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SECRETCAPITAL

Content

Katja Melzer, Karin Rolle: Secret Capital. The Intersections of Art and Economy

Dr. Alexandra Manske: Who or What is the Creative Class? An Insight into Berlin’s Creative Industries

Henrik Schrat: Workshop Secret Capital

Students‘ Projects Banja Luka:Draško Bošnjak, Vladimir Klepić, Ninoslav Kovačević, Ljubiša Pušac, Jovan Radulović

Students‘ Projects Pécs: Annamária Csikász, Gergő Horváth, Dorottya Kanics, László Ormay, Zsófia Tóth, Szilvia Villányi

Csaba Nemes: The Discrete Charm of Money

Mladen Miljanović: Secret Capital from the Perspective of the City of Banja Luka

Authors / Organizers / Bios

Imprint / Support

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Katja Melzer, Karin Rolle Secret Capital. The Intersections of Art and Economy

A project by the cultural managers Katja Melzer, Lenau Haus Pécs (Hungary), and Karin Rolle, Protok, Center for Visual Communication, Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

The intersections of art and economy have comprised the topic of the long term research and exhibition project, which outlined two main subjects. On the one hand, experts and students from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany and Hungary developed projects that described economic transformations in Central and South-East Europe from an artistic perspective. On the other hand, they explored the conditions for creative workers within the economic process in a socio-political view, and consequently discussed under the heading of “Creative Industries” their possibilities and limits in the region.

(1) Artistic Perspective: Panel, Workshop and Presentations in Banja Luka and Pécs

In a panel discussion, the artists Mladen Miljanović, Csaba Nemes and Henrik Schrat introduced their own works dealing with the subject. Mladen Miljanović presented his project "Museum Service" (2010), in which he reflects on the contradiction of the Yugoslav society as being once economically advanced compared to other communist societies and then falling apart after the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Csaba Nemes introduced the long term project “The Discrete Charm of Money” (1991 – 1994) realized in cooperation with Zsolt Veress, which examines the close

relations between economy, money and artistic practice. Henrik Schrat, as a lecturer and teacher on the topic of Art and Business, gave theoretical input as well as insight into his own work, involving artistic projects within, and in cooperation with, company structures.

In a subsequent workshop headed by Henrik Schrat, eleven students of the art academies in Banja Luka and Pécs developed individual projects. One working group pointed out, how money becomes increasingly abstract and merely visible as a digital number in bank transfers. Another group gave an ironic report on invisible money movements, namely corruption in the process of job distribution in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The question of how artists become entrepreneurs was the subject of two further working groups. After several weeks of elaborating the projects, the students presented the results to a broad audience in exhibition spaces both in Banja Luka and Pécs. Irony and an instinct for hot topics linked the works of the students who underwent an intensive learning process on how to work conceptually in projects. (A selection of their projects can be found in this documentation.)

(2) Socio-political Perspective: Lecture and Discussion “Creative Industries” in Banja Luka

Another dimension of the project was to critically examine creative work as part of the economic process. In a lecture at the University of Banja Luka, the sociologist Dr. Alexandra Manske (Humboldt University, Berlin) introduced the debate on the "Creative Industries."

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While the discussion described the creative industries both as a driving force for economically weak regions and as a contribution to an improved image of de-industrialized areas, it also pointed out that most “creative work” is done under precarious conditions. During the subsequent public discussion, the debate about “Creative Industries” was transferred to the area of South-East Europe, where - against a background of resurgent national traditions - developing sensitivity for the creative and the dissenters, as well as supporting their work, appear to be the main necessity.

The project was realized as a collaboration between the Lenau Haus Pécs and Protok, Center for Visual Communication in Banja Luka, as well as between the universities of the respective cities. It allowed some of the students from Banja Luka to cross the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the first time. It was also a first trip to this country for the students from Pécs. Thanks to the enthusiasm of all contributors involved, future cooperation projects are planned.

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Program

14 April 2011, 18.00, University of Banja Luka, Academy of ArtsLecture + Discussion: “Creative Industries” Dr. phil. Alexandra Manske, Sociologist and Political Scientist, Humboldt University, Berlin

15 April 2011, 18.00, Nádor Galéria, PécsPanel + Discussion: Economy in contemporary artistic practiceMladen Miljanović (Professor and Artist, Banja Luka), Csaba Nemes (Lecturer and Artist, Budapest / Pécs), Henrik Schrat (Artist, Berlin)

16 April 2011, 10.00 - 16.00, University of PécsWorkshop: Students from Banja Luka and Pécs develop own projects Head: Henrik Schrat (Artist, Berlin)

16 April 2011, 20.00, Szoba Bar, PécsPresentation + open discussion: Students from Banja Luka present their projectsDraško Bošnjak, Vladimir Klepić, Ninoslav Kovačević, Ljubiša Pušac, Jovan RadulovićProfessor: Mladen Miljanović (Banja Luka)

5 May 2011, 19.00, Galerija Terzić, Banja LukaPresentation + open discussion: Students from Pécs present their projects Annamária Csikász, Dorottya Kanics, László Ormay, Szilvia Villányi, Zsófia Tóth, Gergő HorváthProfessor: Csaba Nemes (Budapest / Pécs)

2003 was some 800,000 persons and has grown by about 33% since 1995. Yet there are two questions to be discussed today. What is the creative city characterized by and who are the "creatives"? The answers vary according to the point of observation and the academic profession – two of these answers are presented here. But before we do that, let’s have a more in-depth glance at the creative industries in Germany – where it has become an ever expanding labour market which makes the creative industries an important field of policy making.

‘Creative Industries’ – an expanding labour market

The creative industries is not another word for the traditional art market. It is more like an extended art market with special features. According to John Hartley, the idea of the creative industries seeks to describe the conceptual and practical convergence of traditional art with the cultural industries and the new media sector (Hartley 2007: 5). Therefore, the creative industries broaden the social base of enterprise culture by taking into consideration milieus which beforehand were understood as not having an economic worth for urban development at all. Consequently, this concept reflects also an economic driven point of view on this emerging labour market. Thus, empirically, the creative industries represent an extended form of the classic artists’ labour markets (cf. Haak/Schmid 1999). The Enquete Report ‘Kultur in Deutschland’ (Culture in Germany) defines as the cultural and creative industries “[...]

