21. Nov 2015

ŠUM #3 | Kaja Kraner |Materiality of Immaterial Work. Artistic Interventions and Choreographing Visibility

ABSTRACT: Based on the analysis of concrete examples, the author of the article attempts to think the aspects of (im)materiality of the so‑called artistic interventions in circumstances of production, when it seems that the structure of artistic work has become directly conditioned by the modes of production of the formally or informally self‑employed workers in the field of culture/art. Using Lazzarato’s concept of the immaterial work, the author is particularly interested in how modes of organisation in culture/art influence the (art)work itself, or rather how they blackmail altered concepts and interpretative approches of artworks. She therefore tries to show in what way the fact that (artistic) interventions operate with »live matter« of social relations is connected to altered modes of production. In this context, the choice of concrete examples is not haphazard – it serves the allocation of visibility in (at least) two ways: 1. allocation of visibility to often obscured aspects of immaterial or minimally material (art)works; 2. premeditated allocation of visibility to chosen examples, where the medium of the article, as always, also functions as an intervention. The allocation of visibility/a written intervention is directly connected to an intervention into concrete relations of power within a certain field: 1. the allocation of visibility as a (symbolic) increase in power; 2. the increase in power as the expansion of power and productive cooperation.