Place of dissemination (structure involved in bringing together an artistic work and an audience): in the position of employer with respect to the artists-authors.
Direction = position and not a profession. Striking difference between our field and live performance: artists/collectives at the head/management of structures.
Victorine Grataloup comes from independent curating, from work collectives including artists.
- Role and responsibilities
Origine - 2 associations founded exclusively by artists: Astérides (1992) and Triangle France (1994), within La Friche belle de Mai (1992), a cooperative of mainly associative cultural structures, in Marseille. Hence a particular responsibility (compared to other art centers) towards artists and art workers.
Labeled art center of national interest: the public interest is at stake.
From within a structure, improving the functioning of the various programs means improving the working conditions of the artists-authors within it, but also of the employees, and raising the question of the remuneration of the public.
- Diffuser contribution
Simulation, commissioned by La Buse, of the increase of the year N-1 in the diffuser’s contribution proposed in the Tribune “Guaranteeing the right to continuity of income of art workers” and the Project Proposal Law “For a continuity of income for artists-authors” supported in particular by the SNAPcgt, the STAA CNT-SO, La Buse, the PCF culture commission.
In 2022, total artists-authors’ fees = €50,250
Current diffuser contribution 1.1% = €552, explains the very low guarantee of artists-authors.
Diffuser’s contribution claimed 5.15% = €2,588, not much compared with the budget.
Detailed breakdown of the fees paid to artists-authors by the structure.
- Quotes Philippe Batifoulier for his work as a historian of the General Regime of the Social Security (at the time of its creation: in self-management and offering much better conditions from a feminist perspective) - in relation to the work of Aurélien Catin.
- Interministerial instruction dated 12/01/23.
Circular issued from the Ministries of Culture, Labor and Health, indicating how diffusers can be relieved of the small contribution currently applied, i.e. when there is no strict dissemination of the artist’s work (i.e. research residencies). Important pedagogy to be done on the side of diffusers and unions so that diffusers ignore this recommendation and continue to remunerate (i.e. they do not deteriorate the working conditions of artists-authors).
1_ g_ Presentation of a network of contemporary art structures, Air de Midi (Occitania, France, since 2013) by Marine Lang & Manuel Pomar.
Manuel Pomar, artist, curator and co-director of Lieu Commun (an artistic place, a place for artists, en direction des publics, managed horizontally by 4 people), and from this position, co-president of Air de Midi: very few artists who manage structures, it is this voice that he carries within the network.
- 2005 - Originally: “Inventer le Présent”, an informal regional network of diffusers (without associative status) and managed by Frac Les Abattoirs.
- 2013 - Creation: struggle of member structures to establish statutes and move away from vertical functioning. Functioning based on the inter-knowledge of member structures.
- 2018 - Inspired by the LMAC (Laboratoire des Médiations en Art Contemporain) created in Midi-Pyrénées and extended to Occitania, implementation of a co-presidency (involving all the structures’ professions and not an exclusive representation by the management): art center management + Mécènes du Sud + artist-run space
- Today - 43 structures (museums, art centers, schools - from small volunteer structures to very large museums with 100 employees).
1_ h_ Example of professional Days organized by the network: “Taking care of art workers”.
Organized following numerous workshops during the lockdowns.
D1 : public / D2 : workshops in small groups, to allow freedom of speech.
Very moving and a lot of things said: will to continue to carry out this type of dedicated meetings, collectively, as a network.
Topics: (1) Suffering at work, how to identify and reveal a crisis situation? (2) Care at work, how to identify and prevent psychosocial risks? (3) Well-being at work, what are the different levers for action?
These days enabled us to reposition the network (1) on its role: fighting for better working conditions (rather than adopting a communicative role, as the structures’ actions had previously been) + (2) on the inclusiveness that it can bring to all types of professions: beyond the management, all people working in these structures, including artists.
1_ i_ Presentation of a clinical psychologist’s perspective on the particularities of artistic profiles in terms of work-related suffering and psychosocial risks, by Joëlle Grispin-Kamidian.
Personal path: studies at ENSAD (Paris, 30 years ago), graphic designer (for 15 years) - then faced with total ignorance of and isolation from rights (during and after studies). Today psychologist, she discovered La Buse’s work in 2021.
- Observations within the framework of orientation assessments (schools) + work with families (parents-kids) :
little cultural presence in families’ schooling/leisure activities, total ignorance (parents) of artistic professions, with representations close to false beliefs (all professions in the field/area in general described as uncertain, unreliable, out of the ordinary, marginal, whimsical, dependent on the history of “gift”: you are either gifted or you are not). But also: the idea of privilege associated with the artist in the collective unconscious.
- And yet, clinician observations:
attraction to artistic/creative expression reveals itself at an early age, as a necessity rather than a choice - then builds or not over the course of life.
- Premise:
Having an artistic desire is already to be in a state of struggle, because it means facing strong resistance and difficult conditions (precariousness, poverty, abuse), with extremely deleterious psychological effects: a feeling of isolation, humiliation, non-recognition of one’s identity, of one’s usefulness, not being taken seriously, a feeling of exploitation right from studies.
Furthermore, people in the artistic field work on the sensitive reflection of reality: this implies sensitivity, even hypersensitivity and hence great fragility.
- In this context, la question of rights is fundamental:
at the individual level (legitimacy - an essential feeling for the recognition of one’s identity) and societal level (inscribing art in society - carrying a message that goes beyond the realm of art to touch society in its different strata).
