art-e-conomy _ reader - marko stamenkovic

FOREWORD
This publication is a theoretical reader focused on concepts, themes and issues
related to the intersection between contemporary art and economics in the processes
of globalization today. It brings together contributions by an international group of
theorists, critics, analysts, researchers, experts in various fields, ranging from art
theory, cultural studies, contemporary economics, business, public policy, organizational
studies, social and political sciences, philosophy, and art management.
The principal character of the publication is educational. The goal is to open up
a new productive space for artistic and cultural analysis related to the economic
transformation in the post-socialist societies, to foster the theoretical and methodological
re-thinking of the subject at hand, as well as to engage the local students (and broader
international readership, too) with various current theoretical viewpoints dealing with
the intersection between contemporary visual arts and economics.
The publication principally attempts to provide a firm theoretical framework for
the subject concerned, and is related to the main mission of the project: to fulfill the
problematic gap concerning the theoretical and practical analyses of artistic and
economic production in the contemporary global world. It focuses on the fundamental
lack of a specific and articulated discourse related to the intersection between art
and economy, and aims at introducing, re-thinking, re-articulating and opening up
possibilities for new methodologies and discourses to the cultural and political
space of South East Europe and beyond. In order to stimulate an interdisciplinary,
multi-leveled and trans-national access, the project fosters the need to encourage a
broad range of approaches, from social and economic sciences and humanities to
law and public policy, as well as a diverse set of topics to be explored in accordance
with the artistic and cultural scope of the idea.
Starting mainly from the standpoint of professional institutionalized work
relationships, but also from constant changes of global artistic, political and
institutional concepts, new roles have been attributed to old professions, thus
conceiving new critical positions out of which the experts are about to launch their
effective ideas. Here I primarily think of curators, and curators as different from the
easily confusing term of custodians (whose professional orientation is supposed to
be more connected to the aspects of museology). My contribution is related to the
phenomenon of contemporary curatorial practice, under which I imply the strategies
of action and (alternative) political engagement in the broad cultural field. The point
of departure is a possibility of identifying curators of contemporary art as new political
subjects, where the political legitimating (in Fredric Jameson’s terms) comes from
the fundamental level on which political struggle is waged, (i.e.) the struggle over
the legitimacy of concepts and ideologies. To be identified as a “political subject”
here precisely implies the professional configuration of a contemporary art curator
7