by Moshtari Hilal (CCC)
2024

The art scene is referred to as a “scene” for multiple reasons. It serves not just as a backdrop for theatrical displays of performativity, posing, and positioning, but also as a space that often intellectualizes its detachment from the mundane realities of mainstream consumption and labor. While the arts can resemble a marketplace, an industry, or even a discipline, it remains undeniably an arena where creativity intersects with commerce, depth contends with surface, and where individuals struggle for recognition amid exploitative working conditions.

In this chaotic environment, traditional mindsets emphasize the power of professional friendships and networks. Yet, a growing trend suggests that the evolving identity and representation economy is ushering in alternative voices to penetrate these exclusive circles of cliques and nepotism. While calls for diversity have opened some doors and spotlighted individual names, substantial change remains elusive. 

Projects centering identity politics, caring infrastructures, and safe spaces in the arts hold value in empowering marginalized voices and fostering affirmative discourse, but their efficacy in driving structural change is limited. Often reliant on volunteerism or low-wage labor, these initiatives sometimes garner fleeting attention or become tokens for corporations and institutions, constrained by narrow themes. In Germany, marginalized groups have to convincingly argue that their interests and needs align with  multicultural democracy or liberal anti-discrimination funds  in their applications. These infrastructures and the selective governmental investments tend to perpetuate competition among the marginalized, making them susceptible to state influence and censorship.

To shift our focus from cultural particularism towards pragmatic collective efforts, we must first recognize ourselves as workers under capitalism, dispelling the myth of the creative genius, as well as the essentialism of the authentic informant. We need a practical understanding of what it means to be an artist, treating it not as an eccentric and exclusive career but as labor, that can be measured in time and energy invested, deserving fair pay and credit. Honest discussions about material needs and practicalities, rather than glamorizing the bohemian artist archetype, are essential to pave the way for greater inclusivity and opportunities for marginalized demographics. 

The misconception that precarity and trauma fuel creativity hinder us to acknowledge that in fact privilege and comfort create the most inspiring working conditions for artists. Conditions such as stable housing, studios, travel, and leisure time enable artistic expression, allow experimental and controversial research and exploration. By acknowledging shared material interests, we can then address political responsibilities, how to advocate for ethical practices while challenging institutional narratives and influences. To do so, we need to meet our essential needs first. Old-school leftist organizing tools like unionizing, strikes, boycotts, and wage transparency could serve as effective means to achieve these goals. Collective solidarity enables us to voice criticism without fear of material loss and to shape the political reality reflected in our artworks.

The last few months, with the cancellations and defundings of multiple dissident artists in democratic and liberal states such as Germany, have painted a cautionary tale for many cultural workers. While curators allegedly receive calls from state officials demanding active censorship, other institutions cave to smear campaigns initiated by right wing blogs and remove artists, writers and cultural workers from their programs without genuine efforts to mediate. While some organizers and curators were reported to the police for their use of language and  expression of political protest, others have already been subject to house raids by police forces. The Berlin Senate for Culture at one point tried to push for a clause stipulating that public funds in the arts would depend on the political views of workers on Israel, thus bureaucratizing the monitoring and sanctioning of geopolitical analysis and dissent. However, due to successful organizing, the clause was dropped for now. 

Many cultural workers became painfully aware of the limits of individual positions in conflict with state sanctioned narratives and interpretations of the world we live in. The arts scene was in desperate need of a reality check and finally woke up to a highly political status quo that was hiding behind the detached abstraction and cynical sarcasm of the art world. Now minimal pastel colored installation artists become targets of censorship based on their personal beliefs, while hyperpolitical curatorial projects, despite their previous symbolic use of resistance vocabulary,  remain silent and passive due to their dependence on public funds.

It’s time to ditch the superficiality of identity politics posturing and embrace the transformative power of goal-oriented organizing. By setting clear objectives, mobilizing resources, and coordinating efforts to achieve specific outcomes, artists and cultural workers can harness their collective power to effect meaningful change, challenge the status quo, and make a lasting impact on the world around them. One big issue among left-leaning, progressive and critical groups is the fragmentation of efforts and resources despite their shared needs and goals. Often groups fall into conflict and split based on disagreements about theory, language,  even aesthetics . Disagreements are felt as personal attacks, contradictions are judged as moral failure, and criticism is often perceived as a destructive stance instead of a constructive exchange of views. 