Dr. Alexandra Manske An Insight into Berlin’s Creative Industries

In this paper, I will give some insight into the creative industries. Particularly, I will focus on the laborers of the cultural and creative industries, especially in Berlin. Therefore, this paper revolves around two questions, namely what is a creative city, and who are the creatives?Thus, in their competitive quest for entrepreneurial talent urban policy-makers have fairly recently discovered the "creatives". Above all, this is due to the cultural and creative industries’ extraordinary economic growth, the growth of employment in them, and their increasing share in the national economy (Geppert/Mundelius 2007). Since the beginning of the 1990s, numerous surveys have confirmed over and over again that economic and cultural added value in the cultural and creative economy correlate to a high degree and become a location advantage. In other words, the creative city promises urban vitality, distinctiveness, and wealth creation for the benefit of the city and its inhabitants, like e.g. Charles Landry puts it (Landry 2008: xvii). And indeed: art and culture are of economic significance. Since the end of the 1980s, at the latest, the cultural industry has been one of the most dynamic economic sectors in Germany and also in the European Union, and this with regard to both revenue generation and employment development. According to the report of the Enquete Commission "Culture in Germany", the share of the cultural and creative economy in Germany’s GDP in the year 2004 ranked with 36 billion Euro between the chemical industry and the energy industry. The total number of those employed in the cultural sector throughout the nation in

Who or What is the Creative Class?

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the cultural sector project work has been spreading as a typical form of work organisation untied to individual concerns. While the public cultural and media industry was the most important employer until the start of the 1990s, this relation has been turned about completely in the meantime. The privatisation or closing down of many public cultural institutions increasingly exposes the protagonists to the “open” market (cf. Haak/Schmid 2001). The cause of this development must be sought in the structural change in cultural production, which is gaining a new dynamism in this phase. A shift in the balance is taking place between the part-sectors of the cultural industries; from public cultural operations to the private-commercial sector. What we, hence, can observe is a process of privatization. One outcome of this is the spreading of portfolio-careers and project-oriented work. Instead of working for a single company or a single employer throughout their career, protagonists of the creative industries mainly are self-employed and/or work in different temporal jobs for different employers. However, the change in the working structures of the creative industries is not new. In Germany, it has been emerging for more than 20 years and reflects a processual change of the working and market conditions in the creative industries (cf. Gottschall 1999).

Promises and reality of creative cities: "Creatives" as the new upper class

The creative industries as an academic and political concept are discussed since the beginning of the 1990s. Really

those cultural or creative businesses, [...] which are oriented primarily towards earning and are concerned with the creation, production, sales and/or media distribution of cultural/creative goods and services” (Enquete-Report 2007: 340 ff.). In this respect, creative producers certainly operate “in part markets of the arts and the media” (Wiesand 2006: 12), but they are neither simply artists nor necessarily producers of art in the traditional sense. Far more, they should be classified as the new cultural entrepreneurs (Mandel 2007), who extend the traditional boundaries of the artistic field, so modifying the field of artistic-creative work, and–in a certain sense–regenerating it.Until today, there have been few investigations examining the cultural and creative industries as an expanding segment of the labour market field and the rapidly evolving group of one-man businesses in the creative industries. However, various and numerous reports on the creative industries published in recent years have indicated that these industries are a field of enduring and massive growth (BMWI-Bericht 2009). According to the Enquete report “Kultur in Deutschland” from the year 2007, the share of the cultural and creative industries in the gross value added in the Federal Republic in 2004, at 36 billion EUR, lay between that of the chemicals industry and the energy industry. The total number of earners in the cultural sector was around 800,000 throughout the FRG in 2003, signifying an increase of around 33% since 1995. However, the growth of the creative industries is accompanied by an ongoing change of the working and living conditions of its protagonists. Since the early 1990s, in

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popular, though, this concept has been since the end of the 1990s. According to many scholars, the creative city characterizes a form and process of urbanization. By this, creativity refers to a process by which a symbolic domain in the culture is changed thus a creative city enhances a transformative shift from the existing and conventional ways of urban development (Jacob 2010: 194). According to Charles Landry the creative city describes a new method of urban planning [...] It explores how to make cities more liveable and vital by harnessing people’s ... talents.” (Landry 2008: xii, in: Jacob 2010: 194). Therefore, Landry advocates for an understanding of creative city which also includes social and political reforms plus artistic and technical innovation. Similar to this, in his book `The Rise of the Creative Class' Richard Florida, an American urban studies theorist, posited in 2002 that economic prosperity and cultural attractiveness depended to an ever increasing extent on whether urban policy-makers managed to attract and to keep the "creatives". As it is true for Germany, Richard Florida’s book ‘The Rise of the Creative Class’ from 2002 has been a decisive source for policy makers. In their own words, every politician has Florida’s book at the night table. Therefore, for urban policy makers Florida’s book is certainly paradigmatic when he says, “Creativity is now the decisive source of competitive advantage” (Florida 2002: 5). In the debate about "creatives" his theory is as hegemonial as it is controversial and thus warrants closer attention at this point.Florida sees "creativity" as the characteristic of a growing social group which he calls the "creative class". Due to their upscale lifestyle the "creatives" generate economic growth

in the cities, which can be gauged in so-called "creativity indexes". Those cities that boast great cultural diversity, a high standard of technological development and tolerance towards stigmatised social groups such as homosexuals will attract the creative class. Thus "creativity" is for Florida a question of a city’s attractiveness as an economic location. Hence he regards the basis of the "creative class" as an economic one. The creative class itself is subdivided into two categories according to Florida. In the "super creative core" he includes engineers, artists, university professors and think-tank researchers, among others. The other group which he calls the "creative professionals" consists of all those who work in knowledge-based jobs such as bank employees or health-care professionals. In other words, according to Florida almost everyone is creative with the exception of those in the industry or service sector. Florida combines his description of a new creative class with the thesis of a change in the structure of the U.S.-American society from the beginning of the 20th century up to the present day. This structural change, he says, basically polarises two social groups, with the "creatives" on the one side and the "service class" on the other, while the traditional working class is in the throes of disappearing. In the USA, the creative class now comprises about 30% of the workforce and the service class about 43%. According to Florida the creative class is now reviving up to take over the position of the formerly dominant industrial class. However, Florida’s analysis is interesting because it corresponds to surveys which, based on socio-economic and ethnic criteria, have revealed a social polarisation in the cities (as for example Wacquant 2004).

