LODGERS #10 Jubilee

The LODGERS programme is a collaboration between AIR Antwerpen and M HKA . We welcome imaginative artistic initiatives to come and occupy the 6th floor at M HKA. The programme offers a unique opportunity for public interface, to organisations and initiatives who focus specifically on producing and commissioning, and who do not have their own public space. These LODGERS might be publishers, commissioning agencies, research initiatives, labels, collectives, discussion platforms and other initiatives experimenting with artistic practice who would be interested to live, work and perform in Antwerp.
LODGERS are welcomed from "Eurocore" – the combined region of Benelux and the Rheinland. Free entrance to visit our LODGERS. Come and say hello!
The LODGERS programme is co-curated by Nav Haq, Senior Curator at M HKA, and Alan Quireyns, Artistic Director at AIR Antwerpen.
JUBILEE presents CAVEAT!!! Hosted by LODGERS
CAVEAT!!! is a three-year programme on the legal and economic position of artists and cultural producers in contemporary society. Taking its name from the law principle ‘caveat emptor’ – warning against “unfair practices” – the project acts on the relationships between art, artists and cultural producers, and the legal frameworks in which they operate.
CAVEAT!!! takes as points of departure and arrival the contracts used in the art world as a tool for reconfiguring relations of authorship, labour, price, among others. Contracts are not, however, considered as a possible instruments for artists and producers to become ‘better’, savvier entrepreneurial subjects. Rather, they can be seen as a phenomenon with great emancipatory potential. How can contracts, the neoliberal instrument par excellence, be developed towards more inclusive goals?
Artists, theorists, and experts from the fields of law and economy will be invited to research past and present modes of art world contracts, share knowledge, and negotiate future realities. Through CAVEAT!!!, using this research as raw material, JUBILEE will commission new work and artist interventions. At the same time, CAVEAT!!! aims for a ‘toolbox’ with template contract modules, customizable for various kinds of engagements and the singularity of artists’ practices.
Art institutions, too, are increasingly concerned with alternative practices of engagement and remuneration. M HKA and AIR Antwerpen have opened their LODGERS project space and residency for CAVEAT!!!, rendering it a laboratory prelude to the three-year programme.
LODGERS functions as CAVEAT!!!’s first platform for public programmes, workshops, a display of artworks and legal material, and film screenings: a framework for research and artistic production as well as a public stage to negotiate possible futures of the artist contract.
CAVEAT!!! is initiated and curated by JUBILEE, platform for artistic research and production. JUBILEE is a Brussels based artists' initiative committed to opening knowledge, common interests and networks. JUBILEE draws attention to artistic research as an integral element of artistic practice. The name JUBILEE is taken from the Sumerian tradition of a periodical debt cancellation, referred to as ‘jubilee’.
19 May - 23 July
daily 11-18h (Thursday until 21h) – closed on Monday
CAVEAT!!! presents a cabinet that will be activated during public programmes and workshops, with artworks, documents and books by Guillaume Bijl, Daniel Buren, Vaast Colson, Maria Eichhorn, Robert Filliou, Andrea Fraser, Goldin + Senneby, Judith Ickowicz, Ben Kinmont, Joseph Kosuth, Gareth Long, Gordon Matta Clark, Elaine Sturtevant, Philippe Thomas, Sarah Vanhee, Stijn Van Dorpe, Lawrence Weiner, and Carey Young.
Public programme May
Opening weekend 19 – 21 May (Antwerp Art Weekend)
Friday 19 May, 15-18h
Steyn Bergs & Florence Cheval (CAVEAT!!! curators): introduction on CAVEAT!!!
Sari Depreeuw (CAVEAT!!! legal advisor): keynote on CAVEAT!!!’s legal paradigm
Saturday 20 May, 15-18h
Scott Raby (CAVEAT!!! artist in residence): presentation, ‘The Contract in Art as a Site of Production: From Radical Histories to Speculative Possibilities’
Sara Martinetti (art historian and curator): presentation, ‘The Artist’s Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement from the Perspective of Diplomatics’
Sunday 21 May, 15-18h
Carey Young (artist): presentation, ‘Subject to Contract: Law as an Artistic Medium’
Public programme June
CAVEAT!!! and Philippe Thomas
Thursday 22 June, 18-21h & Friday 23 June, 15-18h
A series of presentations and debates revolving around the work of Philippe Thomas with Agency, Patrick Bernier & Olive Martin, Antony Hudek, Judith Ickowicz, Sven Lütticken, Daniel McClean, and Julia Wielgus (Jan Mot).
In a two-day event on 22 and 23 June, CAVEAT!!! will focus on the work of French artist Philippe Thomas (1951-1995). In his work, a selection of which is on display thanks to the generous support of Jan Mot, authorship, and also co-authorship, was intensely questioned. In the case of Ready-mades belong to everyone® this was pursued to the point where it lead to “the ultimate erasure of [the artist's] name”, inviting “collectors to take authorial responsibility for his works.” Furthermore, a large number of Philippe Thomas' work displaces the legal notion of authorship as a juridical fiction in order to make it an artistic fiction, therefore underscoring the fictional dimension of both.
CAVEAT!!! will go further into questions Thomas' work raises, while at the same time opening them up to the current situation on authorship and production conditions of the artist. During these two days, artists, theorists, curators and experts from the fields of art history, law and economy are invited to address questions on authorship, contract and law in a discursive event that has the ambition to share knowledge and negotiate future realities.
Friday Workshops Program: 26 May, 2 June, 9 June, and 16 June
CAVEAT!!! at LODGERS is also a number of thematic workshops. The workshops will address authorship and contract issues in relation to Multiple authorship & collaboration; Artists and Curators; Distributing art; The artist's signature. If you are interested and want to join one of the workshops, please contact JUBILEE.