Why Don't We Quit?

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Reckitt, Helena; Džuverović, Lina; Cruz, Carla; Hall, Lily; Allen, Felicity; Knezevic, Ana and Epstajan, Emilia. 2024. 'Why Don't We Quit?'. In: 'Hope is a Discipline' public programme. October Salon, Belgrade, Serbia 21 October 2024. [Conference or Workshop Item]

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Official URL: https://www.hopeisadiscipline.com

Abstract or Description

A conversation about the possibilities and challenges of collective cultural organising. Helena Reckitt joined ‘Hope is a Discipline’ curators Lina Dzuverovic, Ana Knezevic and Emilia Epstajan along with members of the ‘And Others’ network on gendered labour and artist collectives: artists Felicity Allen and Carla Cruz, and curator Lily Hall.

Discussions touched on the importance of collectivity and mutual support in coping with challenging situations: from autonomous ‘Do It Together’ contexts, to working in, and in spite of, dominant institutions. We talked of how friendship encompasses everything from exchanging work-survival memes to sharing resources and nurturing alternative futures. The tendency for cultural workers to over-identify with our work prompted talk of the risks of self-exploitation and the need for transparent structures that build equity and reciprocity. We wondered about the desirability of avoiding overt professionalism, and pursuing creative activities outside the paradigm of work. Anarchist Emma Goldman’s notion of ‘life work,’ which includes stepping back while others step in, to avoid exhaustion and burnout, was proposed. How, and why, collectives fall apart, the need for tools to negotiating conflict in group work, and the tendency of these groups to inadvertently reproduce dominant hierarchies, were other key themes. We touched on tactics of ‘quiet quitting,’ and what happens when the institution quits us.

Contributions from visiting scholars, artists, cultural organisers, including Elene Loizidou, Klara Kemp Welsh, and Jelena Viskovic - who attended with her mother, Dr Jasmina Lukic, cofounder of Belgrade University’s Centre for Women’s Studies - students from Chelsea’s Curating and Collections and the Courtauld Institute’s Art History MA programmes, plus members of Belgrade feminist and artistic communities, Natalija Paunic and Jelena Vesic, enlivened conversations.

Item Type:

Conference or Workshop Item (Panel)

Additional Information:

The talk took place as part of ‘Hope is a Discipline,’ one of three curatorial strands of the 2024 October Salon, curated by Lina Dzuverovic with Ana Knezevic and Emilia Epstajan, with visual identity designed by Rafaela Drazic.

The panel title draws from a forthcoming essay by panelist Helena Reckitt, co-authored with Gabrielle Moser of York University, Toronto.

Keywords:

collectivity; group work; cultural labour; feminist cultural production

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