1_ j_ Conclusion of the 1st Round Table by Emilie Moutsis from La Buse collective.
Observations.
- We can no longer live with the romantic myth of art: the naturalized instability of our professions prevents us from working.
- We do not have donations, we are not eccentric: we have values and desire, which we do not want to give away to Capitalism.
That is why art is not enough, and we seek and find meaning in our common struggles and organizations: it is this reality that we convey today.
2_ a_ “LARGE-SCALE TOOL MUTUALIZATION”.
Introduction of the 2nd Round Table and guest speakers.
- Reminder of the existence of the reporting Platform of abusive practices (currently closed, launched in 2018 knowing that it would be untenable on a scale of a small group of volunteer activists: tool to be managed on a scale of a robust organization fully financed by the state/socialized fund, with democratic representation. In the meantime: by strong and united organizations, on a remunerated basis.
- Mutualizing our tools/fundraising: how to work together on a European scale?
1_ b_ Presentation of UKS (Norway, since 1921) by Ina Hagen.
Everyone working at UKS is paid.
National union for young artists (Norway), organized for 100+ around:
(1) working conditions: salaries, the art worker status, social infrastructures for art.
(2) a managed artistic space (access to specific funding) - activity that has always been a subject of internal discussion: social space social for members + artistic space allowing legitimacy and visibility + political space allowing to show what it means to pay artists and how + production, exhibition and programming space.
- Examples of funding programs set up via lobbying and close negotiations between the State and UKS (importance of remaining at the forefront of policy-making development processes - remaining on the front line or at least involved) :
(1) Public subsidy fund for artists (in the last 10 years) - enabling 1 established artist to hire 1 young artist with 50% of a salary (and social benefits) over 1 year: emphasizes the employment relationship.
(2) Artistic practice grant (since the 1970s with the merge of 2 unions) - which can last up to 10 years: paid in the form of salary by the State.
(3) Subsidy for artist-run spaces - to pay for administrative work carried out by voluntarily organized artists: importance of paying artists who dedicate their energy to creating access for others. UKS considers self-management as an essential part of the art scene (in particular being the one that most strongly supports emerging artists with the development of practices then going to the museums and large institutions) yet work provided free of charge.
- In terms of European collaboration:
(1) helping each other to be at the forefront of policy-making processes: sharing/dividing the work of monitoring each cultural policy on a European scale, informing each other via our different access points (information sometimes based on personal relationships), pooling our resources as much as possible.
(2) Long-term reflection on unionization and political work: How to lighten the workload in the pursuit of struggles? Structuring so that people can contribute when they can.
(3) Initiatives like this one: going beyond interpersonal relationships and becoming a network (close to the union form).
- Currently (Norway): free tuition conditioned at university level by the introduction of tuition fees for non-EU students - neoliberal change in education, dismantling of a rare education system in the world where anyone can study free of charge. A very important fight: the conditions at the university showing where society is heading is a first step towards worsening living and work conditions.
1_ c_ Presentation of AWI (Italy, since 2020) by Fabiola Fiocco.
Echo on the fight against the commodification of education (currently in a doctoral program in the UK, observation of the possible state of degradation).
AWI was born online during the 1st COVID wave to fight against the systematic exclusion of artistic workers from the social protection system (Italy). Collaborates with legal, tax and administrative experts, universities, policy-makers, cultural institutions. AWI focuses on contemporary art and works in collaboration with other groups representing different cultural fields.
15 people (Italy + abroad) volunteers except 2 (administration and communication): board of directors (overall management of the association) + communication group + specific working groups.
Funding: annual memberships + external invitations (public talks, workshops, etc.).
- Political objective - the 4 “R”: (1) Recognition for the legal status of artistic work, (2) Regulation of labor relations, (3) Fair redistribution of Resources, (4) Global reform of the sector.
- AWI actions:
Political pressure.
Production of concrete tools to help establish transparent working relationships (i.e. fair remuneration grids for artists and curators, model contracts).
Organization of events where workers can talk to lawyers or tax professionals (and cost coverage): also helps to change the discourse/perception of artists of professional workers.
Group responsible for monitoring municipal, regional, national subsidies: if we fail to come up with our own policies, we should assess and make visible bad practices and structural dysfunctions (i.e. fees paid in exchange for a second participation, unfair conditions, etc.).
Mutualizing our tools and creating links: AWI has experience in networks, but it is important to start systematizing knowledge to avoid repetition and overlap.
- AWI members have participated (by studying and working abroad) in political mobilizations and in self-management projects, current desire to bring back these foreign organizational models and Italy (inventory and sharing of tools).
- AWI has launched HyperUnioniZation - international online platform aiming at fostering the creation of transnational networks between institutions and organizations: 3 online professional days (sharing experience and tools) + a platform for research around unionization in the arts or outside (i.e. gig workers such as delivery people) - (in collaboration with the Société Mutuelle pour Artistes and supported by the European Cultural Foundation).
- Participation in Voice of Culture (UE project inviting 47 associations to discuss 3 areas: (1) income and legal status of cultural workers, (2) mobility, (3) artistic freedom and expression.
1_ d_ Presentation of Visarte.Geneve (Switzerland, since 2001) by Camille Dumond.
Visarte.Geneve member + GARAGe.
Mobilizing the employee/employer, oppressed/oppressor dialectic, also to think about the categories “volunteering”, “authority”, etc.
