PANEL DISCUSSION ON THE ROLE OF PART-TIME JOBS IN THE LIVES OF ARTISTS
With Doris Frohnapfel, Jan Hoeft, Katharina Jahnke and Magdalena Kita
4 March 2021

Place: Zoom
Registration Link: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJApdu-hrDsrHdYT-JFDUbIZ_Cua5PAl2wWd?fbclid=IwAR3XNRBYHa8ZQ-9rjANECcmhrXg1WCNOi8xTXiVfLucadiGnsbEpjwD07v4
Language: German

Should artists and curators start thinking about side jobs that are compatible with artistic work at the beginning of their careers? Which side jobs make sense and which don't? To what extent does a side job influence the respective artistic practice? Are such influences desirable or not? How can one separate the artistic work mentally and organizationally from the side job? How does one deal with the ambivalent/double identity (as an artist and as a ... translator, salesperson, exhibition supervisor, etc.)? The goal of this panel discussion is to offer an honest exchange about these issues. The invited guests will share their experiences with the topic. Katharina Jahnke will present her new art project that deals with the unstable existence between relative autonomy and relative precarity.

Join us for this panel discussion to reflect on these issues!

***
I know you've become disheartened and disillusioned
By the current state of affairs
You question what is this world coming to
Where's the glory you dreamt of as a child...
You contemplate the setting sun,
Unaware of your disorientation.
Dis-orient: turned away from the east.
The shifting current seems to conspire against you.
Why not just turn around
Lessen the intensity of your western glare and face the rising sun
Note the energy swirling from its center
How it illumines us all and only the birds fly first class...
There is your inheritance!
***
Coldcut. “Mr Nichols,” Sound Mirrors, 2006.

The event is a part of the project "and only the birds fly first class...", which invites reflection on the structures of the art system and possible reactions to them. Its aim is to go beyond ordinary criticism of the mechanisms of the art scene and present progressive ideas and proposed solutions with a model character. Although the motivation to carry out the project dates back to before the pandemic, it was reinforced by observations made during these times. "In the days of cancellations, closures and postponements in the art business, which hit artists and freelancers especially hard, the precarious conditions on which the art business has rested for decades are revealed with full force. It is the artists, of all people, who are generally the most exploited and who have hardly any financial security. The aid packages that have been passed in many European countries in recent months are right and important, but they reveal nothing other than the flaws of the system - and sooner or later they will become the blueprint for announcing drastic cuts in the public art sector, which has long been working at its existential limits, as having no alternative. In the end, artists and freelancers will pay double, because they are always the first to be cut."[1] But these experiences must rather lead to rethinking and renegotiating the mechanisms of art.

The project will focus on practical approaches and initiatives for discussion. Together with invited experts, we would like to consider how to facilitate and improve the daily lives of artists and curators. The topics of the project are deliberately broad so that they can be related to different aspects of life. Apart from the panel discussion on side jobs of people in the cultural field, the following are planned: a lecture by Magdalena Ziomek, the founder and managing director of SMartDe eG - Cooperative of the Self-Employed (11 March 2021), a workshop on curatorial fees with Kris Dittel and Katia Krupennikova, a permaculture online course (starting on 27 March 2021) with a research group of artists and curators on the topic "Learning from Permaculture," a programming course, an exchange circle on co-housing and many other events.

The different events of the project are developed with cooperation partners such as BBK Cologne and And She Was Like Bäm! The title of the project comes from the song "Mr. Nichols" by Coldcut and Saul Williams, which is a very apt description of the emotional state of despair, disorientation and the need for turnaround. The turnaround is to achieve a world in which "only the birds fly first class" i.e. a world without inequalities (between, for example, different professional groups).

The project is curated by Aneta Rostkowska, director of Temporary Gallery.

Biographies of the participants:

Doris Frohnapfel (* 1959, Düsseldorf) studied fine arts at the University of Applied Sciences Cologne and architecture at the RWTH Aachen. She received the DAAD scholarship for Italy in 1983. During and after her architectural studies, she worked for various architectural and urban planning firms in Cologne. Space, architecture and urban planning form an important part of her research and content. In 1994 she received the Chargesheimer Scholarship for Photography/ Film/ Video from the City of Cologne, and from 1998 to 2005 she was a professor of photography at the University of the Arts in Bergen, Norway. Various stays abroad and residencies, such as the Barkenhoff Fellowship (Worpswede, 1990), Schloß Plüschow (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 1996), Art and Document (Beirut, 2014) and the Galata Fellowship (Istanbul 2016) were able to advance her work in terms of content as a change of location. She lives and works in Cologne.
www.dorisfrohnapfel.de

Jan Hoeft (*1981, Blankenburg) puts social and socio-cultural phenomena and developments up for discussion in his artistic practice through site-specific interventions. He studied at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne from 2006 - 2012 and is the recipient of numerous awards, such as the working scholarship of the Stiftung Kunstfonds (2017) or the scholarship of the Jan van Eyck Academy Maastricht (2013-14). Jan Hoeft has exhibited at the Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Kunsthalle Wien, Bunkier Sztuki Krakow, and KAI 10 - Arthena Foundation, among others. He lives and works in Cologne.
www.janhoeft.de

Katharina Jahnke (*1968, Berlin) studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1993 to 1997. She held teaching positions in experimental design, sculpture, photography and drawing at Folkwang University Essen, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, University of Paderborn and University of Siegen from 2009 to 2020.
Her work includes diverse art forms, including collages, books, drawings, or art in construction. She lives and works in Cologne.
Exhibitions and projects at home and abroad, among others: The Breeder, Athens (2005); Galerie Kamm, Berlin (2011); Galerie Nomadenoase, Golden Pudelclub, Hamburg (2009); Galerie Helga de Alvear, Madrid (2010); Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork (2008) and at MARTa Herford (2010).
www.katharinajahnke.de

Magdalena Kita (*1983, Debica, PL) studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, in the classes of Rita McBride, Tal R, and Herbert Brandl. She’s recently exhibited at Kunsthalle Gießen, Art Cologne 2019, Temporary Gallery (Cologne DE), White Crypt (London UK), Real Pain Fine Arts (Los Angeles US), and with Syndicate at Material Art Fair 2018 (Mexico City MX). She lives and works in Cologne. Magdalena Kita creates elaborately illustrated visions of a female-centered Western society by remixing mythology, politics, and art-historical styles, presented through unconventional aesthetics and media.
www.instagram.com/kitamagdalena

[1] Hans Christ, Iris Dressler, SHUTDOWN STATEMENT, https://www.wkv-stuttgart.de/programm/2021/shutdown-programm/statements/?fbclid=IwAR2U-XCNwnboLLnrlP2vsyPcEXD1i9tVQv6t4jnJXDT2KhXk4f1Jej3ERTM

Image
Katharina Jahnke

Funding and support
Kunststiftung NRW
Kulturamt der Stadt Köln
Hotel Chelsea
Deltax Wirtschafts- und Steuerberatungsgesellschaft mbH

Partner
BBK Cologne
And She Was Like Bäm!