The relationship between art, work and economy is a daily issue for artists, agents, cultural administrators and all those involved in the artistic culture business. However, unlike other aspects of the culture sphere, and in particular art, it is a relationship which lacks any great standardization or contextualization. This has given rise to the proliferation and acceptance of a series of "rules of the game" and micro-practices within which both artist and local agents are typically faced with conditions of inequality, in which their work is undervalued and exploited.
Rights and obligations between artists and agents tend to be verbal contracts, which are often not honoured, leading to disaffection and even splits between them. Against this background a critical dialogue on economy-culture-art represents unfinished business if new, positive practices are to be generated. Economy faces the challenge of revising the basic hypotheses of its philosophy, such as utility and profit, and culture the feat of giving up romantic visions and independent operations which attempt to justify or conceal the precarious and insecure nature of cultural work.
The main aims of these seminars are to identify problematic situations, critical nodes, gaps and malpractice in the artistic system, and to foster the creation of undertakings and responsibilities among individual agents, groups, cultural institutions and independent spaces for further research into the issue, with a view to setting out policies, strategies and actions.
