Viva Voce: Jesper Alvær

Abstract

The project Work, work: Staging dislocation in artistic and non artistic labour explores shifts in the conventions regulating artistic labour in the expanded field of art, responding to the radical shifts in artistic practice, related to its deskilling, distributed agency and blurred authorship. Over the course of his fellowship Alvær engaged the research topic in different ways - through exhibitions, covert performances, relational pieces, workshops - to test the contemporary limits of artistic labour, enhancing his study by applying methodologies of social sciences. Through employment, delegation and other forms of collaboration, Work, work... scrutinizes relation linking artists and other participants of artistic process, asking how much can one subtract from professional role of an artist and still be able to share artistic faculties with others? In other words, what is artistic competence after deskilling and how can it be mutualised?