Visarte was born of the modernization (2001) of 2 two very old Swiss associations (1801 and 1866).
- Office/central HQ (Zürich) mainly composed of artists and art historians.
Main vocation - to support artists in their professional career on a social, political, economical and legal levels.
Visarte’s aim is to defend social rights, despite the diversity of activities depending on the branches (socialization of members), and more or less politically precise struggles (observation of divergent remuneration policies).
Handles certain national services (i.e. free card for museums and cultural events; daily allowance fund for sickness, work accident, maternity leave; support fund for members’ financial difficulties; facilitation of affiliation to the fund pension; legal advice).
- Actions of the Geneva group (7 people: 3 artists, 2 curators, 1 admin) :
Administrative office hours.
Political lobbying (in large part).
Informal opportunity relay services with filtering based on remuneration (to be improved).
Visibility of members’ work (275 in Geneva) through its communication channels and networks.
Finances: (1) membership fees (main contribution) - 2 types of fees:
high for “actives members”, leading to professional status (conditional on legitimacy criteria currently being questioned)
low for “newcomers”, in the process of professionalization
+ (2) “transformation funds” (specific to cultural structures since COVID) which have enabled us to create a permanent admin position + make the association’s operating positions more stable + a small communication position + occasional accounting positions. The rest of the activity is unpaid.
- News:
Project aimed at training municipal administrators to shift economic responsibility from artists to employers.
GARAGe’s “travaildesartistes.ch” scale is soon to be distributed.
Partnership with HEAD (Geneva) on compulsory administrative training Master’s degree (since last September).
Partnership with GARAGe on training workshops.
Partnership with Lab-of-Arts (jurists).
1_ e_ Artist’s status in Switzerland.
The status of intermittent employee is a specific status that has only existed within the framework of unemployment insurance since 2003.
1_ f_ Audience contributions.
Pooling of bases for calculating remuneration scales and standard contracts on a European scale.
1_ g_ Presentation of La FAP (French-speaking Belgium, since 2020) by Tiphanie Blanc.
(Another Federation exists for Flemish Belgium).
Tiphanie is an employee of La FAP - impressed by the activist volunteerism: opinion that financial support of this kind of professional representation is a State duty.
FAP - deviant child of COVID, artists have woken up, as they have everywhere else, facing the reality of being under the radar, unlike other sectors of culture: facing our delay to catch up.
- 1st battle - having the “loss of income” caused by the cancellation of cultural events recognized. Carried out immediately at the political level: meeting with the Ministry of Culture of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, to establish a compensation grid for remuneration: this never got off the ground, but did lead to the birth of FAP.
- The Federal government (whole country) launches a reform of the status in response of COVID (not a status as such, but an adjustment of access rights to unemployment insurance. (In Belgium, 3 statuses: employee - self-employed - unemployed).
In fact, the purpose of La FAP has evolved: (1) participation in discussions in cooperation with the cultural sector for this reform; (2) proposal of a remuneration; (2) proposition of a salary grid, professionalization criteria for access to continuity of income - presented in the concertation chamber, within democratic and political bodies. Today: pilot project applied in all subsidized institutions (French-speaking Belgium).
- Currently:
Working on the idea of making the grid applicable (mandatory) in all structures: subsidized structures first, then beyond.
Developing research work.
Meeting with La Buse during our last General Assembly (December), discussion of an international instructional scale grid model.
Observation of great economic precariousness and physical and mental suffering of these people.
- Finance. Young federation, not recognized as a professional federation. Precarious status. Idea of perpetuating operating grants by obtaining recognition. 300 members (artists and other art workers) - €5: open to all without professionalization criteria.
REFERENCES DAY 2 (FR/EN) - “Towards an international of art workers and beyond"
Round-table #1 - WORKING CONDITIONS AND INTERPROFESSIONAL SUPPORT
Micha Ferrier-Barbut - Sociologist and consultant in management of cultural enterprises at Anamata, HR support for cultural organizations.
Maslow's pyramid
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramide_des_besoins
Studies of Vincent Dubois, Pierre-Michel Menger, Richard Florida, Howard Becker.
Selected works by sociologists whose research focuses on work and working conditions:
David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs, 2018, Simon & Schuster Inc. French publication in 2018 and 2019 (paperback), Translated from the English by Élise Roy, Les liens qui libèrent.
https://www.editionslesliensquiliberent.fr/livre-Bullshit_Jobs-578-1-1-0-1.html
Bernard Friot, Retraites: généraliser le droit au salaire. Edition du Croquant. 2022
Puissances du salariat (préf. inédite), Paris, Points Seuil, coll. « Essais », 2021.
L'Enjeu du salaire, Paris, Éditions La Dispute, 2012.
Vaincre Macron, Éditions La Dispute, 2017.
Le Travail, enjeu des retraites, Paris, Éditions La Dispute, 2019.
Prenons le pouvoir sur nos retraites, Éditions La Dispute, 2023.
Collective works:
« Le financement de la Sécurité sociale dépend-il de la poursuite de la croissance économique ? », in Denis Bayon & Fabrice Flipo, La Sécurité sociale une institution pour l’écologie ? : Actes du colloque, Paris, mai 2016 edited by Denis Bayon et Fabrice Flipo, Lyon, Atelier de création libertaire, coll. « Critique de l’économie ».
