TRANSNATIONAL ART’S COMMONS
KUNSTALLMEND
A Short Introduction
The KunstAllmend is a collective project experimenting with alternative artistic economies to redefine conditions for artistic production. Reflective of the commons active in the Swiss Alps for centuries, the KunstAllmend transposes this traditional model upon contemporary discussions concerning the management of common resources, authorship and copyright – a position standing in opposition to that of the artmarket. The Allmend model functions as a promising problematic rather than a ready-made solution.
The KunstAllmend is a project of the Dampfzentrale in collaboration with the Transnational Art’s Commons for the Bern Biennial. The Dampfzentrale has invited the Commons to inhabit its space for 72 hours and transform it into an Allmend.
Here you will find primarily an infrastructure for art production. The KunstAllmend is not an installation nor a performance as consequence of a rehearsal process – it is a working space! As a newcomer you will be considered as potential Commonist and the infrastructure is equally at your disposal. We will do our best to support your personal use of the KunstAllmend.
The KunstAllmend seeks to design a sustainably transformable model for art production, bringing different practices into a conflict-rich dialogue, empowering its members to both generate and benefit from common resources.
Our coming together is motivated by the shared concern about political and economic conditions that weigh heavily upon artistic production today. The ongoing financial crisis and the impact of austerity policies have depleted collective social resources, including those of culture, imposing new pressures for conforming to competitive logic of the market.
The economy of the KunstAllmend proposes an alternative that self-critically recognizes the prevalence of anti-capitalist reflexes in the artworld, while extending the discourse beyond mere attitude into a schema of production. We are undertaking concrete forms of working together, that are practical, useful, powerful and progressive. The KunstAllmend searches for a strategic path between the imperatives of existing markets and those of State structures, focusing rather on a third way, buttressed by methods of self-organization.