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Contrary to the progressive claim of social and political change for the betterment of all, Jamie Peck shows in his text “struggling with the creative class” (Peck 2005) that the creative city model tends to be enacted with a narrow focus on the sustenance for arts and culture. Moreover, Doreen Jacob for instance argues that the use of the model of creative city is “a cynical rhetorical play for property-led ... urban development, as well as a spectacle-driven governance of arts and culture and place production.” (Jacob 2010: 193). Therefore, against this backdrop let us now cast a glance at a city that is currently touted as the "hot spot" in Europe: Berlin which by its Mayor Klaus Wowereit was named ‘poor but sexy’.

"Creatives" in Berlin: entrepreneurial spirit and precarity

In Berlin, too, culture is an economic factor. Some 150,000 people work in the creative industry, this is almost 10% of the workforce and thus more than in the producing industry. Its economic relevance is growing, and in the Federal Republic, too, the "creatives" have an above-average level of education, about 40% are university graduates. Moreover, due to its specific location mix Berlin offers special conditions for creative workers. On the one hand and due to its low living costs and to its vital international cultural scene, Berlin is a very popular location for artists and creatives from all over the world. For instance, Berlin was the first city in Europe to be appointed "City of Design" by UNESCO (Paris) in January 2006 and has been admitted to UNESCO’s worldwide "Creative Cities Network".

"Berlin’s creative industries have developed into an innovative economic factor with international flair. On the other hand, most artists and creatives earn less than they would do in other cities like Hamburg, Munich or Cologne. Therefore, we describe Berlin as a creative city which consists of a mixture of opportunity structures and poor house (c.f. Manske/Merkel 2008). Hence the situation in Berlin, too, seems to confirm Florida’s theses (2002) at first glance. However, as soon as one operates with a closer concept of "creative workers" and investigates only those groups of workers who are involved in the production of art and culture services, then a picture emerges that differs greatly from Florida’s brave new world – and this applies to the entire Federal Republic. In place of an "upper class" insecure professional existences are spreading in Berlin’s cultural and creative industry, in fact one could almost say that in the shadow of the euphoria about creative economic growth a host of highly-qualified, low-earning creative workers is emerging, often living from hand to mouth like day labourers. Approximately every second curator, web designer, illustrator, culture project manager, radio drama producer or journalist in Berlin is a one-person entrepreneur with an annual income that is often less than 10,000 Euro (c.f. Manske/Merkel 2008).

"Digital Bohemians"?

For the "creatives" this results in a contradictory situation: although they are highly-qualified professionals, this is not reflected in their social situation. "Creatives" face the challenge of combining creative talent

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with entrepreneurial demands. Most creative workers, however, exhibit a certain resistance to the increasing commodification of culture services and to an entrepreneurial perception of their own activities. This conflicts with their aim of using their work to develop a self-determined life concept rather than serving as wage slaves. Thus in the professional biographies of independent creative workers a good education conflates with a strong artistic-creative motivation which blends into a specific mixture of economic poverty risks and subjective autonomy gains. This I call Prekarisierung auf hohem Niveau (Precarization on high level).A credo that is also found in the much discussed book, published in 2006, by Holm Friebe and Sasha Lobo: Wir nennen es Arbeit. Die digitale Bohème. Intelligentes Leben jenseits der Festanstellung (i.e. We Call It Work. Digital Bohemians. Intelligent Life Beyond Permanent Employment), meanwhile in its third edition. The key maxim for the self-appointed "digital Bohemians" is their rejection of the "system of permanent employment" since in their opinion this no longer offers any kind of security while status as an employee would curtail their personal freedom. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the social existence of this round dozen of successful players in the creative scene of Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg is extremely vulnerable since they, too, are exposed to the fluctuations of the market without institutionalised protective mechanisms and are not able to rely on their participation rights in social welfare benefits or their individual provisions for subsistence. Thus, as a result of our investigations a dividing line emerges between two generational groups of actors in the

field of creative production. Until into the 1980s, the chances of reliable dependent or freelance working conditions were considerably higher than they are today. On the one hand, there is a cohort of creative producers in the so-called “rush-hour of life”, into which they are pushed by the need to establish themselves professionally, spend, and found a family: i.e. the group between 30 and 45. On the other hand, there is the older generation of artists in their mid forties and older. While the first group is characterised by working and living at a relatively low level, the comparatively more open and more publicly subsidised market conditions of the creative industries in the 1980s enabled the representatives of the older group to conquer a niche under relatively flexible conditions of demand. The earlier the actors entered the cultural industries, therefore, the greater is the likelihood that they will be able to make an independent living as “creative workers”.

The creative self as a precarised subject

Many protagonists meet the individual risks of the market by diversifying their activities and searching for niches on the market. Thus, they develop projects in the public and non-profit-making cultural sector in the same way as others do in the free economy. In addition, some of them invent an individual profession and thus contribute in their own way to the differentiation of the creative industries. One individual questioned, for example, responded that she was a “production dramaturge”–an individual profession that combines the fields of production management and dramaturgy in theatre and opera. In addition, many