« Passer du soutien à la classe ouvrière à son école », in Jean-Pascal Higelé & Lionel Jacquot, Engagements et sciences sociales : Histoires, paradigmes et formes d’engagements, Nancy, PUN-Éditions universitaires de Lorraine, coll. « Salariat et transformations sociales », 2017.
Abolir la dette : Travailler sans crédit (with Denis Baba), Atelier de création libertaire, coll. « Critique de l’économie », décembre 2019.
Retraites : généraliser le droit au salaire (with Nicolas Castel), éditions du Croquant, coll. « Cahiers du salariat », juin 2022.
chap. 7 « Pour une citoyenneté révolutionnaire », in Guillaume Desguerriers, Christian Gaudray and Dominique Mourlane, Comprendre l’Écologie Politique : Pourquoi est-elle nécessairement républicaine et révolutionnaire ?, Paris, UFAL, mai 2012.
Émanciper le travail : Entretiens avec Patrick Zech, Paris, Éditions La Dispute, coll. « Travail et salariat », 2014.
Un désir de communisme (avec Judith Bernard), Paris, Éditions Textuel, coll. « Conversations pour demain », 2 septembre 2020.
En travail : Conversation sur le communisme (with Frédéric Lordon), Paris, Éditions La Dispute, coll. « Entretiens », 15 octobre 2021.
Vincent de Gaulejac, Dénouer les nœuds sociopsychiques. Odile Jacob. 2020
Yves Clot, Le travail à cœur. Pour en finir avec les risques psychosociaux., 2010, La Découverte.
https://www.editionsladecouverte.fr/le_travail_a_coeur-9782707164834
“All post-lockdown studies show that around half of all employees complain about their working conditions, not the work itself.”
Sources:
CFDT Survey. 2017. Manifesto for work:
https://www.xn--cfdt-retraits-mhb.fr/IMG/pdf/manifeste_de_la_cfdt_pour_le_travail.pdf
Institut Yougov Survey. May 2022 :
https://fr.yougov.com/society/articles/42339-les-francais-aiment-ils-leur-travail
ADP Research Institute (ADPRI). November 2022 :
https://www.adpri.org/
Expectations around "meaning at work" (general) in post-Covid literature: autonomy, empowerment, recognition, emancipation.
Sources:
Fabrique Spinoza:
https://www.fabriquespinoza.org/prod_observatoire/barometre-national-du-bonheur-au-travail-les-2-france-au-travail/#:~:text=62%25%20de%20satisfaits%20concernant%20le,pour%20le%20bonheur%20au%20travail
Joelle Grispin - Clinical psychologist
Free psychological support is available:
- For students specifically:
https://santepsy.etudiant.gouv.fr/
- For workers: sessions with a psychologist (with advance payment, then reimbursed by social security and mutual insurance)
https://www.ameli.fr/assure/remboursements/rembourse/seances-avec-un-psychologue
https://www.gouvernement.fr/egalite-outremer/besoin-de-parler-etou-d-une-ecoute
https://www.ameli.fr/assure/sante/assurance-maladie/sophia/dispositif-assurance-maladie
https://monsoutienpsy.sante.gouv.fr/
Online public meeting organized by La Buse “Workers, Students: same battle - How to rethink an entire system":
https://vimeo.com/520562814
One of the books surveyed by La Buse with Joëlle Grispin during the research residency in 2022 at La Supérette, Malakoff: Survivre au taf. Stratégies d'autodéfense pour personnes minorisées., de Marie Dasylva, 2022, éd. Daronnes. https://editionsdaronnes.fr/product/survivre-au-taf/
Local union representatives:
Robyn Chien (SNAP-Cgt)
Puppy Please, pornographic film production company
https://linktr.ee/puppyplease
STRASS (Syndicat du TRAvail Sexuel) was created in 2009 by sex workers at the Assises européennes de la prostitution (European conference on prostitution) held in Paris - sex workers were joined by jurists, social workers, sociologists, etc.
https://strass-syndicat.org/
The DILF (for "Dad I'd Like To Fuck") of unions working for AA (artist-authors) rights according to Robyn: the SNAPcgt (Syndicat National des Artistes Plasticien-nes, belonging to the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) organized around the rights of salaried workers) - in existence since 1977 and attached to the CGT Spectacle.
https://www.snapcgt.org/
https://cgtspectacle.com/
Local union representatives:
Emmanuel Simon (STAA-CNT-SO)
Syndicat des Travailleur-euses Artistes-Auteur-ices - STAA CNTSO (Union of Artist Workers) was created to respond to the problems encountered by workers under the artist-auteur-ice regime in all cultural sectors.
https://staa-cnt-so.org/
“Travail à la tâche” comme l’inverse du “salaire attaché à la personne” (ou “salaire à la qualification personnelle”) :
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaire_%C3%A0_la_qualification_personnelle
see also:
Claude Didry, L’Institution du travail. Droit et salariat dans l’Histoire., 2016, La Dispute, travail et salariat.
