WORKING AGENDA 2010-11
CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR facilitate an open artists’ network with an ethos for free exchange of ideas and opportunity. We are intent on engaging with dialogues born out of individual and shared artistic practices with consideration to questions raised in this Working Agenda.
Placing emphasis on artistic engagement rather than professional crendentials allows us to embrace an inclusive approach to encouraging and supporting practioners from a range of backgrounds in training and approach. Through the network we aim to disseminate and produce new ideas and opportunities, with a focus on critical and discursive activities.
We are concerned with the artist’s position in the application of free labour, specifically understanding artistic labour in terms of current cultural and economic value. CBNC’s working structure is founded on the free labour of its facilitators and seeks to function with self-generated funding where possible, in mind of changing economic factors.
The questions CBNC are currently engaged in asking include:
- The Artist’s Trajectory
In an increasingly uncertain and apprehensive climate, the notion of arts production is born into a space of contingency. With moveable and interchangable structures becoming apparent in the artworld, how does one adapt to practice in an unforeseeable future?
- Inside/Outside the Institution
The doors of the institute are often closed to fledgling artists, with few opportunities for instigating dialogue between galleries, art schools and practitioners. As galleries rely more and more heavily on crowd pleasing programs, the space for failure and experimentation is reduced to a minimum. Therefore, what is the position of the artist in consenting to the process of validation orchestrated through institutional structures?
