Quo vadis ars?

The situation in the cultural sector has been described and discussed in numerous interviews, corona diaries, comments and reports in the past few weeks. Our annotated collection of currently 193 sources gathers voices from different sectors and media. This creates a picture of the cultural landscape in crisis, whose temporal transformation can be explored interactively via a dedicated tag cloud.


 

Durchs Raster gefallen . Kulturschaffende in Coronakrise
Fallen through the cracks . the arts community during Corona crisis

by Sabine Seifert (29 Jul 2020)
Original source: taz

Three months after an initial conversation about her personal situation as an artist during the lockdown, Sabine Seifert meets again with a singer, a visual artist, an actor and a museum educator to talk with them about their experiences during the Corona crisis. The working conditions for the artists are still all but optimal, as the hygiene rules for all cultural fields of work entail restrictions. Many people appreciate the social network that is provided in Germany. Emergency aid and basic security have helped them to survive the last few months financ ially. However, applications for basic security have only increased by about a quarter. Due to the bad aura of basic security called Hartz IV, many people were reluctant to apply.
Even the applications for solo self-employed persons do not take into account the living and working conditions of artists even after three months. Seifert critically observes that in many federal states the cost of living may not be regarded as operating costs, but also the fact that in the second round applications may only be made by tax or accountants is completely ignoring the reality of small and medium-sized enterprises. Although the profession of an artist is fundamentally associated with uncertainty, the general conditions have currently changed radically. No one can predict with certainty how the pandemic will develop. When again which event format will be possible.
Olaf Zimmermann, Managing Director of the German Cultural Council, points out that the working structures on the cultural market have changed in recent years. Although there are fewer artists, there are more solo self-employed people in the field of cultural education, management and technology. Cultural policy has failed to counteract the precarious structures that have emerged here. Basically, according to Olaf Zimmermann, one should think about whether the classic concept of the entrepreneur still applies to artists and cultural workers - especially since they make an important contribution to society.

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tag Soforthilfe Grundsicherung Solidarität Verdi bbk Elisabeth Anschütz Sascha Oliver Bauer Ka Bomhardt Wilko Reinhold Olaf Zimmermann
All sections Bericht

Der verzögerte Kulturinfarkt . Resilienz des Kulturbetriebs
The delayed culture infarction . Resilience of the cultural sector

by Dieter Haselbach, Pius Knüsel (27 Jul 2020)
Original source: Kulturmanagement

The cultural industry has long been a two-tier society. While the state-financed cultural institutions will come through the crisis with the help of much public funding, the many private institutions and artists will fall victim to the crisis. The public institutions are not innocent of this, as they have used the solo self-employed as an inexhaustible reserve army.
In view of the fact that even before the crisis there was a discussion about the dwindling public in cultural institutions and the loss of significance of museums, the authors are irritated by a contri bution by Tobias J. Knobloch, President of the Kulturpolitische Gesellschaft, who urged that public funding be expanded in order to avert the consequences of the crisis for the cultural industry. In this context he also speaks of resilience.
Here it should not be forgotten that the crisis is the great time for cultural associations. They are now trying to get a share of the public funding.Differently it looks with the solo independent ones, which fall by the promotion rasters of the federation and federal state governments for enterprises and come thus over the rounds only with an application for unemployment relief ALG II .
Here the authors come to the crucial point of their article: Many artists do not have a business model that would be sustainable and provides for reserves and a sensible old-age provision. Postponing crisis and old-age provision until later is not a model with a future. Even if the state is currently generous, sustainable business practices must be introduced in the cultural sector.
In their outlook, the authors assume that the large state-financed houses will survive the crisis, and that many solo self-employed and privately financed houses will give up. Cultural tourism will also start again in 2021. The only chance the stakeholders have is to create new room for maneuver. A cultural infarction can currently only be avoided if the funding instruments and organizational principles are reconsidered and digitization is promoted.

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tag Museen Kulturförderung Soforthilfe Solo-Selbständige Hartz IV Olaf Zimmermann Tobias J. Knobloch
All sections Bericht

Lieber Maler, male mir! . Diskussion über Kunst in Coronakrise
Dear painter, paint for me! . Discussion on art during Corona crisis

by Ingo Arend (08 Jul 2020)
Original source: TAZ

Under the title »Painting by Numbers - Art in the Corona Crisis«, the Green Party in the German Bundestag invited to a discussion about a group that currently plays hardly any role in the public discourse about the Cornona Crisis: the visual artists. At the moment, there is great concern that the money from the economic stimulus package will flow into the support of museums and cultural institutions, but that the artists themselves will go away empty-handed.
The author Ingo Arndt is somewhat irritated by the fact that in the discussion about possible s olutions to the precarious situation of  artists, the idea of a New Deal, which Hans Ulrich Obrist brought up in April, has not been taken up. A large-scale acquisition project for museums and public institutions launched by the German government could offer a way out of the crisis by commissioning visual artists.

