caveat

30 Oct ─ 3 Nov 2018

Publishing & Performing Relationships. Caveat at Bâtard Festival

Each day during the festival, an artist will present a proposal as a sharing ground for thoughts, discussions, and reflections on authorship, value, economy, distribution, participation...

→ See programme

Each day at 17:30, unless noted otherwise
Beursschouwburg, Brussels

Why would artists contractualize relationships?

How do artists engage into working conditions?

How to survive as an artist?

These questions will develop in a back and forth movement from publishing to performance and the other way around. Indeed, the artists invited by Caveat approach publishing as a means to make things public, as a medium for emancipation and coalition, as a tool for thinking, and as a (third) sculpture.

With: Eva Barto, Sofia Caesar, Loraine Furter & Laurie Charles, Ben Kinmont, franck leibovici, Eric Schrijver & OSP

The practices of the invited artists testify both for an intense research in and a sharp awareness of the conditions and context in which their work come into life, are exhibited, circulated, and archived. Furthermore, they engage actively and critically in sharing, coming together, disseminating these issues not only amongst their peers but also towards a wider audience. Because, as Ben Kinmont put it once, “There is also a need outside of here.”

Caveat is a collective research project reflecting and acting on the ecology of artistic practice. Convened in 2017 by the Brussels-based artists’ initiative Jubilee, the project title alludes to the legal principle caveat emptor (buyer beware), signaling the research's ambition to raise awareness and co-create alternatives.

→ See programme

12 Oct 2018

Reading Room #4

Collective reading and discussion of Permanent Performance, a text by Dieter Lesage

16.00 ─ 17.30

WTC 25^th floor

We will read and discuss collectively a text by Dieter Lesage, 'Permanent Performance'(Performance Research Journal, Volume 17, 2012 - Issue 6: On Labour & Performance). PDF available upon request. Please send an email to info@caveat.be

1 Sept 2018

Caveat at SOTA

State Of The Arts (SOTA) invites Caveat to take part in its first annual camp on fair practice

14.00 ─ 17.00

Allée du Kaai, 1000, Brussels

Caveat will be present with :

Reading Room #3, a collective reading of a fragment of Anna Tsing's book, The Mushroom at the End of the World
Presentation by Vermeir & Heiremans, 'A Modest Proposal: activating public resources as a commons?'
Presentation by Louis Volont, 'Creative Commons'
Discussion

17 Aug 2018

Reading Room #2

16.00 ─ 17.30

WTC 25^th floor

We will read and discuss collectively a fragment from Stephen Wright's Toward a Lexicon of Usership, 'Usership', pp 68-70

18 Jun 2018

Reading Room #1

12.00─13:00

WTC 25^th floor

We will read and discuss collectively a text by artist franck leibovici, Forms of life.

9 November 2017

Conference on Law and Labor

Metamorphosis of Labour: Social Identity, Mobilization, Integration, Representation

between 13.45 and 14.15h

European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)

Steyn Bergs & Ronny Heiremans will present Caveat.

For the Metamorphosis of Labour symposium, the Caveat research team proposes to present an introductory outline of the project. This contribution will involve a slight deviation from the standard format of academic paper presentations, but will hopefully also offer an insight into how the symposium’s topic — questions revolving around labour and identity — are (and have been) researched and dealt with not only in other disciplinary academic fields, but also in the field of artistic practice. As such, Caveat hopes to instigate a truly interdisciplinary dialogue on these pertinent questions.

22, 23 Jun 2017

Caveat at LODGERS: Caveat and Philippe Thomas

A series of presentations and debates revolving around the work of Philippe Thomas with Agency, Patrick Bernier & Olive Martin, Antony Hudek, Judith Ickowicz, Sven Lütticken, Daniel McClean, and Julia Wielgus.

Thu 22

17.00─21.00

Fri 23

15.00─18.00

M HKA, Antwerp, 6th floor

Free entrance

In a two-day event on 22 and 23 June, Caveat will focus on the work of French artist Philippe Thomas (1951-1995). In his work, a selection of which is on display thanks to the generous support of Jan Mot, authorship, and also co-authorship, was intensely questioned. In the case of Ready-mades belong to everyone® this was pursued to the point where it lead to “the ultimate erasure of [the artist’s] name”, inviting “collectors to take authorial responsibility for his works.” Furthermore, a large number of Philippe Thomas’ work displaces the legal notion of authorship as a juridical fiction in order to make it an artistic fiction, therefore underscoring the fictional dimension of both.

