– on Institutionalizing the artist or the artists as institution –

The issue that we are facing in contemporary dynamics of operation within the dance/choreography field is the intention to influence and change the economical structure of the field by activating structural funds and taking care of the around-ness of the artistic labor. It is a very little concern on the emancipation of the artist, artistic practice and conditions created according to such emancipation.

One thing became very eminent for me and that is the fact that this pandemia have clearly strengthen the battlefield of elitism and class-division. The dramaturgy that we are all massively taking part of it, is the division of labor and its validity according to so called specialists. Since the power of the state got rebuild and reborn in the operation procedures of the society, during this pandemia, and the power of the specialists (such as scientists, doctors, politicians and so on) regain the higher status over their own voice and became the main figures affecting immediately the global choreography of the society and its values, I’m wondering, where have gone the emancipated social practices that are strengthening the so called power of the people or the distribution of the power in order to protect our-selfs from dictatorship formats of power dynamics.

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PR, marketing and building audience practices:

More precisely speaking, the venues that are accommodating contemporary dance and performance are not having any budget or developed program for building audiences. That becomes very serious problem that weights over the shoulders of the Artist. We are witnessing the problem that the artists are not paid extra for their work of bringing their own audience, neither the venues are doing it for the artists. (Ofcaurse, I’m very harsh with the words here but in my experience the venues participation for PR and marketing is posting on their FB page, creating FB event and maybe, only maybe printing couple of posters). In that sense the artists become its own PR and marketing by having regularity in its activity and turning its own social media platforms in semi working environment.  Talking even further, such choreography reveals very centralized dramaturgy over the dynamics of the Artist. In case the artists would love to have bigger and more diverse audience would need to invest in its social – capital. Sign up for all possible sports, become the friend of the friends from all cousins, and expanded family notions, every conversation, topic and social interaction with friends and encounters, becomes about its own artistic life and upcoming projects. Such choreography creates very self-centered dramaturgy of the artists life choices. And, no, it is not a personal choice or a character, it is a survival tool, it is a context that its unescapable, it is curse over the artists social profile, it is a very degrading choreographic tool for the procedure of emancipation of the art and the artist. In that line of talking, nobody is interested in division of labor over here, but rather on bringing awareness of the movement that is created by such choreographic tools.

Ofcaurse we do have funds and possibility to include such costs. But the proportions between the reality of costs and the allowance of costs by the funds it is incomparable. More precisely explained brutally unaware of its capacity….

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