 

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tag Grundeinkommen Neustart Kultur Konjunkturpaket Die Grünen Lobby New Deal Erhard GrundlHans Ulrich Obrist
Visual Arts/Design Bericht

Pro: Kunst ist Kulturverständigung - und deshalb politisch . Pro und Contra Kulturreisen
Pro: Art is cultural understanding - and therefore political . The pros and cons of cultural travel

by Nicolas Freund (05 Jul 2020)
Original source: Süddeutsche Zeitung

Cultural trips are more than luxury? Historically, art has long been reserved only for the ruling classes. If one follows the thesis formulated by the writer John Berger in his essay "Ways of Seeing", the consideration of art is not only a democratic act, but also a place of confrontation with the past precisely because of the detachement of the ruling caste. The change of perspective in the present makes art at the same time an ideal place for the negotiation of social discourses. Therefore, one should not recklessly give up the privilege of participating in a rt events, just because it is a little more difficult to reach exhibition cities at the moment.

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tag Bildende Kunst Kulturtourismus Original Demokratie Austausch
Visual Arts/Design Diskussion

Was wir im Lockdown über das Digitale gelernt haben

by Anika Meier (02 Jun 2020)
Original source: Monopol

The corona crisis has accelerated the shift to the digital world. Art exhibitions were also presented online in times of lockdown. If there is no other choice, even these institutions who have tended to avoid online media are now turning to social media to communicate and exchange ideas. In her column, Anika Meier examines what we have learned with regard to the digital world during the crisis, presenting various activities of the recent months, from livestreams via Instagram to online viewing rooms and augmented reality. In doing so, she urges art critics to think about new standards for evaluating art on the Net. Naive euphoria or unreflected criticism of the fact that virtual exhibitions cannot replace real museum visits do not do justice to either the artistic-curatorial claim or the medium.

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tag Online Viewing Room Streaming Augmented Reality Hans Ulrich Obrist Iwan Wirth Koo Jeong A Krise als Chance
Visual Arts/Design Kolumne

»So eine Zeit werden wir nicht wieder erleben«
»Such a Time We Will not Experience Aagain«

by Katharina Fiedler (23 May 2020)
Original source: Zeit

With the cancellation of their commissions at the beginning of the crisis, the Leipzig photographers Felix Adler and Thomas Victor decided to use their free time and to accompany the corona pandemic in a series of documentary photographs. They travel through eastern Germany together and capture everyday life.

tag Fotografie Felix Adler Thomas Victor
Visual Arts/Design Interview

Tanz auf Distanz . Choreographie und Corona
Dance with Distance . Choreography and Corona

by Dorion Weickmann (12 May 2020)
Original source: Süddeutsche Zeitung

Dancers need a studio to stay in halfway good shape. Unlike with actors or musicians, the physical body is their working tool. Since the body has become a source of danger in Corona times, it is viewed with suspicion. The prospects for next fall are highly uncertain. Most probably only very reduced dance performances can be realized. This new minimalism, however, could comprise also a chance, if choreographers concentrate again on dance as art in the sense of craft, aesthetics, vision, idea, attitude.

tag Tanz Choreografie Probe Minimalismus Repertoire Krise als Chance Körper
Performing Arts/ Cinema Bericht

Die Durststrecke der Paparazzi . Fotograf*innen in Corona-Krise
Dry Spell for Paparazzi . Photographers during Corona crisis

by Steffen Grimberg (07 May 2020)
Original source: taz

The crisis does not only affect the paparazzi, the image hunters in the celebrity world, but all photographers. Since there are hardly any permanently employed "staff photographers" left, they are now working as freelance visual artists and have had a hard time for decades. Now the commissions are missing - with no hope of a recovery in the near future. 

tag Fotografie
Visual Arts/Design Kommentar

»Es gibt in Zeiten der Angst eine große Bereitschaft zum Gehorsam« . Daniel Kehlmann über die Corona-Krise
There is a great willingness to obedience in times of anxiety . Daniel Kehlmann on the Corona crisis

by Daniel Kehlmann, Patrick Bauer (06 May 2020)
Original source: Süddeutsche Zeitung

The German author Daniel Kehlmann experienced the outbreak of the Corona crisis in New York City and then retired to Montauk with his family. In an interview, he talks about his impressions of the crisis, the special politics of images and the consequences of the restrictions on freedom.

tag New York Bilder Buchbranche Freiheitsbeschränkungen Robert-Koch-Institut
Literature/ Text Interview

Wie verändert Corona die Kunstwelt?
How does Corona Changes the Art World?

by Sara Steinert (30 Apr 2020)
Original source: Kunst und Leben. Der Monopol-Podcast

tag Soforthilfe Netzkunst Galerien Daniel Birnbaum Elke Buhr Alexander Kluge Zoë Claire Miller
Visual Arts/Design Podcast

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Facing arts is a non-profi project. Feel free to support it and get in touch with us!

The Team

Facing arts is a projet by STORM.

STORM is an acronym playing with the initials by Miriam Seidler & Tim Otto Roth, who are hit both by the Corona crisis. Dr. Miriam Seidler is a scholar in German literature and currently works as specialist in public relations. Dr. Tim Otto Roth is a scholar in art and science history and works as a conceptual artist and composer. He is known for his huge projects in public space, cooperations with leading scientific institutions and his immersive sound and light installations. Miriam and Tim collaborate regularly for years. With facing arts they reaslize their first common art project.
You find more informatin on both initiators on www.miriamseidler.de and www.imachination.net.

Special thanks to Paco Croket for the tag cloud programming!

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