https://ladispute.fr/catalogue/linstitution-du-travail/
Confédération Nationale des Travailleurs - Solidarité ouvrière - CNT-SO (National Confederation of Workers - Workers Solidarity)
https://www.cnt-so.org/
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conf%C3%A9d%C3%A9ration_nationale_des_travailleurs-Solidarit%C3%A9_ouvri%C3%A8re
Local union representatives:
various members of Massicot Aix - Art students' union section of Aix-en-Provence
Le Massicot : Union syndicale des étudiant·es des écoles de création et de la culture (Union of Students from Creative and Cultural Schools)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ9sjVdj5Tr/?img_index=1
https://www.lequotidiendelart.com/articles/21210-des-%C3%A9tudiants-en-art-et-design-lancent-un-syndicat-le-massicot.html
Creation of Le Massicot following the blockade of the ENSCI by a large majority of the school's students and staff, to denounce the arbitrary recruitment process of the new management by the Ministries of Culture and Industry.
https://www.ensci.com/actualites/une-actu?tx_news_pi1%5Bnews%5D=29305&cHash=b5b86c54745eee50fd9d35272dd21a10
https://linktr.ee/lemassicot_union
Écoles d'art et design en lutte (Art and design schools in struggle) is an inter-organizational framework that brings together unions and collectives fighting for emancipatory higher education in culture that is accessible to all.
https://ecolesartdesignenlutte.fr/about.html
About the "Student Wage", read: Aurélien Casta, Salaire étudiant. Financement et démocratisation des études., 2017, La Dispute.
https://ladispute.fr/catalogue/un-salaire-etudiant/
About the intermittent employment scheme, read: Mathieu Grégoire, Les intermittents du spectacle. Enjeux d’un siècle de luttes. 2013, La Dispute, travail et salariat.
https://ladispute.fr/catalogue/les-intermittents-du-spectacle/
+
Session #3 of the 2022-2023 Seminar entitled “Pour une Sécurité Sociale de la culture” organized by the popular education association Réseau Salariat: Le régime des intermittent·es comme tremplin vers le salaire à la qualification personnelle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HrMzpJa5wc&t=5068s
The entire seminar “Pour une Sécurité Sociale de la culture” ici :
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaqJ7ovfaiPHZziIhZHSNYE3kLUnXxjpU
Réseau Salariat:
https://www.reseau-salariat.info/
Marine Lang & Manuel Pomar (Air de Midi)
Mécènes du Sud develops initiatives (production grants, exhibitions, artist residencies) "aimed at artists and the local area, and defines itself as an interface for dialogue between the artistic scene and the business world". https://www.mecenesdusud.fr/
Lieu-Commun, artist-run space in Toulouse, a place for artists, run horizontally by four artists, for the benefit of the public.
https://lieu-commun.fr/
Air de Midi network brings together 43 structures in the Occitania region, ranging from schools, museums and art centers - from the smallest structures to the largest, with over 100 employees. Its associative and horizontal network structure is the result of many years of discussions and battles.
https://www.airdemidi.org/home
Professional days entitled “Prendre soin des travailleur·euses de l’art”
Archives available here: https://www.airdemidi.org/network/page/7
https://padlet.com/airdemidireseau/souffrance-soin-et-bien-tre-au-travail-zugxr3qxarf3f4hd
Victorine Grataloup (Triangle – Astérides)
Director of the Triangle-Astérides art center, a label of national interest, born of two associative structures founded by artists, in 1972 for Astérides and 1974 for Triangle France.
https://www.trianglefrance.org/
Philippe Batifoulier and Vincent Touzé, La protection sociale, 2020, Dunod, collection Les topos.
https://www.mollat.com/livres/500554/philippe-batifoulier-la-protection-sociale
A very modest broadcaster contribution (1.1%) is currently payable to the social security system by any structure employing people under the artist-authors scheme.
La Buse, particularly since touring around its stand, has been asking distributors to come up with the figures. The Triangle-Astérides art center's social security contribution for artistic work, for the year 2022, and according to the 1.1% currently in force, was €552. If the diffuser's contribution were raised to 5.15%, the rate claimed by La Buse, it would have been €2,588.
The charter of good practice for contemporary art centers was adopted in 2019. As its name implies, this charter is a tool that is not legally imposed, but applies to the goodwill and commitment of the structures.
In 2023, DCA will update its guidelines for remunerating guest artists for various types of work in contemporary art centers. It is available here:
https://dca-art.com/ressources/outils
THE INTERMINISTERIAL INSTRUCTION N° DSS/5B/DGCA/2023/6 of January 12, 2023, relating to income from artistic activities covered by article L. 382-3 of the French Social Security Code, is a circular allowing presenters to reduce their social security contributions, i.e. not to be liable for this 1.1% when there is no strict dissemination of the artist's work.
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.scam.fr/uploads/2023/02/Instructionrevenusartistiques2023.pdf
Round-table #2 - MUTUALIZATION OF TOOLS ON A LARGER SCALE
Ina Hagen (UKS)
UKS (Unge Kunstneres Samfund/Young Artists’ Society) is an Oslo-based institution for contemporary art and a Norwegian membership organization, which works as a national union, founded in 1921 - More than a hundred years focusing on wages, on the status of the artist as a laborer, and on social benefits and infrastructure for art.
https://www.uks.no/about/
Example of a funding scheme that UKS has helped put in place through lobbying and close negotiation with the state: a state fund called “the artist assistant grant”, through which an emerging/younger artist can get access to a 50% salary position with social benefits for a year, assisting an emerged artist as their employer, through a public grant. This artist grant can be 10 years long.
