Six Problematics on Artists and Their Work

2011

1. Oikotic responsibility — Artists work in and produce for an economy. When we examine ‘economy’ from its etymological origins: oikonomia (household management), we can locate it in the private sphere. The oikos, the household from which oikonomia derives not only signifies the ‘putting-a-roof’ over ones head, as in financial subsistence. More importantly, the household delineates the various actors, practices, situations, influences and interminglings the artist forges, absorbs, rejects and interacts with. The household of the artist is the space of/for thought, dialogue and production, viz., praxis. With no predetermined space of/for praxis, artists possess an ‘oikotic responsibility’ to set-up their particular household, the thresholds of which are osmotic, and subject to continual fluctuation. This ‘oikotic responsibility’ is co-autonomous in nature– it is only partially autonomous for it engages and is embedded within a social and multi-logical world. How have such ‘households’ of/for praxis been re-shaped under the boom of contemporary art on an international scale, and indeed the very requirement to produce for a global audience?

Excerpt

In Wieczna Radość. Ekonomia Polityczna Społecznej Kreatywności. (Polish) Eds: Michał Kozłowski, Agnieszka Kurant, Jan Sowa (redaktor prowadzący), Krystian Szadkowski, Kuba Szreder. Warsaw: Fundacja Nowej Kultury Bęc Zmiana, 2011.