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Beneath the glamorous surface of the art world—the openings and dinner parties, the record-breaking auction prices, the media attention—lies a reality that is precarious, complex, and very often existential: only a tiny minority of artists support themselves with their work and fewer still manage to do so throughout their lives. This book tells those other stories, for example of artistic practices grounded in performance, research, and political activism. These practices are not necessarily oriented towards producing marketable objects. Thousands of artists around the world, at all latitudes, struggle every day under precarious work conditions, in the absence of shared rules, and with a debilitating sense of insecurity caused not only by the threat of global pandemics but also by war and political oppression, resurgent nuclear threat, competition for dwindling resources, and perhaps most pressing of all, the climate crisis.

The economic challenge of supporting oneself as an artist immediately turns into an ethical one.

— Andrea Bellini

Produced by the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, this collection of essays was conceived as a critical attempt to rethink and improve the relationship between artists and art institutions, cultivate awareness of other people’s vulnerabilities, and courageously embrace one’s own responsibilities.

Texts by: Alexandra Bachzetsis, Andrea Bellini, Frances Chiaverini ╾ Robyn Doty, Luce deLire, Dr Lucy Fair, Will Fredo, Mona Gamil, Oélia Gouret, Adham Hafez, Sofia Kouloukouri, Adam Kucharski, Göksu Kunak, Isabel Lewis, Soraya Lutangu Bonaventure, Reba Maybury, Michelangelo Miccolis, Ahmet Öğüt, Perel, Domenico Quaranta, Tino Sehgal, Lise Soskolne, Annie Sprinkle and Tirdad Zolghadr.

Image: © NERO, VL9 Photography