M.C. Escher, Drawing Hands, 1948
Thursday 13th June at 19.00h
Entrance fee: €3
Within the framework of ARTIST4ARTIST – The Economic Performance, over the course of two evenings, together with the invited contributors and the audience Upominki peels back the layers and networks of the economy while trying to scrutinize the artist and arts worker.
The second event in the series focuses on the “artist-gallerist” relationship and is set to explore its dynamics, expectations and alternatives in the context of the art world and its inevitable network structure. While introducing the various types of galleries and their position in the “art eco-system”, the conversation aims to practically address the unspoken rules and strategies related to artists’ career building and their relationships with gallerists. Coming from different sides of the field, Eliska Zakova and Rebecca Stephany will represent opposite standpoints in this conversation.
Eliska has a background in art history and art management and mainly works with commercial art galleries. She will advocate for the model of the “commercial gallery” and their irreplaceable role as catalysts in the art world. She will try to explain how these galleries contribute to the creation of artistic reputation and value, and how/ to what extent they impact an artist’s way of working. Comparing the sphere of fine arts with the music scene, Eliska will argue that it is much harder to avoid art dealers as mediators in the art industry than it is to exclude them from the music industry.
Rebecca is a visual artist-cum-designer-cum-educator, currently working beyond (or without) the collaboration with a commercial gallery. She will advocate for an emancipation of the notion of a successful artistic practice from working with a gallery. Considering the potential of alternative and self-empowering models of building a career and sustaining one’s professional development, Rebecca will bring into discussion the notion of the artist run gallery and various models of non-gallery-yet-institutional-career-practices, such as “the biennial artist”, “the residency artist” or “the project-based artist”, especially regarding the increasing importance of community-building and collaboration in the light of economic crises and budget cuts.
Eliska Zakova (1984, CZ) studied Art History and Art Management in Prague, Berlin and Utrecht and currently works as an assistant at Galerie Christine Mayer in Munich. Through her previous positions at Galerie Ben Kaufmann and other commercial art galleries, she developed a theoretical interest in the art world’s structure and functioning, especially in the role promotion galleries play in it. In her latest research, she has been exploring networking-based strategies for gallerists to promote young, cutting-edge artists, taking social network theory as a point of departure. She specialises in modern and contemporary European art and occasionally curates exhibitions at the K4 Gallery in Prague, an independent contemporary art space that encourages collaboration between art students and young curators.
Rebecca Stephany (1980, DE) lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Having a background in art and graphic design, and being an educator in both fields, Stephany’s practice is reluctant to the categorization of cultural practices, especially in the field of art and design. Stephany makes use of the unspoken rules, expectations and agreements at work in the attempts of differentiating art from design. In doing so, Rebecca’s practice takes many forms, appropriating styles, disciplines and qualifications as needed. Her work includes installation, video, performance, sculpture, writing, self-publishing to performative lecturing. In 2010 and 2011, Stephany was research resident at Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Rebecca Stephany has taught at the graphic design department of Gerrit Rietveld Academie since 2007. In spring 2013 Stephany was resident artist at CCS Bard (Center for Curatorial Studies) in Upstate New York. In 2010 The Museum for Contemporary Art in Leipzig awarded her the Inform.Award, a distinction for conceptual design.
About the project:
ARTIST4ARTIST – The economic performance (2 April – 30 June 2013) is a collaborative project between Upominki, Artist4Artist platform and Jesse van Oosten, made possible with the kind support of Gemeente Rotterdam. For more info about the project please go to A4A. The public program is developed in collaboration with Eloise Sweetman.
The educational program Brave girls sing! Walk taller, speak louder is made possible with the kind support of Het Rotterdams Vrouwenfonds.