Organizing as a tool and process is misunderstood as a retreat, a shelter in the making. Many tend to forget that we do not come together, because we like each other, instead it is an urgency, a need, a common enemy, that forces us together. Therefore the solidarity in coming together and fighting together is not necessarily shared love for one another, but most probably shared anger, shared fear, shared conflict that we want to address, resolve or confront. The utopian idea of trauma-bonding over discrimination in safe spaces distorts the reality of political organizing that we need to hold space for conflict, for difference, for contradictions and dissent. The power of collective efforts lies in our numbers and our finding common goals and strategies despite our conflicts by focusing on the most urgent and most dangerous threats to our lives. 

Advantages of Goal-oriented organizing 

Long-term Impact and Sustainability: Unlike ad-hoc initiatives or projects driven primarily by personal relationships, goal-oriented organizing focuses on creating lasting systemic change and building sustainable structures, networks, and capacities within the arts.

Strategic Focus: By adopting a goal-oriented approach, art workers and cultural organizations can strategically align their efforts. Goal-oriented organizing prioritizes clear objectives and strategic planning, ensuring that efforts are directed towards achieving measurable outcomes. This focus on results and impact helps to maximize the effectiveness of collective action and resource allocation. 

Accountability and Evaluation: By setting clear goals and objectives, goal-oriented organizing facilitates accountability and evaluation of progress and success. This transparency and accountability are essential for building trust, maintaining momentum, and adapting strategies as needed to achieve desired outcomes.

Strength in Numbers: By organizing collectively, artists can leverage their collective strength and influence to negotiate better terms, secure improved working conditions, and challenge unfair or exploitative practices within the arts industry. This can be especially beneficial for artists who may not have the same bargaining power or resources individually.

Community Building and Networking: Organizing provides opportunities for artists to connect, collaborate, and build supportive communities beyond their personal networks. This can foster creativity, innovation, and mutual learning, as well as provide emotional and professional support for artists navigating the challenges of a career in the arts.

Social and Political Engagement: Organizing allows artists to engage more actively in social and political issues, using their platforms and influence to raise awareness, mobilize support, and effect change on a broader scale. This can include advocacy for social justice, human rights, environmental sustainability, and other important causes that intersect with the arts.

A Closer Look at Two Methods

DISCLAIMER: The answers in the interviews do not represent the views of nGbK. 

Strike Germany
— 5 Answers about their Strategies and Learnings

Who are you and how did you come together, why did you choose to stay anonymous? 

STRIKE GERMANY is a call to strike, and not an organisation in and of itself. It is entirely without affiliation or funding. We are a broad coalition of artists, filmmakers, writers and cultural workers based in Berlin. We remain anonymous to allow the call to speak for itself, and make space for a dynamic response to Germany’s doubling down in its commitment to supporting Israeli state violence in Palestine.

Why did you choose Strike and not for example Boycott to express your protest and dissent? And what are the conditions and demands of your strike? 

By choosing the framework of a strike, STRIKE GERMANY is appealing to artists and cultural workers as people whose labor can be withheld—not just their money or attention or name. A strike emphasizes that there are concrete demands being made. We firmly support the Palestinian-led call to Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Israel ¹ , and chose to call our demands a Strike to distinguish our campaign.  STRIKE GERMANY is addressed to cultural workers who are invited for shows, festivals, and panels at German cultural institutions. 

Why did you focus your Strike on Germany and will it be limited to this State or are you considering a Strike US too? 

STRIKE GERMANY focuses on Germany’s cultural institutions because of their proximity to the German state. While we are well aware of US complicity in the prosecution of Israel’s war in Gaza, it is not at all clear that withdrawing cultural worker labor from the US economy would have the same effect as it does in the German context. Indeed the threat of STRIKE GERMANY itself was enough to send the commentariat aflame, and spawned numerous panicked and paranoid feuilleton articles within days of the call being published. Germany is our target because, for better or worse, Germany is where we call home—and despite the state’s ever more firm commitment to not incorporate us, we are here.

