FROM MIDDLE-CLASS CONFORMITY TO CLASS SOLIDARITY: a lecture by Katja Praznik and a public forum on labor in culture
FROM MIDDLE-CLASS CONFORMITY TO CLASS SOLIDARITY: a lecture by Katja Praznik and a public forum on labor in culture
UHA/DAZ, Ban Jelačić Square 3/1
Wednesday, 29 January 6 PM
organizers: BLOK i SPID
The final public event of the program Applause Doesn't Pay the Rent begins with a lecture by Slovenian sociologist and theoretician Katja Praznik, associate professor at the Department of Media Study and the Department of Global Gender and Sexualities Studies, University at Buffalo. Her research interests include interweaving of art, labor, and social reproduction, with a particular emphasis on exploitation of artistic labor in the neoliberal cultural economy. She has actively participated in organizing of cultural workers in Slovenia, including co-founding the Independent Workers' Union in 2022. Furthermore, Praznik is doing research on working conditions and collective organizing in the field of cultural production within the post-Yugoslav context.
After the lecture, producer Romana Brajša, film worker and screenwriter Karla Crnčević, and dance artist Lana Hosni will join Katja Praznik for a public forum, moderated by screenwriter and one of co-organizers Nina Gojić. The discussion will focus on positive examples from the local context that promote fairer practices, affirm better working conditions, and encourage solidarization in the field of cultural production.
The lecture will be held in English, and the discussion in Croatian.
Katja Praznik: O Art Worker, Where Art Thine Agency? From Middle-Class Conformism to Class Solidarity in the Field of Cultural Production
The lecture will explore central issues shaping working conditions in the field of art and culture, drawing on the themes of my current book project, Why Artists Don’t Want to Get Paid? A Marxist-Feminist Viewpoint, and my participatory militant research on labor organizing, including co-founding the freelance art workers’ union Zasuk in Slovenia. I will focus on three interrelated topics: the systemic absence of discussion about labor conditions and workers’ rights in art education, the ideological internalization of self- exploitation among art workers, and the need for collective bargaining and self- regulation in the creative sector. A key focus will be the question of agency: How can art workers recognize themselves as protagonists of their struggle? The lecture will argue that middle-class conformism in art education and production, combined with the hegemony of individualism and ideology of creativity, obscures the exploitative realities of cultural labor market while preventing collective identification of artists as workers.
Drawing on feminist social reproduction analyses, I will explore how class solidarity can challenge the fragmentation of labor and provide a foundation for collective action. Finally, I will address why, despite existing legislative and regulatory frameworks in the context of EU, art workers struggle to face barriers to labor justice and discuss practical ways to overcome these challenges by reclaiming agency and fostering solidarity.
Katja Praznik is an Associate Professor in the Department of Media Study and Global Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University at Buffalo. Her research focuses on the intersection of art, labor, and social reproduction, with particular emphasis on the exploitation of artistic labor in the neoliberal cultural economy. She is the author of Art Work: Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism (University of Toronto, 2021), and the co-author of Which Side Are You On: Ideas for Reaching Fair Working Conditions in the Arts (IETM, 2023). Katja has been actively involved in organizing art workers in Slovenia, including co-founding the freelance art workers’ union Zasuk in 2022. She has also conducted extensive research on labor conditions and collective organizing within the field of cultural production in the post-Yugoslav context.
Applause Doesn't Pay the Rent is an educational program focusing on the relationship between art and work, intended for empowering young people who are entering the field of cultural work. The third edition of the program was held in November and December of 2024, and it consisted of a number of interdisciplinary workshops, discussions, and lectures held for about 20 participants; with this final event the program is being opened to a broader public.
Design by: Lana Grahek
The program is financially supported by the City Office for Education, Sport, and Youth.
