Discourses of Work in the Field of Art Since 1990: Perspectives on Fordism in Contemporary Art (working title)

Since the nineteen-nineties, there has been increasing interest in the field of art in the topic of “work,” which can be seen in the high number of exhibitions or journal issues devoted to it. These engagements with the topic of work have given special attention to approaches that emphasize the convergence of art and work or the exemplary function of the artist for workers in Post-Fordism. Given this fact, the question arises of how the field of art—thus situated in the heart of Post-Fordism—looks at Fordism. My dissertation takes up exactly this question. As a first step, I will conduct a discourse analysis of the exhibition catalogs and thematic journal issues named above. Do they view Fordism as something that has passed, against the background of which the new, ostensibly central role of art in Post-Fordism can be articulated? Or do they view Fordism as something that continues into the present, and which is closely bound up with Post-Fordism? In a second step, I then ask to what extent and in what way these discourses of work are reflected in individual works of art from the same period of time.

Please note that these listings appear in the language they were originally published.

From 2003–2011, study of art history and Hungarian studies at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; 2010, DAAD short-term scholarship to support the completion of a final thesis (research stay in Budapest); 2013–2015, Elsa-Neumann Scholarship from the State of Berlin.

„Die Fabrik in Museum. Perspektiven auf den Fordismus im Kunstfeld seit 1990“, in: kritische berichte, Jg. 43, H. 3, 2015, S. 31–42.

06.2014 „Die Grenzen der Entgrenzung. Die Überschätzung der Kunst als bestimmendes Modell der Arbeit“, „Ästhetische Praxis: Selbstentgrenzung der Künste oder Entkunstung der Kunst?“ Tagung des AK Soziologie der Künste in der Sektion Kultursoziologie der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie, Universität Hildesheim

03.2014 „Fordism through the Lens of Relational Aesthetics“, Symposium: „Art Work: Art’s Productive Economies“, University of Toronto

10.2013 „Die Fabrik im Museum“, Konferenz: „Marginalität in der zeitgenössischen Kunst“, Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin

WS 2012/13 „‚Politische Kunst‘ von der Avantgarde bis heute“ (gemeinsam mit Ulrike Jordan), Institut für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte, HU Berlin

i.szanto_ @udk-berlin.de