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protagonists take on “bread and butter” jobs apart from their profession, for example as estate agents or in call centres. When they are dependent on grants or engagements in public cultural institutions, those interviewed regard their social situation as particularly critical before the background of the market’s radical working conditions. Long run-up periods to the acceptance of projects demand advance planning and corresponding savings in order to bridge this phase financially. As most work is done on account and fees are paid long after the completion of the projects, the protagonists often have to deliver in advance. Long phases of development and preparation, overlapping projects, and enforced free periods between projects during which no subsequent project is available lead–as one interviewee put it–to “chronic under-financing, whereby one carries all the risks alone”. Some of those questioned experience the material uncertainty and the considerable swings as “brutal”, since they often do not know how they can make a living.Just how precarious such an existence may become is illustrated by the example of a curator we interviewed, who is regarded as successful in the Berlin alternative cultural scene, it is true, but nevertheless states that she is scarcely able to live from her activities. In the meantime, the payment from public cultural institutions is so low that the interviewee could only secure a living for two months from six months of project work. But for many of those interviewed, the lack of institutional-legal recognition is even more important than their uncertain financial situation: they feel that their work is neither perceived nor acknowledged by society. One

individual interviewed, who organised a media festival on his own initiative, explains: “As to my situation in life, I certainly wish that there were possibilities to support one-man businesses more, which, above all, would give me a status.” This creative producer obviously experiences life outside the normal biography formulated by the industrial society as a dubious privilege. He goes on to say: “I would always sell myself as a project-director, cultural mediator, curator and director, but my situation in life does not correspond to that, by any means.” Often, those interviewed are temporarily dependent on “Hartz IV”. The interviewees describe this situation as ambivalent, as this means that they receive a basic social security, but it only enables them a precarious existence.Before this background, membership of the KSK (artists’ social security fund) develops more status than that of a reasonably-priced health and pension insurance, becoming a form of institutional recognition and the certainty of “belonging”. On the other hand, all our interviewees reclaim a high degree of autonomy which is displayed by their working status as well as by Berlin. Therefore, for the creatives, an unique feature of the city of Berlin consists in the fact that the town disposes a high cultural capital. Thus Berlin for one is a „biographic economic Eldorado“ (A8), for other again „presently most exciting art metropolis of Europe“ (A9). In addition to this, Berlin is sensed as comparatively „free from commercial pressure“ (A8), as our interviewees put it – and which still is certainly true. However, by getting branded as an international cultural metropolis, we now observe exactly what is criticised about creative cities. Precisely, that

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creativity plans do not disrupt approaches to urban entrepreneurialism and consumption-oriented place promotion, it is quite on the contrary, they extend them (Pratt 2006: 761). Thus, former creative neighbourhoods like Prenzlauer Berg have undergone a severe gentrification process with rising rents. This development to a highly cost neighbourhood is why artists have abandoned now Prenzlauer Berg (Jacob 2010: 195). But still, Berlin is well known for its creativity and still thrives on a relatively low cost of living, combined with a lively nightlife and an expanding artistic scene (ebenda).

Conclusion

To sum it up, the politico-economic hype about the creative industry contrasts sharply with the economic and social situation of the "creatives". For while, on the one hand, the economic magnetism of creativity is infused into the city, the creative players are often at a loss to make ends meet. At the same time the creative industry is evidently gaining significance not only as a politico-economic factor but also as a labour market. Florida’s portrayal of the "creatives" has little in common with the real-life situation of creative workers. He turns economic problems into cultural questions and converts questions of societal participation into a question of lifestyle. To put it bluntly, Florida appeals not only as a political advisor but also with the voice of an advisor in identity politics to the "creatives", most of whom live in precarious circumstances. The "digital Bohemians" strike a similar chord with their rather one-sided portrayal of a freelancer’s life as

a life in which self-determination prevails. In so doing they suppress the structural conditions under which the majority of the "creatives" lives. On the other hand, there is a growing portion of young people who prefer to live under these insecure working-and-living conditions rather than become an employee within a 9 2 5-Business. Therefore, these people are not only driven by the prospect of economic and social security or even entrepreneurial success. Creatives are rather driven by a set of values which is partly entrepreneurial but at the same time is quite non-economic but focused on autonomy in every-day life and on creative freedom.However, since most of the "creatives" earn their living by mobilising all the resources at their disposal, an accident or an illness can jeopardise their existence in this "affluence subject to revocation". Hence, if urban policy focuses on creativity, then under the existing economic and social conditions the expansion and consolidation of precarious existences will at least be regarded as part of the deal.

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References

BmWi-Report (2009): Kultur- und Kreativwirtschaft: Ermittlung der gemeinsamen charakteristischen Definitionselemente der heterogenen Teilbereiche der „Kulturwirtschaft“ zur Bestimmung ihrer Perspektiven aus volkswirtschaftlicher Sicht, verfasst von Söndermann, M./Arndt, O./Brünink, D.Enquete-Bericht Kultur in Deutschland (2007): Bundestagsdrucksache 16/7000.Florida, Richard (2002): The Rise of the Creative Class. New York.Geppert, Kurt/ Mundelius, Marco (2007), Berlin als Standort der Kreativwirtschaft immer beliebter, DIW Wochenbericht 31, 2007, S. 485-491.Haak, Carroll/Schmid, Günther (1999): Arbeitsmärkte für Künstler und Publizisten – Modelle einer zukünftigen Arbeitswelt? Discussion Paper P 99-506, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung. Berlin. Hartley, John (2007). Creative industries. Malden, Massachusettes, Oxford: Blackwell.Jacob, Doreen (2010): Constructing the creative neighborhood: hopes and limitations of creative city policies in Berlin. In: City, Culture and Society 1 (2010), 193-198.Kulturwirtschaftsbericht Berlin, ed. Senatsverwaltung für Wirtschaft (2008): Kulturwirtschaft in Berlin. Entwicklungen und Potenziale 2008. Moderation, Beratung, Berlin.Landry, Charles (2008): The creative city: A toolkit for urban innovators. London: Comedia.Mandel, Birgit (2007). Die neuen Kulturunternehmer. Ihre Motive, Visionen und Erfolgsstrategien. Bielefeld: transcript.Manske, Alexandra (2007), Prekarisierung auf hohem Niveau. Eine Feldstudie über Allein-Unternehmer in der IT-Branche, München/ Mering. Manske, Alexandra (2009). Unsicherheit und kreative Arbeit. Stellungskämpfe von Soloselbständigen in der Kulturwirtschaft. In: R. Castel/ K. Dörre (Hrsg.), Prekarität, Abstieg, Ausgrenzung. Die soziale Frage am Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts. Frankfurt a.M., New York: Campus, 283-296.Manske, Alexandra/ Merkel, Janet (2008). Kreative in Berlin. Eine Untersuchung zum Thema „GeisteswissenschaftlerInnen in der Kultur- und Kreativwirtschaft“ (Discussion Paper SP III 2008-401). Berlin: WZB-Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung.Manske, Alexandra/ Merkel, Janet (2009). Prekäre Freiheit. Die Arbeit von Kreativen. WSI-Mitteilungen, 62 (6), 295-301.Peck, Jamie (2005): Struggling with the creative class. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 24, 740-770.Wacquant, Loic (2004): Roter Gürtel, Schwarzer Gürtel: Rassentrennung, Klassenungleichheit und der Staat in der französischen städtischen Peripherie und im amerikanischen Ghetto, in: Häußermann, H./Kronauer, M./Siebel, W. (Hg.): An den Rändern der Städte, Frankfurt/Main, 148-202.Wiesand, Andreas J. (2006). Kultur- oder Kreativwirtschaft. Was ist das eigentlich? Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 2006 (34/35), 8-16.

