Katja Praznik: They Say It’s Creativity. We Say It Is Unwaged Art Work

Summary:

Is art a form of labor and if so, what kind of work is it? Considering the perennial precarity of lives and working conditions of art workers, why do we continue to consider art as an act of creation rather than work. What do we gain and what do we lose? Employing a Marxist feminist viewpoint, Praznik will present a critique of the essentializing notions of art work and the relevance of a feminist epistemology to counter the dominant views about artist’s labor. Focusing on the experiences of art workers and the history of labor regulation in the arts in socialist Yugoslavia, Praznik will elucidate the contradiction at the heart of artistic production and the origins of the mystification of art as labor. She will discuss the ways in which historical experiences of socialism, such as Yugoslav socialism, can inform the nature of class struggle in the arts and how the radical history lessons can inspire contemporary struggles for art workers’ labor standards in the world of neoliberal capitalism.

Bio:

Katja Praznik is the author of Art Work: Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism (University of Toronto Press, 2021) and The Paradox of Unpaid Artistic Labor: Autonomy of Art, the Avant-Garde and Cultural Policy in the Transition to Post-Socialism (Založba Sophia 2016). She is an associate professor in the University at Buffalo Arts Management Program and Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies. Employing a Marxist feminist methodology, her work is dedicated to demystification of creativity as a form of labor, on the historical and contemporary implementation of labor standards and payment for workers in the arts, and on labor organizing strategies for art workers. Praznik also investigates the legacy of Yugoslav socialism, neoliberal destruction of the welfare state regimes as well as issues of invisible labor and social reproduction. A decade ago, before moving to the United States, she worked as a freelancer in the Slovenian independent art scene. She was the editor-in-chief of journal Maska, dramaturge in dance performances, and actively engaged in the struggles for improving working conditions of art workers at Društvo Asociacija. She lives between Buffalo, NY and Ljubljana and is currently involved in organizing art workers in Slovenia as the founding member of recently established art and creative workers’ union Zasuk, where serves as a member of its workers’ committee.

Host or Publisher Anthropology and Social Change CIIS