Art Work: Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism

Description

In Art Work, Katja Praznik counters the Western understanding of art – as a passion for self-expression and an activity done out of love, without any concern for its financial aspects – and instead builds a case for understanding art as a form of invisible labour. Focusing on the experiences of art workers and the history of labour regulation in the arts in socialist Yugoslavia, Praznik helps elucidate the contradiction at the heart of artistic production and the origins of the mystification of art as labour. This profoundly interdisciplinary book highlights the Yugoslav socialist model of culture as the blueprint for uncovering the interconnected aesthetic and economic mechanisms at work in the exploitation of artistic labour. It also shows the historical trajectory of how policies toward art and artistic labour changed by the end of the 1980s. Calling for a fundamental rethinking of the assumptions behind Western art and exploitative labour practices across the world, Art Work will be of interest to scholars in East European studies, art theory, and cultural policy, as well as to practicing artists. Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: The Paradoxical Visibility of Yugoslav Art Workers, or Should Artists Strike? 1 The Autonomy of Art and the Emancipation of Artistic Labour 2 A Feminist Approach to the Disavowed Economy of Art 3 The Making of Yugoslav Art Workers: Artistic Labour and the Socialist Institution of Art 4 The Mystifcation of Artistic Labour under Socialism 5 Art Workers and the Hidden Class Confict of Late Socialism 6 The Contradictions of 1980s Alternative Art Conclusion: Post-Yugoslav Dispossession and the Contradictions of Artistic Labour afer Socialism Notes Bibliography Index