Q. What will I be if I’m not an artist?
A. Think of how many people have gotten laid without even talking about art **
Waiters, invigilators, cafe workers, bookshop staff, technicians – artists spend the majority of their careers not being artists in order to support their practice.
Plan 9 Trade Union has been set up to radicalise artworkers in their satellite careers.
The Art Workers Coalition of the 1970’s called for the end of art institutions.
The Art Strike of the 1990’s called for the end of art.
Plan 9 Trade Union calls for covert sedition rather than overt cessation.
Plan 9 Trade Union artworkers will be staffing the Arnolfini’s Far West Metro Store at The Mall, Broadmead, Bristol from 27 June until 24 July 2008.
To read the negotiated documents and to be kept informed of any Trade Union activities during this project then please visit the Plan 9 Trade Union blog: http://plan9tradeunion.blogspot.com
The Far West Metro store is on the ground floor of The Mall Bristol between Dr & Herbs Chinese Remedies and Woolworths.
For a location map and access information visit: www.themall.co.uk
For further information about Far West visit: www.farwest.cn
** Question number 7 from ‘20 of the most difficult, awkward and searching questions you could ask about the art strike (1990-1993), YAWN, Sept 22, 1989.
In 2008, Arnolfini and Relational invited Plan 9 to respond to Far West, which explored the shifting of the economic centre of the world to the East.
Most of the staff (technicians, invigilators, cafe and shop staff) in large arts institutions are artists. Plan 9 members Sophie Mellor and Karen Di Franco created Plan 9 Trade Union, which was designed to radicalise artists in their satellite careers. The Plan 9 Trade Union was founded to:
1. To protect the rights of freelance artworkers
2. To ensure freelance artworkers are treated fairly by their employers
3. To negotiate good and fair working conditions for Plan 9 Trade Union members
4. To acknowledge the hidden art economy endemic in all major art institutions, which is staffed and visited by artworkers, and without which art institutions would struggle to find such gifted and qualified workers.
Plan 9 Trade Union members staffed the Far West off-site store, which was located in the Galleries Shopping Centre, Broadmead, Bristol. Plan 9 Trade Union negotiated the terms and conditions of employment of Union members with the Management of Arnolfini and Relational.
>> Details of the series of negotiations between Plan 9 Trade Union and Management.
>> Read the final set of terms and conditions of employment.
Plan 9 Trade Union members paid a percentage of their wages as Union subs, and this money will be used by Plan 9 Trade Union to assist the careers of Union members.
>> back to home page
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Nancy Zastudil. Nancy Zastudil said: "Q. What will I be if I’m not an artist? A. Think of how many people have gotten laid w/o even talking about art." http://bit.ly/b6gnUH [...]