Endnotes

1 In Germany, an understanding of art as work developed in the early 1970s. The background to this was a specific, socio-democratically influenced combination of cultural and social policy. The German term “cultural professions” also emerged as a general category in this phase, which was characterised by the supposed certainties of an industrial society framed by the welfare state (Schnell 2007: 55ff), but is now no longer adequate (Manske/Merkel 2009).

2 The definition subsumes eleven core areas or partial markets under “cultural industries”: music industry, book market, art market, film industry, broadcasting industry, fine art, design industry, architecture market and press market, whereby the term “creative industries” also encompasses the part markets advertising, software/games-industry and a category “miscellaneous” (Kulturwirtschaftsbericht Berlin 2008: 4f., cf. also BMWI-Report 2009: XI).

3 As of June 2009, a total of 37 reports concerning the cultural industries in Germany were available.

4 Consequently, the various social groups’ freedoms of thought, experience and action are structured in the creative industries as spatially and temporally dependent, insofar as their socio-economic conditions are defined according to the time of entry onto the market. Karl Mannheim has described the corresponding experience of business activities as typical characteristics of generation stratification (cf. Mannheim 1964, p. 525).

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Henrik Schrat Workshop SECRET CAPTIAL

Introductory talk

In an introductory talk, Henrik Schrat presented his work and projects in relation to economy. Moving into theory, the crossing of Organizational Aesthetics (Antonio Strati) as a subgenre in contemporary management theory and Relational Aesthetics (Nicolas Bourriaud) as an important stream in art theory was talked about. Special focus was put on visualisation of organisations, as in charts, graphs and organigrams. Those forms of visualisation are also understood as pictures in an artistic sense.

Workshop

The task of the workshop was to think about organisations as social entities, and to visualise this process. The students were divided in groups.

1. Imagining an organisation

As a first step, they were asked to develop and imagine an organisation they would like to run. The actual project briefing gives the best illustration:

Imagine that you are the founder of an organisation. What kind of organisation would you like to create? It can relate to your social and local context, but can also focus on another place or be imaginary. The input can be information, raw material, people, financial resources or other. The output can be products, services or other.

Points to keep in mind and questions to consider:

What do you develop, produce, or transform? What kind of resources would you need? Resources in terms of people? Space? Money? Who would be your target group? Organisations can consist of various parts, such as Research and Development, Engineering, Production – subdivided in many steps into Quality Control, External Communication & Advertisement and Sales. Management will coordinate all this activity. (Management, understood in the broadest sense as organising, is likely to take place on different levels. On the production level you need people to organise the production processes, you need people to oversee and coordinate the different units, and, ultimately, you need people to look at all the surrounding and influencing systems, and then develop strategies from it. That means: you have to look at the market to see what people need or want and what your competitors do. You also have to look at the social space, at the people you depend on, and not just clients. You have to keep track of the political conditions you are in. All these influences constitute the outer frame of your organisation and will interact with it.)

It is an interaction with society on various levels:

On a cultural level – producing bread is different than providing education, which is different from producing one more brand of sneakers.

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On a financial levelyou have to spend money on the people you are working with or are employed by you. In turn, they depend on you. You have to buy input supply. You can sell the products, and generate income. In order to run the company, inflow and outflow of money needs to be balanced, or to generate surplus. You buy your supply – hence you are involved with people whom you depend on to sell you, or provide you with, material. You can deliver a service or products which are of different value to society.

2. Visualising the organisation

In the second step, a complex display depicting the organisation and its processes was to be developed. It could be seen in various steps: as an overall image, to enable someone to understand the basics in a few moments, and then to dive later into details, read texts, look at numbers, small figures or diagrams. Ideally, a feedback loop is created between the visualisation and structured thinking. Visual thinking as artistic core-competence is enacted and understood as organisational process.

Again, an excerpt from the project briefing:

Artists are familiar with visual tools and how to organise a given surface visually. As an example, in simple flowcharts entities, often in frames, linked by lines. The entities are comparable to nouns, the lines to verbs. Undoubtedly, these are clumsy tools to display the activity, movement and change which take place in an organisation.

– The students made use of their artistic knowledge to develop different ways of depicting movement, relation and activity. Colours or shapes can have a deliberate symbolic value, a legend can be added, like in a cartographic map. Nevertheless all those features have visual meaning, which is played out subliminally or intentionally, as in a painting. Both levels correlate. Different classic ways of visualising information can be used, combined, expanded on or transformed. They can be combined with pictures and text on various levels.

3. Interpreting the display

As the last step, a structured review process took place. The student teams were asked to interpret and read out the displays of the other groups. Finally, each group explained their display.

