Renata Kaminska

Artist, Berlin

Temporary spaces continue to be a trademark of the art scene in Berlin. It is precisely these living conditions that lure »young« people—who mostly come from abroad—with the dream of a metropolitan lifestyle and a defying existence with individual self-fulfillment, which remains possible even at the poverty line. In the process, various strategies for dealing with the social and economic conditions for becoming and / or being part of what is considered as a »scene« in Berlin have developed—and also a creativity that is symptomatic for the vibrant as well as financially bankrupt metropolis of Berlin, which challenges as well as enables in equal measure.

Artists from throughout the world are streaming to Berlin, and the flow has no end: Berlin is booming. The concentration of representatives of this genre makes being an artist here in Berlin into a normal occupation. The main difference to other fields lies in its intangibility and lack of structure. Does specifically this lack of a professional structure degrade the career of artist to a caprice and make registering and considering it in the allocating of resources difficult for the rest of society and its committees?

Therefore: what we need here is structure!

In order to extend the understanding of art in the direction of a new conception and a new logistical structure and to be able to comprehend the present form of artistic practice / work, how it works and its specifics within this system, we have to ask many questions:

How can the structure of art as an individual structure in society

be monitored, defined, and separated?

How can it be characterized economically / socially / politically / institutionally

as a professional structure?

How does it differ and how is it similar to other professional structures?

What are its internal-incestuous conditions?

Where do real, possible, and utopian connections to other social structures exist?

What distributions of roles and work models already exist or should be developed?

What areas of activities, media, forms of articulation, and institutions

can be ascribed to it, and which functions do they take on and which do they not?

What role does art mediation play in artistic practice?

What relations of dependence exist between artists and mediators?

Where are the boundaries and overlaps of art and art coordination?

Who supports art financially?

Where does the money come from?

Through developing such a structure, a basic prerequisite for the perception of artists as a professional group with its own voice would be created. Artists would then be conspicuous as a professional group and would acquire intensive powers of self-assertion. With such a structure, an instrument would be created.

Source: P/Act for Art: Berlin Biennale Zeitung