Future Climates: Graduating to Numbers
How can the use of financial tools lead to emancipation from public subsidies and private donations for small-scale organizations and networks? How can new forms of transparency and redistribution be obtained through the use of financial design? Invited by KADIST, State of Concept in turn invites Future Climates to present its second chapter entitled Graduating to Numbers (or How Grass-Root Organizations Intervene in Financial Affairs), a day of presentations and discussions with Antonia Alampi , Galit Eilat, iLiana Fokianaki , Victoria Ivanova , Giulia Palomba , Vermeir & Heiremans and W. A. G. E . The issue of low wages, exploitation of immaterial labour and self-exploitation, the use of symbolic value as currency and its translations in terms of exclusion in institutions of visual arts is a recurrent debate with little effect on a structural level, in a field that seems to have transformed only slightly in how it operates and reproduces itself. Future Climates was founded in early 2016 by Antonia Alampi and iLiana Fokianaki to address such questions -particularly precarity and inequality of small scale not-for-profit organizations, by understanding how their surplus-value, for the most part produced by voluntary labour may be profited by larger and socio-economically stronger organizations. In this one-day meeting we present and discuss examples of grass-root organizations, collectives and artworks that are experimenting with the derivatives market so as to become self-sustainable, use block chain technology, while committing to ethical banking, transparency, horizontal forms of decision-making, collectivization and equal distribution of funds. Inspired by the thinking of Arjun Appadurai, Enric Duran, Victoria Ivanova, Common Practice and Andrea Philips among others , we will address the urgent need for a wide-spread financial literacy. Because we are already bearers of financial markets; the question is how do we become makers. Contributions in order of appearence : Future Climates discusses its research program in Athens and introduces its next step towards constituting a core group for engineering a new small-scale nor for profit model to be adapted in places with weak infrastructures for arts and culture. W. A. G. E presents WAGENCY , a forthcoming initiative that will introduce new tools for self-regulation into both the non-profit and for-profit sectors, in an effort to organize artists and institutions along with buyers and sellers of art, around a shared politics of labor. Giulia Palomba will present the Cultural Cooperative Network an international circuit designed to facilitate social and economic relations between cultural actors and provide them with a common mutual aid fund, as well as with complementary payment and credit tools for self-management, self-employment, and economic autonomy. Galit Eilat discusses the weak points in the acceleration of “the chase for visibility” and how this affects institutions, from small non-profits to museums and large scale events, whilst proposing other methods of working. Vermeir & Heiremans work at the intersection of contemporary art and finance markets. The artists will present “Art House Index”,and discuss fragments of their film MASQUERADE, a narrative on trust and confidence. The film focuses on the financialisation of the artists’ house, which in their practice they have defined as an artwork. MASQUERADE is live-edited through the actual performance of the Art House Index, a financial tool that measures the value of the “art house.” Victoria Ivanova ‘s presentation will focus on financial reorganization as a key battleground in fostering a more diverse and sustainable art ecology. The event is part of the programming for the exhibition “State (in) Concepts” at KADIST Paris. Graduating to Numbers How can the use of financial tools lead to emancipation from public subsidies and private donations for small-scale organizations and network ? How can new forms of transparency and redistribution be obtained through the use of financial design ? Part 1 00 : 03 : 13 — Antonia Alampi and Iliana Fokianaki Future Climates discusses its research program in Athens and introduces its next step towards constituting a core group for engineering a new small-scale nonprofit model to be adapted in places with weak infrastructures for arts and culture. Presentation of short case studies 00 : 31 : 21 — GIULIA PALOMBA will present the Cultural Cooperative Network deriving from Future Climate’s first chapter, an international circuit designed to facilitate social and economic relations between cultural actors and provide them with a common mutual aid fund, as well as with complementary payment and credit tools for self-management, self employment, and economic autonomy. 00 : 44 : 49 — W. A. G. E presents WAGENCY, a forthcoming initiative that will introduce new tools for self regulation into both the non-profit end for-profit sectors, in an effort to organize artists and institutions along with buyers and sellers of art, around a shared politics of labor. 01 : 04 : 10 — Discussion Part 2 Vermeir & Heiremans work at the intersection of contemporary art and finance markets. The artists will present “Art House Index”,and discuss fragments of their film MASQUERADE, a narrative on trust and confidence. The film focuses on the financialisation of the artists’ house, which in their practice they have defined as an artwork. MASQUERADE is live-edited through the actual performance of the Art House Index, a financial tool that measures the value of the “art house.” Part 3 Victoria Ivanova ‘s presentation will focus on financial reorganization as a key battleground in fostering a more diverse and sustainable art ecology Enregistré à Kadist dans le cadre de l’exposition State (in) concepts par Victor Donati le 23 novembre 2017. Mixé par Victor Donati.