How do you support cultural workers that face essential material loss by joining the Strike? 

We invite those working in Germany to sign in solidarity if they are able, however STRIKE GERMANY does not primarily target cultural workers who are based in Germany and dependent on local structures for their livelihood and residency status. We applaud and encourage other groups and alliances to create strike funds to support those withdrawing their labor for German institutions, but we acknowledge that as an informal coalition we could not commit to operating such an infrastructure. The urgent call for workers to act acknowledges that this action will take different forms shaped by our particular precarities. But to not act affirmatively in calling for the liberty and dignity of the Palestinian people here in Germany and in Palestine, as so many institutions in Germany still have yet to do, leads only to moral bankruptcy in the face of ongoing genocide ² .

What were unexpected alliances or conflicts in the process?

In an interview, Turner prize winning artist Jesse Darling said of STRIKE GERMANY, „The strike has been criticized for not having clear objectives but it reflects the precarious conditions of cultural workers. And as artists, we’re workers of the image and the word, and these actions are what we have at our disposal.“ The call to STRIKE GERMANY is clear in its commitments to the liberation of the Palestinian people. Any ambiguity lies in our being addressed to a broad and varied coalition of cultural workers, none of whom share the same working conditions. By remaining open to many strategies, our movement is made stronger. Independent coalitions like DJs for Paletine and Ravers for Palestine answered and preceded our call and we remain inspired by the work of Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG) in the US. Campaigns to refuse German cultural funding have also sprung up internationally, in South Africa, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, UK and the US. The power in collective struggle lies in our capacity to imagine what we might do together; it relies on our willingness to forgo the typical measures of success in the field of cultural work, looking instead to the twinned horizons of liberation and revolution.

Why  Art Unions
— 5 Questions to a bbk member

Why should we join an Art Union?

You should join an art union for the same reasons a worker in any field should join their union. Unions offer protection, power in numbers, and a platform to voice common interests, the statisticsl correlation between labor conditions & union membership is well-documented. In the arts, a field where workers are all self-employed and so have no recourse to many legal means of workers’ protection / rights, unions are especially important. The bbk berlin is the only union in the field of the arts I know that provides free legal consultstion for its members—in a field where abuse of power is rampant and most workers are not wealthy, this is also a key benefit.

How can one join an Art Union?

By filling out the membership form—in the case of bbk berlin, this: https://www.bbk-berlin.de/en/membership.

Why do you think that most of our CCC participants are invested in transformative questions and looking for solidarity, but are not members of your union? How would you change that?

I would rather be on the asking than the answering end of this Q! 

The bbk berlin is in a transitional phase, its formerly rather homogeneous membership currently shifting. While our membership used to be majority older, German native speakers, recently many more young, PoC and international artists have been joining, but we are still less known among these demographic groups in the city. Those who join shape our work with their votes, their active participation in working groups, their feedback, and the option to run as a candidate to be elected onto the board. We are self-organized / artist-governed to a greater degree than many similar organizations—so membership means the chance of shaping our work to a great extent. I think that the bbk berlin has an image problem to a certain degree, based on its complexity—we have two non-profit subsidiaries, and within them many offices / workshops / fields of activity. So some artists associate the bbk berlin with only one part that they are aware of, say, the studio program or the sculpture workshop, and aren’t aware we are a union. It’s difficult to communicate the complete range of our work effectively, because it’s vast.

What are the main conflicts within the union and how do you approach them?

Our main conflicts are generational conflicts, varying political views within our membership, currently especially how much / whether we should take a stand on political issues beyond cultural policy in Germany. We have the typical problems of working as a collective—finding compromises in group with diverse beliefs, work-life-balance, self-exploitation.

We approach them through conversation—and when it comes down to decisions, taking votes.

How connected is your union with other workers outside the arts?

We collaborate with and support campaigns where there is an overlap with the interests of artists—some examples are parental benefits for freelancers, protests over the rent crisis in Berlin or against Nazis. We work together with ver.di as well. But the vast majority of collaboration with other organizations is within the arts: with the unions and institutions in the Coalition of the Independent Scene or the Rat für die Künste.