Thank you for your reply from the beginning of the week. Sorry I was only able to get back to you now. I guess your second resumé will be on the way soon. Still I’ve got some questions with regard to your last blog to me. You wrote about the different roles of a catalyst in your project. Does the catalyst incorporate more or less all the roles you listed?
If yes, I’ve got one or two questions/FAQs:
If the catalyst sometimes acts as a sales person why not work with alert and imaginative sales people? A sales person should also ideally be someone who can sell anything.
Why do you need artists as catalysts in all the roles you listed, as sales person, journalist, missionary, artist, politician, etc.?
The role of eg a missionary, wouldn’t that be kind of dated? There has been a debate about community artists lead by the critic Grand Kester, where he implies that community artists act under the roof of a kind of "aesthetic evangelism", similar to Victorian reformers and social workers in the 19th century in Britain, who’s movements arose from the idea that the misery of the workers mostly came from their lack of knowledge and that they could improve their situation through personal inner growth and change. The reformers kind of forgot that the workers misery was directly connected to the social and societal circumstances.
As a missionary I’m always right. I know more and I want to teach others this knowledge. Being an artist in the role of a missionary, for me, is highly questionable, because then I use the authority I’ve been given because I’m an artist and in that way the authority is kind of unquestionable.
As to what you’re saying about being taken seriously with a No, I think for me it’s not a problem of not being taken seriously with a No. I am actually comfortable with a No, because it is always everybody’s right to decide against something if they’re not a hundred percent sure. And what is there to proof?
You might say it’s the journalist, but in my opinion also the artist and the person within this catalyst might always want to ask all the questions that come up during the process and might at the end even want to say No if there’s no room to ask them. That is, in my opinion, a legitimate and powerful statement.
Good night and good luck,
Anne.
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SUNDAY - JUNE 8, 2008 - 05:37:41 PM
Anne_TheDeal_Story_01 :
Here's a little addition to what Per wrote about the Job I had found: Maybe I didn't explain it properly when I talked about it, but the guy has a Rolls Royce and Bentley Garage. He repairs the cars, he doesn't deal them, which in my perspective makes the Job even more attractive. He also didn't just back out. On our first encounter he told me he wasn't available from the 7th June 08 for holidays and when I spoke to him on the phone again, it was way into the week and he had lots to prepare and not much time. But he said to me that after the 30th June he was still okay to go on with the project It's a pity the festival only goes to the 15th June. That's all for now, it's late.
Good night and good luck. Anne
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TUESDAY - JUNE 3, 2008 - 06:37:43 PM
Anne_MyReport_Story_01 :
Hello, I am Anne, here in the in the role of a socalled "Catalyst". Per Traasdahl, the initiator of the project strongly suggested to us artists/catalysts that we use the blog during the project only in a certain way which I am going to in my first blog: See my application text, which I agreed to share
DESCRIBE YOUR REASONS FOR APPLYING, AS WELL AS RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCES (IF
ANY)
Interest in all sorts of interaction; I like the Happening character of this
project; I have already worked in an art project in Neukoelln some years ago
and am interested in going back to Neukoelln.
DESCRIBE YOUR ARTISTIC PRACTICE
Painter, artprojects within different contexts and recently I have started
working with actors in the field of performance.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
If you look at my website you won't find that much information at the moment,
as I have created the account just today to be able to apply to your project.
But I hope you will consider me because I really like something about the idea
of the Flash Job Campaign and it's social, possibly comical, political and
cultural intertwinings.
Per wrote to the other applicants: Anne applied the “last minute”. While we spotted her motivation to be genuin,
we would like to see some more text on why she is interested in this project.
She sent the following emial on May 27:
Email-Text:
Hi Per,
Thanks for including me in the project.
I'm sending you the lines you asked me for first and I think I should let you
know
that I'm with my child during the week, so that I won't be
able to spend all day with the project.
If you think this is something that speaks against my
participation I understand,
although doing the work with my child might add to the debate the project will
create.
I'll send you the form as soon as I'm free to fill it in.
Anne
Enclosed Document:
Anne Bachschuster
Thoughts on “ The Flash Job Campaign” (for German text please scroll down)
Art as social intervention into day-to-day-life in the tradition of “Aktion”
an/or “Happening” where the boarders between social practice and art are
shifting.
To act as a mediator between people to create job opportunities and to
actually use money which was raised to create art is something that intrigues
me as subversive and useful,
not so much as a social act, which is important too, but as a statement and an
exploration of the boundaries of art and its place and definition in society.
There is also a slightly comical element in the official and professional
approach to people by artists who might be struggling to earn their own living,
and the possible sceptical reactions of people who are being approached to be
given a job opportunity or who would be the ones to give others job
opportunities.
Kunst als soziale Intervention im Alltag in der Tradition des „Happening” und
„Aktion“ wo sich die Grenzen zwischen alltäglichem Handeln und Kunst
verschieben. Das Handeln als Vermittler(in) zwischen Menschen, die man
„zufällig“ trifft, für diese Jobs zu kreiern und dafür Geld zu verwenden, das
bereitgestellt wurde, um Kunst zu schaffen, empfinde ich als subversiv und
nützlich/wertvoll.
Damit meine ich nicht so sehr den sozialen Akt, der auch seine Wichtigkeit hat,
als vielmehr das Statement und die Erkundung der Grenzen der Kunst und deren
Ort in der Gesellschaft. Das ist letztlich auch eine Frage nach dem
Kunstbegriff.
Zusätzlich gibt es meiner Meinung nach hier auch ein komisches Element in dem
offiziellen und professionellen Charakter der Annäherung an die Leute durch
Künstler(innen), die eventuell selbst um ihren Platz in der Kunstwelt und um
das tägliche Brot kämpfen und die mögliche skeptische Aufnahme der zukünftigen
Arbeitnehmer(innen) bzw. Arbeitgeber(innen). „Jemanden zu seinem Glück
zwingen.“
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