I’ll be in Denmark next week to give a series of presentations on my upcoming project Non-Participation, and on the notion of Critical Circulation.

My first stop is Bureau Publik in Copenhagen on January 21, followed by rum46 in Aarhus on the 22nd and 23rd.

Non-Participation

Non-Participation is an ongoing collection of letters of refusal written by artists and other cultural producers to decline their participation in cultural events or exhibitions for political or ethical reasons. The issues raised by these artists’ letters include the non-payment of artists’ fees, the denial of copyright control, censorship, corporate funding, and many others. To quote one such letter by artist Michael Rakowitz, “sometimes what we say ‘no’ to is more important than what we agree to.”

We will discuss past and present examples of cultural producers advocating for improved labor conditions, such as the Art Workers Coalition, W.A.G.E., The CarrotWorkers Collective, and others. We will also explore various legal and practical tools developed for asserting one’s rights as arts workers, including Helena Keeffe’s Standard Deviation, Mary Beth Edelson’s Artist Contract, and Seth Siegelaub’s The Artist’s Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement. In a climate of increasing precarity, class stratification, and pervasive pressure upon artists to offer their labor for free, the agency in the act refusal has gained new urgency.