Professionalisation in the art world is an ambivalent matter. Creating visibility for one's own work and gaining access to resources through relationships – for example with exhibition venues, galleries or funding institutions – is essential in order to realise projects, enter into an exchange with the public and ultimately make a living from one's own art.

At the same time, it is important to protect the artistic space from being appropriated by the logic of professionalisation – at least if one takes its resistant power beyond the logic of capitalist exploitation seriously. In general, ‘success’ cannot be thought of in isolation from existing power relations.

In this seminar, we will look at professionalisation in the art world from different perspectives. On the one hand, we will use theoretical texts to critically analyse the pressure to perform and neoliberal dynamics in the art world. On the other hand, we talk to gallery owners, off-space managers, curators and artists about their personal paths and strategies in the field.

Writing about your own work forms a third focus of the seminar. It is intended to enable participants to formulate, reflect on and convincingly communicate their artistic visions.

Submission of a text about one's own work

Participation in the weekly meetings