https://www.uks.no/uks-union/9-til-5-en-handbok-for-kunstnerassistentordningen/
Grant for artist-run spaces
Fabiola Fiocco (AWI)
Art Workers Italia
https://artworkersitalia.it/en/
Contract:
https://artworkersitalia.it/en/contracts/
Scale:
https://artworkersitalia.it/en/rate-table/
Guideline for cultural institutions:
https://artworkersitalia.it/en/guidelines-for-cultural-institutions/
AWI's goals are the four Rs:
Recognition of the legal status of contemporary art workers
Regulation of the employment relationship
Redistribution of resources
Reform of the sector
Evaluation and mediation with institutions on proposed conditions:
https://artworkersitalia.it/en/international/eye-on-applications/
Experience-sharing initiative:
https://artworkersitalia.it/en/international/
Mutual Society for Artists:
https://smartbe.be/fr/a-propos/historique/
Voices of culture:
https://voicesofculture.eu/about/
Camille Dumond (Visarte.Genève)
Member benefits:
https://visarte.ch/fr/prestations-de-service/
Relai des activités membres :
https://www.visarte-geneve.ch/expositions/actuelles
Communication:
https://www.instagram.com/visarte.geneve/
Artists' work platform:
http://www.travaildesartistes.ch/
Intermittent status in Switzerland:
https://action-intermittence.ch/campagne-2023-fr/
Transformation funds in Switzerland:
https://www.ge.ch/actualite/decouvrez-richesse-projets-transformation-covid-culture-23-06-2022
Tiphanie Blanc (LaFAP)
La FAP – Fédération des Arts Plastiques (Visual Arts Federation)
1st compensation grid (charter and model calculator)
http://lafap.be/grille-generale-de-remuneration-en-arts-plastiques/
Reform of the status of artist in Belgium (Oct. 2022) :
https://ladds.be/le-mal-nomme-statut-dartiste-compilation-de-tous-nos-documents-sur-le-sujet/
Charter/model of best practices under development:
http://lafap.be/appel-a-candidature-etablissement-dune-charte-des-bonnes-pratiques-dans-les-arts-plastiques/
Round-table #1 - WORKING CONDITIONS AND INTERPROFESSIONAL SUPPORT
Micha Ferrier-Barbut - Sociologist and consultant in management of cultural enterprises at Anamata, HR support for cultural organizations.
Maslow's pyramid
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramide_des_besoins
Studies of Vincent Dubois, Pierre-Michel Menger, Richard Florida, Howard Becker.
Selected works by sociologists whose research focuses on work and working conditions:
David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs, 2018, Simon & Schuster Inc. French publication in 2018 and 2019 (paperback), Translated from the English by Élise Roy, Les liens qui libèrent.
https://www.editionslesliensquiliberent.fr/livre-Bullshit_Jobs-578-1-1-0-1.html
Bernard Friot, Retraites: généraliser le droit au salaire. Edition du Croquant. 2022
Puissances du salariat (préf. inédite), Paris, Points Seuil, coll. « Essais », 2021.
L'Enjeu du salaire, Paris, Éditions La Dispute, 2012.
Vaincre Macron, Éditions La Dispute, 2017.
Le Travail, enjeu des retraites, Paris, Éditions La Dispute, 2019.
Prenons le pouvoir sur nos retraites, Éditions La Dispute, 2023.
Collective works:
« Le financement de la Sécurité sociale dépend-il de la poursuite de la croissance économique ? », in Denis Bayon & Fabrice Flipo, La Sécurité sociale une institution pour l’écologie ? : Actes du colloque, Paris, mai 2016 edited by Denis Bayon et Fabrice Flipo, Lyon, Atelier de création libertaire, coll. « Critique de l’économie ».
« Passer du soutien à la classe ouvrière à son école », in Jean-Pascal Higelé & Lionel Jacquot, Engagements et sciences sociales : Histoires, paradigmes et formes d’engagements, Nancy, PUN-Éditions universitaires de Lorraine, coll. « Salariat et transformations sociales », 2017.
Abolir la dette : Travailler sans crédit (with Denis Baba), Atelier de création libertaire, coll. « Critique de l’économie », décembre 2019.
Retraites : généraliser le droit au salaire (with Nicolas Castel), éditions du Croquant, coll. « Cahiers du salariat », juin 2022.
chap. 7 « Pour une citoyenneté révolutionnaire », in Guillaume Desguerriers, Christian Gaudray and Dominique Mourlane, Comprendre l’Écologie Politique : Pourquoi est-elle nécessairement républicaine et révolutionnaire ?, Paris, UFAL, mai 2012.
Émanciper le travail : Entretiens avec Patrick Zech, Paris, Éditions La Dispute, coll. « Travail et salariat », 2014.
Un désir de communisme (avec Judith Bernard), Paris, Éditions Textuel, coll. « Conversations pour demain », 2 septembre 2020.
En travail : Conversation sur le communisme (with Frédéric Lordon), Paris, Éditions La Dispute, coll. « Entretiens », 15 octobre 2021.
Vincent de Gaulejac, Dénouer les nœuds sociopsychiques. Odile Jacob. 2020
Yves Clot, Le travail à cœur. Pour en finir avec les risques psychosociaux., 2010, La Découverte.
https://www.editionsladecouverte.fr/le_travail_a_coeur-9782707164834
“All post-lockdown studies show that around half of all employees complain about their working conditions, not the work itself.”
