As a response to this year’s Amsterdam Art Fair, the Unfair Project was set up by the ParachutArtists Foundation to explore the phenomenon of the contemporary art fair and art economy.
Located in De Service Garage in the city's suburbs, an exhibition presented a range of art manifestations, installations and assemblages that questioned notions of art as commodity. For the love of losers by ParachutArtists founder member Ehsan Fardjadniya took the form of a machine that viewers could load, to (unsuccessfully) fling tomatoes at a poster reproduction of Damien Hirst's jewel-encrusted skull. The question "What is the use of art?" raised on the headline on give-away newspaper within an installation created by St Petersburg collective Chto Delat (What's to be done) was addressed in David Riff's catalogue essay, that stated: "Art is more useful than ever, but not to us. The culture industry produces unprecedented amounts of fast-moving ideological commoditie... introducing them to an endless workaday of the professional audience."
The associated one-day symposium 'How do artists and art survive in a new political and economic era?' brought Amsterdam's practitioners into heated debate with politicians, economic theorists and art activists. Whilst Arnold Heertje argued that bureaucratisation and dehumanisation are the primary cause of the credit crunch and that artists and art are a vital ingredient in creating a vibrant social and cultural environment post recession, author of Kunsteconomie (Art economy) Pim van Klink cited 75% unemployment amongst artists as an indicator of the sector? over-supply and its unhealthy subsidy dependence. The ensuing debate between politicians Hans Ten Broeke (VVD) and former artist Hans van Leeuven (SP) was informed by art activist Anne Berk's analysis of the current environment for Dutch artists. Only 14% of artists there earn over 10,000 euros a year. They benefit little from art market sales, and awards from private funders are far and few between.
Whilst van Leeuven argued for investment in artists as strategy for long-term social and cultural development, Ten Broeke's preference was for the market to define itself: "Let the people decide if they want art and to support artists".
The UK experience of art being an instrument in delivery of government policy was brought into the symposium's sparky finale by a-n Director of Programmes Susan Jones. Outlining the history of a-n as a campaigning and advocacy body for and about artists based on data collection and analysis, she offered Dutch artists advice about how they could make the economic case for government investment, urging them to organise, arm themselves with the necessary facts figures and to seek to become their own advocates and spokespeople.
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www.deservicegarage.nl
