Brainstorm Reading Room Doing Nothing March 4th 2021
Present: Katya, Jesse, Julie, Jeanne, Ronny, Azad
Agenda: -Ideas -Text -Location -Invitees -Date -Budget: 2000
Azad: 1 May/Labour day
International labour day / soviet tradition
Open reading room with larger audience during 7 hours (> post mai 68 : rearranged week of 35h/7h day)
35 hour working week
Reading all documents related to this question
9 pages of agreeement + 17 pages of annexes Hope for a confrontation, interruption by the public during the process
Ronny: if you cut up the 17 pages into chapters, with Q&A moments, it helps to extend - 7 hours of reading only is bit much Estafete
Katya: Inviting other participants, related to the subject Agenda in which people can join and leave Texts about law / labour camps for people doing nothing
Ronny: the issue of language can also be adressed example of the SOTA event (5 hours), the whole session was simultaneously translated (collaboration w/ ULB & Gent --> 600 euros) it opens up to a lot more people
Azad: spanish / South America --> we're not adressing to them
Clubhouse app : https://www.joinclubhouse.com/ vocal chat rooms I did one about art education, 80 people during the whole conversation but people would come and go also (4h, 2h...etc) I'm pessimistic regarding the physical event Agora principle
Ronny: mixing internet and physical event is always complicated to me, there is not really any interaction inbetween, it creates gaps, hours of trial and people give up...
Jesse: yes the physical parameter does not really work if part of the public is offlien and the other part is online
Ronny: in these kind of event online people seem very disciplined and behave, they seem very concentrated / we should think about constructive solutions online if you still want to keep it physical it oculd be possible for 15-20 people and then the simultaneous translaiton is not possible in budget terms
Katya: We'll have to choose between inviting relevant people and interpreters
Jesse: No, interpreters from UGent are 50e, from ULB for free. SOTA budget for this 350, for 12 (?) interpreters.
Ronny & Katya: relation Reading Room & Enactment
Jesse: We can combine the 2 budgets, but we need two separated days, especially if the RR lasts 7h
Katya: strategy _ if we take the contract for doing nothing (short content of 3 pages) we'd had a very complete RR with inviting 2 speakers, to whom we can give a good fee and have a 2h disucssion on this short texts, but actually opens to all the problematics of the performance less ambitious and less conceptual
ronny: imagine, the RR could be that, and then you add the footnotes, which could last for 7h. you need to make a very concise program
katleen: there are two contracts : contract for doing nothing and the contract for the delegation of the performance around doing nothing (30 pages with annexes)
julie: it would be more interesting to read to delegation document. As caveat circles around the idea of contract, could it be an idea to invite people at the RR that would then be the enactors of the work? this would show a complete transparency around the negociations interesting to think about the 1st of May - I'd be curious to invite groups who are working for workers rights and challenge them into enacting the piece
Azad: 1st May is a Saturday -
20th May: Antwerp Art weekend
Julie: we are looking for a 3rd party, other than Caveat and Jubilee, for the enacting
Azad: because of the public event, people tend also to censor themselves
Ronny: it's about politeness more then censorship
Katleen: who is the enactor ?
Ronny: we're looking for someone who'd be interested to get engaged directly in the project, who pay the rights to enact the piece Azad: and who can then reenact it
Ronny: I have someone in mind, from Art Economy project, Julie Vandenbroucke (arteconomy.be) she sets up collaboration between artists and companies. She is a collector and might be inspired by the project - we worked with Katleen at her villa
Julie: What's important about the Enactor as the 3rd party is the decision how to pay the participants. Not sur if Julie will dive into these reflections. So what about an union ?
Katya: there might be a lack of competence from an union
Ronny: ACOD Cultuur (trade union) Robrecht Vanderbeeken could be an interesting partner;
Katya: for me it's a bit complicated to have the RR which may lead to sigfnificant changes to the text of the agreement and already having that enacted within a couple of weeks. if we start to cut the budget, the project tends to become unambitious can we really afford to do it (if we go all the way with proffessional invited, etc)?
