CAVEAT!!! tries to find more sustainable, balanced ways of operating within the existing legal frameworks. And when the limits of the existing system are reached, it tries to come up with possible new narratives that open up space for reflection.
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) – signalling the research's ambition to raise awareness and co-create alternatives.
As such CAVEAT!!! is a wake-up call to artists and art workers, as well as art institutions and producers to collectively re-think and respond to the nature of their work relationships. Not only to their socio-economical and legal context, but also to their cultural positions in a broad sense. And a much-needed wake-up call it is, since the art world for a long time has been operating on the frontline of neoliberal flexibilization and deregulation of labour – while its functioning can only be improved for all by involving all the parties involved.
CAVEAT!!! is artistic research with a focus on contracts as a tool for formalizing relations. The project attributes a central role to a large number of artists who are invited to do in-depth research through their art practices into the socio-economic and legal conditions of these practices. A research team comprising an artist, a curator and a legal specialist, organise and curate the project. They work in partnership with organisations who engage with the project’s themes and aims from their own position. The team works closely together with the artists to narrate and extrapolate the commissioned works
In a preparatory residence at LODGERS (AIR Antwerp and MHKA) during the summer of 2017, Jubilee explored the interests and expertise of artists, legal specialists, scholars, curators, collectors and organizations of reflecting on the status, limitations and emancipatory potential of contracts in the art world.
A project website will be launched soon at http://caveat.be.
CAVEAT!!! is a two-year co-create research project convened by the Brussels-based artists’ initiative Jubilee, in partnership with Open Source Publishing, No New Ennemies and Été 78 and supported by 
.