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STUDENTS' PROJECTS BANJA LUKA

Draško Bošnjak

Vladimir Klepić

Ninoslav Kovačević

Ljubiša Pušac

Jovan Radulović

Draško Bošnjak

"The Color of Money"

My research on the topic “art and economy” has been initiated by the title of the movie “The Color of Money.” Since most people associate the color of a bank note with its specific value, I decided to create a color sample of each Bosnian bank note. Consequently, I produced a color sample with the help of a computer, mixed printing ink according to these digitally produced samples and then mechanically produced large-scale linocuts. In my final installation, I added a digital print of the authentic bank note to each large-scale monochrome linoprint . My work “The Color of Money“ is conceived minimalistically. It underlines, exaggerates and plays with the abstractness of capitalist values. Further on, the work points to the flaw of the capitalist system in times of economic crisis or in transitional societies, as it is the society of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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Jovan Radulović

"WANTED?"

In March 2011, me and my friends from the Academy of Fine Arts gathered in front of the National Theater in Banja Luka. We split up into three groups and set out to put up posters. We taped them on containers beside the government building, in the city centre, in parks, on telephone booths… The posters bore only the simple phrase “Looking for...” or “ Wanted...,”with a large bare space inviting the public to think about and write down what they would “look for“ or “want“ in the context of Banja Luka, the Republika Srpska or Bosnia and Herzegovina. The work was presented in highly contested public spaces of Banja Luka. In the Republika Srpska or Bosnia and Herzegovina, there are still many issues that cannot be discussed publicly, and suppression is common in everyday life. Thus, to exhibit in the public sphere and provoke a reaction from the citizens parallel a rebellious act – in fact, during our work, we were stopped by the police, who noted down our personal data. The final art work consists of an installation of images, a video and posters that document our intervention.

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Ljubiša Pušac

"The Battle"

In the framework of the project “art and economy,” I present a socially engaged work, in which I express my critical stance. In the years following the war, the political system did not always work sufficiently. This condition of confusion and oblivion was used by certain international corporations. One of those corporations managed to buy the rights to use an iron ore mine in the village Omarska in North Bosnia for a very low price, and started to exploit it. I based my work on one of the many problems people in Omarska have to face. Since in the following years, the company expanded the area of excavation, a large part of the surrounding natural environment has been destroyed, namely the river Gomjenica. Its drawdown has caused the extinction of an entire ecosystem in and around the river. My work consists of different media, as there are videos and photographs that are brought together in an installation. The video shows two currents departing form opposite sides, approaching each other and finally merging in the middle. One current is the stream of the river, the other current is a conveyor belt which transports iron ore. The two opposing currents actually show the conflicting situation of the ecosystem and the mining enterprise. Additional pairs of photographs contrast the situation of the river before and after the beginning of the enterprise. Whereas some pictures show the sound ecosystem, others report on the catastrophic ecological changes. The work reflects that, in the context of Bosnia and Herzegovina, no awareness of the unique ecosystem exists.

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Vladimir Klepić

In October 2010, a competition for designing an ATM was launched by the Balkan Investment Bank, and the best visual proposals were supposed to be rewarded. The templates I designed and handed in got rejected, since they didn‘t match the aesthetic conditions the bank imagined. By exhibiting these rejected designs, I explore the border between “art” and “anti-art.” Whereas the works did not fit the aesthetic logic of the management context, I am exhibiting them in an art context, in which they unfold their uniqueness as artworks. My work examines the different rationalities, the tensions and the interdependence between the economic and the artistic systems.

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Ninoslav Kovačević

My project on the topic “art and economy" consists of 900 plastic cups painted in a fluorescent orange color and composed into a huge wall-installation. Visually, the work is linked to the traditions of Op Art and Minimalism. In terms of content, the vast number of plastic cups points to the problem of consumerism, since the cups seem to invite the beholder to use them once and then throw them away. The installation critically explores the process in which virtually every aspect of life is commodified.

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STUDENTS' PROJECTS PÉCS

Annamária Csikász

Gergő Horváth

Dorottya Kanics

László Ormay

Zsófia Tóth

Szilvia Villányi

Annamária Csikász

"Just a piece of paper"

What is the money we use in our everyday life? Something that the “market” decided to use for simplifying economical exchanges. It is a global system so well made that we just cannot live without it. It is based on mutual trust, nothing else. But what is the real value of money? If we think about it, money only symbolizes value, but doesn't contain it. If one day the market collapses, you won’t be able to use it for anything. The paper itself doesn't give you the things you need for living. Here I attempt to show how money could be used in the most effective way. This is how money can keep people warm.

"Message"

This small, one-day project is about bureaucracy. We all receive and post tons of official letters. Each letter is the same, only the personal data changes. After we read it, we just throw it out. We all have to pay taxes and we are all a part of the global system. I found some of these used letters, cut out the personal information, put them in envelops, and left them at random places in the city. This act is similar to someone throwing a bottle with a message into the sea. Sometimes we just don't understand the message.

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Gergő Horváth

"Fifty –Fifty"

When my brother, Bálint Horváth, was six years old in 1995, he believed that if he cut a 50 HUF banknote, he could exponentially increase the amount of money. But he soon realized that this was, in fact, not the case. This story was the model of my work. I wanted to show the old value and then the enormous inflation of the banknote with colourful children’s drawings, texts and quotations. Plus I collected some banknotes with different variations in the national coat of arms, professional editions, gold and silver models.

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Dorottya Kanics

"Extra virgin horse race"

The Hungarian horse race course was established by Count István Széchenyi in 1827. From this point on, English thoroughbreds were also bread in Hungary. For the sake of perfecting the genes and the bloodline, a professional and precise breeding program was put into effect.

My parents managed such a state-owned horse breeding establishment for thirty years, prior, during, and after the regime change. This was where I grew up. They regularly bought horses at auctions in England to improve the Hungarian stock. When I was child, I spent every Sunday on the race track of Budapest, which made for an exciting, eventful time of my life. I took care of the horses, transporting and saddling them, cheering on the course, participating in award ceremonies, and taking photos. If you knew the origin and capacity of the horses, you knew which ones would make the first three places.

But after the change of the political system, corruption made its way into the races as well. The jockeys were paid off, the horses were given steroids; the races were decided before they even started. This phenomenon, along with the privatisation of the race tracks, destroyed the moral of the races. As a consequence, the number of players declined, and horse racing is now in shambles. In place of the trotting course, a shopping centre has been built. Galloping and trotting races have been centralised and now take place on the galloping course of Kerepesi út. The course was renovated: new bleachers were built in front of

the old ones. All this, however, hasn’t changed the fact of the corruption.