Sources:
CFDT Survey. 2017. Manifesto for work:
https://www.xn--cfdt-retraits-mhb.fr/IMG/pdf/manifeste_de_la_cfdt_pour_le_travail.pdf
Institut Yougov Survey. May 2022 :
https://fr.yougov.com/society/articles/42339-les-francais-aiment-ils-leur-travail
ADP Research Institute (ADPRI). November 2022 :
https://www.adpri.org/
Expectations around "meaning at work" (general) in post-Covid literature: autonomy, empowerment, recognition, emancipation.
Sources:
Fabrique Spinoza:
https://www.fabriquespinoza.org/prod_observatoire/barometre-national-du-bonheur-au-travail-les-2-france-au-travail/#:~:text=62%25%20de%20satisfaits%20concernant%20le,pour%20le%20bonheur%20au%20travail
Joelle Grispin - Clinical psychologist
Free psychological support is available:
- For students specifically:
https://santepsy.etudiant.gouv.fr/
- For workers: sessions with a psychologist (with advance payment, then reimbursed by social security and mutual insurance)
https://www.ameli.fr/assure/remboursements/rembourse/seances-avec-un-psychologue
https://www.gouvernement.fr/egalite-outremer/besoin-de-parler-etou-d-une-ecoute
https://www.ameli.fr/assure/sante/assurance-maladie/sophia/dispositif-assurance-maladie
https://monsoutienpsy.sante.gouv.fr/
Online public meeting organized by La Buse “Workers, Students: same battle - How to rethink an entire system":
https://vimeo.com/520562814
One of the books surveyed by La Buse with Joëlle Grispin during the research residency in 2022 at La Supérette, Malakoff: Survivre au taf. Stratégies d'autodéfense pour personnes minorisées., de Marie Dasylva, 2022, éd. Daronnes. https://editionsdaronnes.fr/product/survivre-au-taf/
Local union representatives:
Robyn Chien (SNAP-Cgt)
Puppy Please, pornographic film production company
https://linktr.ee/puppyplease
STRASS (Syndicat du TRAvail Sexuel) was created in 2009 by sex workers at the Assises européennes de la prostitution (European conference on prostitution) held in Paris - sex workers were joined by jurists, social workers, sociologists, etc.
https://strass-syndicat.org/
The DILF (for "Dad I'd Like To Fuck") of unions working for AA (artist-authors) rights according to Robyn: the SNAPcgt (Syndicat National des Artistes Plasticien-nes, belonging to the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) organized around the rights of salaried workers) - in existence since 1977 and attached to the CGT Spectacle.
https://www.snapcgt.org/
https://cgtspectacle.com/
Local union representatives:
Emmanuel Simon (STAA-CNT-SO)
Syndicat des Travailleur-euses Artistes-Auteur-ices - STAA CNTSO (Union of Artist Workers) was created to respond to the problems encountered by workers under the artist-auteur-ice regime in all cultural sectors.
https://staa-cnt-so.org/
“Travail à la tâche” comme l’inverse du “salaire attaché à la personne” (ou “salaire à la qualification personnelle”) :
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaire_%C3%A0_la_qualification_personnelle
see also:
Claude Didry, L’Institution du travail. Droit et salariat dans l’Histoire., 2016, La Dispute, travail et salariat.
https://ladispute.fr/catalogue/linstitution-du-travail/
Confédération Nationale des Travailleurs - Solidarité ouvrière - CNT-SO (National Confederation of Workers - Workers Solidarity)
https://www.cnt-so.org/
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conf%C3%A9d%C3%A9ration_nationale_des_travailleurs-Solidarit%C3%A9_ouvri%C3%A8re
Local union representatives:
various members of Massicot Aix - Art students' union section of Aix-en-Provence
Le Massicot : Union syndicale des étudiant·es des écoles de création et de la culture (Union of Students from Creative and Cultural Schools)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ9sjVdj5Tr/?img_index=1
https://www.lequotidiendelart.com/articles/21210-des-%C3%A9tudiants-en-art-et-design-lancent-un-syndicat-le-massicot.html
Creation of Le Massicot following the blockade of the ENSCI by a large majority of the school's students and staff, to denounce the arbitrary recruitment process of the new management by the Ministries of Culture and Industry.
https://www.ensci.com/actualites/une-actu?tx_news_pi1%5Bnews%5D=29305&cHash=b5b86c54745eee50fd9d35272dd21a10
https://linktr.ee/lemassicot_union
Écoles d'art et design en lutte (Art and design schools in struggle) is an inter-organizational framework that brings together unions and collectives fighting for emancipatory higher education in culture that is accessible to all.
https://ecolesartdesignenlutte.fr/about.html
About the "Student Wage", read: Aurélien Casta, Salaire étudiant. Financement et démocratisation des études., 2017, La Dispute.
https://ladispute.fr/catalogue/un-salaire-etudiant/
About the intermittent employment scheme, read: Mathieu Grégoire, Les intermittents du spectacle. Enjeux d’un siècle de luttes. 2013, La Dispute, travail et salariat.
https://ladispute.fr/catalogue/les-intermittents-du-spectacle/
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Session #3 of the 2022-2023 Seminar entitled “Pour une Sécurité Sociale de la culture” organized by the popular education association Réseau Salariat: Le régime des intermittent·es comme tremplin vers le salaire à la qualification personnelle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HrMzpJa5wc&t=5068s
The entire seminar “Pour une Sécurité Sociale de la culture” ici :
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaqJ7ovfaiPHZziIhZHSNYE3kLUnXxjpU
Réseau Salariat:
https://www.reseau-salariat.info/
Marine Lang & Manuel Pomar (Air de Midi)
Mécènes du Sud develops initiatives (production grants, exhibitions, artist residencies) "aimed at artists and the local area, and defines itself as an interface for dialogue between the artistic scene and the business world". https://www.mecenesdusud.fr/
Lieu-Commun, artist-run space in Toulouse, a place for artists, run horizontally by four artists, for the benefit of the public.