Azad: depending on the country and context the agreement will benefit from amendments, I can't see this document as finished/done --
Katya: it's a lot of work to enact it actually and I fear that this work is just adding up for the 3rd party and thus does not enact it
Julie: the contract for delegation is not completely finalised, it is not completely ready to be used - so it might be a bit too soon to put this document in the open public event If we ask a 3rd party, it will be more a public event. If Caveat/Jubilee does the enactment, it will be more an experiment.
Ronny: so the RR is about testing a scenario really - or disucssing about the enactment itself what about SOTA for 3rd party, so that we can open up the conversation?
Julie: but then it's really an experiment
Ronny: we are so involved in it we can forgot about things, and not open up imagination enough.
Katya: I don't want to throw it into hands of someone I don't know. Let's make it grow, learn how ot swim first! Let's do a small enactment, but really well.
Jesse: but the ambition of the 7h RR is still feasible. We can keep the enacment more modest.
Azad: I'm obsessed with small spaces and interstices, I thought about the possibility to activate it in a train...? Izy or Thalys between Paris and Brussels?
Katya: the terrain-vague/no man's land in front of M HKA these kind of unclear space interest me a lot (for the enactment) What is the role division between you, Azad and me?
Jesse: I think we agree that the RR should take place online, could be 7h. For the enactment: curation, logistics, formal position of enactor can be different people. We could co-curate it perhaps with a larger role for one of us, production/logistics could be Caveat. The real question is who will have the formal role of Enactor including the obligation to pay.
Ronny: remuneration of the person doing nothing: it is cash? check?
Azad: in France, there is no official paid position for curator's statue - I'm always paid for different reasons, never for my work as curator officially
Katya: it's Jubilee's responsibility the way they work with the 3rd party, not mine
Julie: if it's Caveat then it should be Jubilee
Katya: besides the parameter of how to pay people for doing nothing, 3 important elements: place, time, form of communication. And of course who is the enactor. There should be one decision maker (7 people is complicated)
Ronny: Jubilee is the carrying structure, and Azad the one doing the performance?
Jesse: Jubilee = enactor, hire Azad as curator
Katya: who has the administrative role? (sending invoices, doing comptability...) Jubilee vzw
Ronny: That would allow us to decide on the way of remuneration. Invoice, labour contract, volunteer agreeement, etc.
One stipulation of the Agreement as it's drafted now: every participant needs to be contracted in the same way. That poses a challenge to the enactor. Ronny: we need to figure if it's possible to give 1-hour-contracts
Azad: in France, statut of 'intermittent du spectacle' can state they worked for an hour, which goes in the direction of what tey're supposed to work in order to get paid
Ronny: socially responsible position / social protection on the 1st of May
Julie: why should it be a labour contract?
Ronny: it's not really doing nothing, it's a context, the person is performing doing nothing, for which he/she/they r paid
Julie: performing citizenship (?) -- Katya creates a micro cosmos with values, protocols, etc
Ronny: 'doind nothing' needs to be defined - there is a major contradiction responsibility of remuneration is crucial, specifically regarding Jubilee's position as employer
Julie: there needs to be a choice on the curatorial set up (when how when) and neither Caveat nor Jubilee can really play that role, without the collaboration with a 3rd party. We always had a specific context in which to work
Ronny: if RR and enactment are content wise connected, they should be presented as linked in the communication
Doing nothing as a researchg -> paying people doing nothing as researchers, and discuss with them afterwards. Julie: maybe it's more interesting to work w/ SOTA and have participants who are themselves artists -- more of an activist event
Katya: Jubilee + Azad is enough for a configuration, we do not need an additional party Paying people as researchers by Jubilee: €350 per day. €350/7.6= €46.05 per hour. €500/€46,05=10,86h
Katya: In the draft agreement it's the minimum hourly wage as legally defined. https://public-search.werk.belgie.be/website-download-service/joint-work-convention/304/304-2017-000293.pdf: p. 36, column A: €14,49/h with 0 years of experience.
clear palette of choice to be made for next week's meeting