My answer to this situation as an artist is a race without jockeys, where the horses on the course reach the finish line by following a streak of oats. The line of oats could be modelled after the pedigree tree of Kincsem, the Hungarian mare (who won all 54 races she participated in).

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László Ormay

"The best artist..."

The works of dead artists are worth much more, not only because they will more certainly comprise part of the oeuvre and universal art history, but also because dead artists are certain to never produce any new works.And a limited stock makes for higher prices.

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Zsófia Tóth

"Money laundering"

The work consists of six pieces of soap. The technique is very simple. I printed all the Hungarian banknotes in a small size. I placed the printed notes on the wet pieces of soap, and left them there for a few minutes. For the graphics on the notes to be visible on the soap, I had to use a special kind of ink that dissolves in water.Through this work, I would like to not only reflect on the issue of money laundering, but also make a reference to the Hungarian expression “I wash my hands of this,” which means one assumes no responsibility.

„PIN code“

First, I took a photo of me and my credit card and printed many copies of it. Then, I stuck each poster on a bank machine. These papers look like “wanted” posters. The bottom of the page contains my PIN code. So I am exposed and defenceless. People can identify my face and link it with my code. Even if others possess this confidential piece of information, this knowledge is useless without a piece of public information to go with it (my bank account number). The numbers that make up the code are important too, however, as 1989 was not only the year of my birth, but also the year when our political system changed.

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Szilvia Villányi

"Patron tour"

When I was preparing for this exercise I had to ask myself some questions: What do I know about economy? Why is it important to me to deal with it? What concrete effects does economy have on me as an art student? Thinking about these questions I quickly arrived at a conclusion: we, art students, are not rich... Even if we work hard, it's likely that we can only make ends meet after we finish university. We need assistance from people. Whether we get it or not, and how much we get is mostly a question of luck. So using this as a starting point, I decided to go to the street with my hat and find some patrons for the art students of our University.

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Csaba Nemes The Discrete Charm of Money

I finished my studies in art in the year of the regime change. In those years, I already had the idea that the visual manifestations of social changes are a lot more interesting than reactions to formal questions in art.

The new capitalism of the 90s brought many new things to Hungary, and, of course, the art structure was not left untouched by these developments either. Everyone enthusiastically welcomed the appearance of market mechanisms, as we were expecting it to bring more flexibility and humanism to institutional system of art. The initial keenness, however, was soon met with disillusioning experiences, which made us more resigned for the years to come.

“The Discrete Charm of Money” project (1991-1994) is about these experiences. My colleague Zsolt Veress and me came across a billboard advertisement for a bank. The image reminded both of us of a scene from Bunuel’s film The Discrete Charm of Bourgeoisie. As the buzzword for financing art back then was “sponsorship,” we instantly turned to the bank in question for support towards an exhibition. They promptly rejected our request. We did not despair, however, and sought out other possible sources for support. In the end, we received a smaller sum from the local government, which was more than far from the costs we originally planned on. At that point, Zsolt and me decided that our exhibition was going to address the nature of money itself, while, at the

same time, not losing sight of the “original motif.” We deposited the sum we received in a bank account at the aforementioned bank to earn some interest. (This was a subtle and naive act of revenge on our part in response to their refusal to support us.) After a few months – while our money was bringing in the interest – we put together the first exhibition, where we presented the accumulated interest in the form of a work of art, as well as the path of the money, and our proposal outlining how we wished to use the (still existing) sum we originally deposited. After a lengthy brainstorming session, we came to the conclusion that it would be best to invest our money in a road that was just in the process of being built, as the billboard also showed a motorway (which was, in fact, a montage, as the two approaching figures were “levitating” above the road). The then half-finished M0 motorway seemed the most suited for this purpose (a road to nowhere; metaphorically exactly like the famous repeating image sequence in the Bunuel film, where the main characters aimlessly wander on the abandoned highway). The exhibition featured drafts, storyboards, poster details, invoices and our earned interest “cast in asphalt.” We planned to invite the two men from the billboard (one of whom, as we came to find out, was a model, while the other was a bank employee) to “plant their feet” on a real road: the small section of the motorway built with our money (as it turned out, our contribution was only enough to cover 20 cm of the road).

Everything seemed to be going on track, until we found out that our investment in the M0 could not be a completely innocent, independent act. Hungarian Asphalt, the company

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contracted for the construction of the motorway communicated our project as an excellent example for a gesture of ideological support for the construction, not incidentally, in opposition to green organisations. This made us uncertain about what we were doing and we pulled out. Our second exhibition was, thus, about our doubts. Taking a somewhat complicated metaphor as a starting point, we built a tile stove in the exhibition space, making it appear as if it had “danced” away from the chimney opening. The original motif of the road was also represented in the space in the form of a painted road shoulder. (There is an old Hungarian saying: if you don’t know how to continue, “start from the stove.” In times past, the heater was the only identifiable reference object in the empty spaces of dance halls – a kind of point zero in the geometrical sense.) We were not present at the opening. We went to the M0 motorway and vowed not to return until we decided on what we wanted to do with our investment. The desolate landscape and the solitude of the artificial surroundings worked its magic, inspiring us to arrive at the best possible answer: we must buy artwork!

This seemed the ideal solution in all respects. The money would keep its value – it would, in fact, increase! Moreover, we were not only to become the owners of a work of art, our action could also help an artist in a similar bind. After a lengthy deliberation, we made our decision: we would buy one of Zoltán Ádám’s pieces (“Turn your head 90 degrees,” 1996, mixed technique, wood, 40x17 cm).

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Mladen Miljanović Secret Capital from the Perspective of the City of Banja Luka

Intermedia Arts is a course which explores artistic and theoretical areas of new media that go outside the usual artistic and academic disciplines. While working towards their bachelor’s degree, students research the latest artistic and theoretical practices combining studies from different media disciplines.