https://lieu-commun.fr/
Air de Midi network brings together 43 structures in the Occitania region, ranging from schools, museums and art centers - from the smallest structures to the largest, with over 100 employees. Its associative and horizontal network structure is the result of many years of discussions and battles.
https://www.airdemidi.org/home
Professional days entitled “Prendre soin des travailleur·euses de l’art”
Archives available here: https://www.airdemidi.org/network/page/7
https://padlet.com/airdemidireseau/souffrance-soin-et-bien-tre-au-travail-zugxr3qxarf3f4hd
Victorine Grataloup (Triangle – Astérides)
Director of the Triangle-Astérides art center, a label of national interest, born of two associative structures founded by artists, in 1972 for Astérides and 1974 for Triangle France.
https://www.trianglefrance.org/
Philippe Batifoulier and Vincent Touzé, La protection sociale, 2020, Dunod, collection Les topos.
https://www.mollat.com/livres/500554/philippe-batifoulier-la-protection-sociale
A very modest broadcaster contribution (1.1%) is currently payable to the social security system by any structure employing people under the artist-authors scheme.
La Buse, particularly since touring around its stand, has been asking distributors to come up with the figures. The Triangle-Astérides art center's social security contribution for artistic work, for the year 2022, and according to the 1.1% currently in force, was €552. If the diffuser's contribution were raised to 5.15%, the rate claimed by La Buse, it would have been €2,588.
The charter of good practice for contemporary art centers was adopted in 2019. As its name implies, this charter is a tool that is not legally imposed, but applies to the goodwill and commitment of the structures.
In 2023, DCA will update its guidelines for remunerating guest artists for various types of work in contemporary art centers. It is available here:
https://dca-art.com/ressources/outils
THE INTERMINISTERIAL INSTRUCTION N° DSS/5B/DGCA/2023/6 of January 12, 2023, relating to income from artistic activities covered by article L. 382-3 of the French Social Security Code, is a circular allowing presenters to reduce their social security contributions, i.e. not to be liable for this 1.1% when there is no strict dissemination of the artist's work.
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.scam.fr/uploads/2023/02/Instructionrevenusartistiques2023.pdf
Round-table #2 - MUTUALIZATION OF TOOLS ON A LARGER SCALE
Ina Hagen (UKS)
UKS (Unge Kunstneres Samfund/Young Artists’ Society) is an Oslo-based institution for contemporary art and a Norwegian membership organization, which works as a national union, founded in 1921 - More than a hundred years focusing on wages, on the status of the artist as a laborer, and on social benefits and infrastructure for art.
https://www.uks.no/about/
Example of a funding scheme that UKS has helped put in place through lobbying and close negotiation with the state: a state fund called “the artist assistant grant”, through which an emerging/younger artist can get access to a 50% salary position with social benefits for a year, assisting an emerged artist as their employer, through a public grant. This artist grant can be 10 years long.
https://www.uks.no/uks-union/9-til-5-en-handbok-for-kunstnerassistentordningen/
Grant for artist-run spaces
Fabiola Fiocco (AWI)
Art Workers Italia
https://artworkersitalia.it/en/
Contract:
https://artworkersitalia.it/en/contracts/
Scale:
https://artworkersitalia.it/en/rate-table/
Guideline for cultural institutions:
https://artworkersitalia.it/en/guidelines-for-cultural-institutions/
AWI's goals are the four Rs:
Recognition of the legal status of contemporary art workers
Regulation of the employment relationship
Redistribution of resources
Reform of the sector
Evaluation and mediation with institutions on proposed conditions:
https://artworkersitalia.it/en/international/eye-on-applications/
Experience-sharing initiative:
https://artworkersitalia.it/en/international/
Mutual Society for Artists:
https://smartbe.be/fr/a-propos/historique/
Voices of culture:
https://voicesofculture.eu/about/
Camille Dumond (Visarte.Genève)
Member benefits:
https://visarte.ch/fr/prestations-de-service/
Relai des activités membres :
https://www.visarte-geneve.ch/expositions/actuelles
Communication:
https://www.instagram.com/visarte.geneve/
Artists' work platform:
http://www.travaildesartistes.ch/
Intermittent status in Switzerland:
https://action-intermittence.ch/campagne-2023-fr/
Transformation funds in Switzerland:
https://www.ge.ch/actualite/decouvrez-richesse-projets-transformation-covid-culture-23-06-2022
Tiphanie Blanc (LaFAP)
La FAP – Fédération des Arts Plastiques (Visual Arts Federation)
1st compensation grid (charter and model calculator)
http://lafap.be/grille-generale-de-remuneration-en-arts-plastiques/
Reform of the status of artist in Belgium (Oct. 2022) :
https://ladds.be/le-mal-nomme-statut-dartiste-compilation-de-tous-nos-documents-sur-le-sujet/
Charter/model of best practices under development:
http://lafap.be/appel-a-candidature-etablissement-dune-charte-des-bonnes-pratiques-dans-les-arts-plastiques/