Caveat will go further into questions Thomas’ work raises, while at the same time opening them up to the current situation on authorship and production conditions of the artist. During these two days, artists, theorists, curators and experts from the fields of art history, law and economy are invited to address questions on authorship, contract and law in a discursive event that has the ambition to share knowledge and negotiate future realities.

16 Jun 2017

Caveat at LODGERS: The artist's signature and resales rights

15.00─18.00

There is one thing that many artworks and many artists’ contracts have in common: they both bear the signature of the artist, which in both cases consolidates authorship over the work, and which possibly bestows it with economic value. But if authorship over a work does not change throughout time, this economic value certainly does, leaving room for speculation and other practices that might be opposed to the interest of the artist who remains the author. Hence, we will in this workshop also discuss an issue that has been at the core of debates concerning contracts in art since Seth Siegelaub’s time, namely resales rights – the possible right of an author to receive a percentage of the profits made on her or his work after it has been sold.

With Anne-Sophie Radermecker (ULB, Cultural Management, Brussels), Maria Elena Minuto (European Neo Avant-Garde Research Unit (ENAG), KU Leuven).

9 Jun 2017

Caveat at LODGERS: Distributing art: the gallery contract

15.00─18.00

One of the most prevalent contracts in the art world is certainly the sales contract drafted by a certain artist’s (commercial or non-commercial) gallery. This is not to say, however, that many galleries do not operate in a more sub rosa manner, with a significant amount of negotiations happening and deals being made behind the screen, possibly without the full knowledge of the artist, too. Again, what are the hierarchies and possible power asymmetries here, and how can artists empower themselves in their working relation with gallerists? But also, what other forms of gallery contracts already exist, and which different types of contracts would benefit which different types of galleries?

With Vaast Colson (Pinky Bowtie, artist run gallery, Antwerp), Eric Jooris (legal advisor).

2 Jun 2017

Caveat at LODGERS: Artists and Curators: authorship & contracts

15.00─18.00

After having looked into multiple authorship and collaboration, it is still worthwhile to look into the nature of the working relation between artists and curators in more detail, as these relations can take the guise of a life-long, close partnership, a one-off commission, or anything in between. But what contractual obligations does the artist have in these different modalities of working together vis-à-vis the curator, and vice versa? How can both artists and curators think about best defending their interests (artistic, financial, and otherwise) contractually? What are the different negotiating positions in the process of thinking about this, who has leverage where and who has more power over what?

With Antony Hudek (KASK, Ghent), Johan Pas (Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp), Josine de Roover (NICC, Brussels), Julie Van Elslande (legal advisor)

26 May 2017

Caveat at LODGERS: Co-production, multiple authorship, collaboration

Many practices in contemporary art today are distinctly collaborative. Whether it concerns a work realized in close dialogue with a commissioning institution or...

15.00─18.00

Many practices in contemporary art today are distinctly collaborative. Whether it concerns a work realized in close dialogue with a commissioning institution or with, a community project where a larger group of people contribute significantly to the work, or an art piece in which the production is (partly) outsourced by the artist, or anything similar: in all of these cases, there takes place a sort of diffusion of authorship through the division of labour, destabilizing and problematizing the notion of authorship down to its very core. This has become quite common in artistic practice, but how is this reflected in law – for instance in intellectual property law? What legal tools exist for framing these practices in a suitable contract.

With Adinda Van Geystelen (Extra City, Antwerp), Ulrike Lindmayr (Escautville, Antwerp), Kerstin Winking (Vriza, Amsterdam), Sari Depreeuw (legal advisor).

19, 20, 21 May 2017

Caveat at LODGERS, opening weekend

Caveat is hosted by LODGERS, a collaboration between AIR Antwerpen and M HKA. LODGERS functions as Caveat’s first platform for public programmes, workshops, a display of artworks, legal material, and film screenings: a framework for research and artistic production as well as a public stage to negotiate possible futures of the artist contract.

Fri 19

15.00─18.00

Steyn Bergs & Florence Cheval (Caveat curators): introduction on Caveat

Sari Depreeuw (Caveat legal advisor): keynote on Caveat’s legal paradigm

Sat 20

15.00─18.00

Scott Raby (Caveat artist in residence): presentation, ‘The Contract in Art as a Site of Production: From Radical Histories to Speculative Possibilities’

Sara Martinetti (art historian and curator): presentation, ‘The Artist’s Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement from the Perspective of Diplomatics’

Sun 21

15.00─18.00

Carey Young (artist): presentation, ‘Subject to Contract: Law as an Artistic Medium’