The content of the Intermedia Arts course is directed toward the students gaining the skills necessary for the development and realization of art projects based on the combination of different art and theoretical disciplines into a new artistic and theoretical whole.

Between 2004 and 2011, several generations of students graduated from the University of Banja Luka. During this time, they all completed various works and projects as part of their practical education. Some of these students went abroad to continue their postgraduate education through different courses in intermedia arts, mostly due to the lack of an Intermedia Arts program at our own University or any other courses in this particular area (video, performance art…).

During the summer semester of the 2010/11 school year, students researched the intersection of art and economy and completed various works on this topic as part of their studies for the Intermedia Arts course. The selection of the five most accomplished works was followed by a successful

presentation of these in Pécs (Hungary). This exhibition was realized in cooperation with Karin Rolle, a curator from the Robert Bosch Foundation and Protok Center for Visual Communication.

The students also got the chance to explain their creative processes verbally and put their works into a context, not merely showcase them. This example serves to show that the Intermedia Arts course prioritizes the practical involvement of students and their works into both the art system and today’s culture. This involvement clearly implies the theoretical and the art research of the latest art, media and sociological aspects of an art piece and an art performance.

The students who participated in the project have been: Vladimir Klepić, Ninoslav Kovačević, Ljubiša Pušac, Draško Bošnjak and Jovan Radulović.

This project presents an excellent way for students who are still working on their degree to gradually get involved in presenting themselves at a regional and international level, to question and develop their art and in this way work on the development and the increase of cultural capital in the area from which they are from.

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Authors / Organizers / Bios

Dr. Alexandra Manske, is a sociologist and political scientist, and has been a staff member of the faculty of political science at the TU Berlin until October 2008. Since April 2009 until now, she is working at the Humboldt-Universität Berlin, where she is head of and conducting a research project on working conditions in the advertising industry, funded by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF). She specializes in dynamics in the working society and its inequality configurations, urban creative milieus, labour market and social policy, and gender research.

Mladen Miljanović, born 1981 in Zenica, is an artist and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he earned both his BA and MA in painting. Since 2005, he has realized numerous exhibitions and received important awards. His major solo shows include "Taxi to Berlin", Antje Wachs Gallery, Berlin (2011), "Museum Service", MUMOK, Vienna (2010) and "Sarajevo Service", National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, (2010). His work was honoured with the prestigious Henkel Art.Award in 2009, and in 2007 he received the Zvono Award for being the best young emerging artist in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The latter award supported his stay as artist-in-residence at ISCP, New York (2008). His works can be found in the following collections, among others: State Department Collection, Washington (USA), APT Artist Pension Trust (Dubai), Antje Wachs Gallery, Berlin (Germany). In 2011, Mladen Miljanović took part in the project “Secret Capital. The Intersections of Art and Economy,” both as panelist and seminar lecturer.

Katja Melzer, born in 1982, studied art history, business and cultural studies at the Humboldt-Universität Berlin (Master of Arts) and the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest (Department of Art History and Aesthetics). Since 2010, she has been working as a Robert Bosch Cultural Manager at the Lenau Haus in Pécs, Hungary. Together with Karin Rolle, she initiated and managed the project “Secret Capital.” (www.kulturmanager.net)

Csaba Nemes concluded his undergraduate studies in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, Hungary in 1989. He completed his doctorate at the same institution in 2010, focusing on the political context of Hungarian contemporary art. He has shown his work internationally in group and solo exhibitions, including “History in Art” (MOCAK, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Krakow, 2011), "Let's Talk About Nationalism! Between Ideology and Identity" (Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia 2010), and “Everyday 1956” (Knoll Galerie, Vienna, Austria, 2009). In the 90s, Nemes’ visual works focused on the social, political and economical changes in Hungary. During this period, he was interested in postconceptualism. Later, he returned to painting. His latest artworks are based on the everyday political movements and social crises of society. As of 2010, he has completed several works on the social status of the Romani people, and the increase of racism in contemporary Hungarian society. His most recent works draw on various media, including painting, drawing, photography, film, video and animation. He teaches and lectures at the Art Faculty of PTE – University of Pécs, Hungary. Csaba Nemes lives and works in Budapest. (www.remake.hu, www.knollgalerie.at)

Authors / Organizers / Bios

Karin Rolle, born 1981, studied Cultural Sciences at the University of Leipzig, the University of California, Davis (USA) and Charles University in Prague (Master of Arts), and continued further education in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. As a fellow of the Robert Bosch Stiftung, between 2009 and 2011, she directed numerous cultural and educational projects in Central and South-East Europe. In 2011, she conceived and headed – together with Katja Melzer – the project “Secret Capital. The Intersections of Art and Economy.” (www.kulturmanager.net)

Henrik Schrat studied Painting and Stage Design in Dresden, Germany, and completed a Master in Fine Art Media at the Slade School in London in 2002. In 2011, he finished his doctorate at the Business School of the University of Essex, Department of Management. His work is shown internationally in group and solo shows, including "Eat the Food" (MOCCA, Toronto, 2007) and "Global Players" (Tokio, 2005). Schrat’s visual work has focused on site-specific narrative murals and drawing work with comics as a multi-use-format. His latest narrative visuals have extended to wood inlay work, confronting the slow traditional technique with the style of comics and contemporary content. He teaches and lectures on the topic of Art and Business, has curated the project "Product & Vision" (Berlin, 2005, Kunstfabrik am Flutgraben) and edited the reader “Sophisticated Survival Techniques - Strategies in Art and Economy.” Schrat lives and works in Berlin. (www.henrikschrat.de)

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Imprint

This documentation was published in the frame of the project:

Secret Capital. The Intersections of Art and Economy

April – May 2011, taking place in Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Pécs (Hungary).

Editors: Katja Melzer, Karin RolleFellows of the program "Robert Bosch Cultural Managers in Central and EasternEurope" (www.kulturmanager.net)

Graphic Design: Bálint Rádóczy (www.playdog.hu)

Proof and Translation (Hungarian – English): Zsófia Rudnay

Print: Molnár Nyomda és Kiadó Kft. Pécs, Hungary

Edition: 150 copies

We would like to thank all contributors for their commitment.

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