Dana Kopel & █████████ █████

I think why the hell not invite both! If the budget is there for 4 writers, that will only enrich the publication. I also like the idea of this book acting not only as a reflection upon The Employee but also as a document of thinking around labour and culture right now. 

Its gonna be a beast of a book, though! We will have to strategise with Farah about how to contain the volume of material within a book that can still be distributed.

Regarding Dana Kopel: since we spoke last I have been reading through the texts on her website and not finding the right thing to share with you. Mostly she seems to write on very contemporary artists (which, actually, I think is a plus in terms of how she would engage with your work), or about labour, but there is nothing deeply art historical (this piece demonstrates that she can work with research, though).

I suspect that focuses of Dana’s writing is due to the limited scope of opportunities she has been provided, and that if she was given a clear brief on how to engage with this work she would come to us with something exciting. I would be interested to ask her to address The Employee through the lens of her labour and organising work, but with a focus on it as an artwork - thinking through art historical precedence and similar trends in contemporary practices. 

Dear Lauren,

Fabulous. I think they will balance each other well, and provide other perspectives not covered by Mariane and Marina.

Reading the text you sent me from Dana, I have to say that I am bowled over by how clear and direct her writing voice is. It would be incredible to see how she would approach the project. I agree that it is important for her to write about the project as an artwork, but I think that from what I have seen of her writing, she generally centres her own experience, and given that, I am especially curious how she thinks about the situation of FCG and the project’s relation to it. Unlike the labour abuses perpetrated by large institutions in the US, FCG is small, artist-run, and the exploitation is of a different nature than the explicit inequities between museum directors and staff. At FCG, as Marina points out, we have a dynamic between an infrastructure (arts funding bodies) and individual creative workers, so it is more difficult to identify exploiter versus exploitee. In this case, the issue is to make visible the experience of the worker in an artisti-run centre as a worker, when there is no boss who is profiting from that underpaid work. So that is my question for Dana…

I would like █████████ to set the project within a history of of artworks of institutional critique, such as Michael Asher, Ben Kinmont, Maria Eichhorn, Christopher d’Arcangelo, etc. I think that the main question for █████████ should be to write an art historical genealogy for the project. Is there anything you would like to add to this?

On more practical matters, I think it would make sense if you could extend an invitation to Dana, while I will contact █████████, so your proposal here would be most welcome. When do you think makes sense to ask for a first draft?

Other notes, given the increase in the size of the book, I think it would be appropriate to offer you more money. Is $4,000 acceptable? Also, would it be helpful if I were to pay you in two installments? Half sooner and half later? I just don’t want to overlook how invaluable your work is to this project.

Finally, regarding the size of the publication. I am also worried about that. We should definitely take advantage of Farah’s expertise for this, but moreover, I want to consider making this into two rather than one publication. One would be the texts about the project, while the second would contain the project archive. I think that we could plan to print more copies of the first than the second. What do you think about this? I am still inspired by the publications of Maria Eichhorn, that are massive, but I do think that it could still be better to balance it out this way.

Lastly, I think that Marina’s response sounds a bit like good news, in that she might revisit the essay or be more available after July 4. I hope so!

Finally, thank god it rained today, because this weekend was unbearably hot, especially knowing that it is only the beginning of summer. Ugh, I hate the heat!!

Warmly!

x

On Mon 20. Jun 2022 at 14:36, Lauren Wetmore <> wrote:

sorry for three paragraphs each headed by either "finally" or "lastly" haha, I just keep going!!

Replies below.

xL

Other than that, I think it would be a good idea to meet this week to prepare for next week’s meeting with Jonathan and Teresa. When would you have time?

Schwitzing here,

x

Its a cold rainy day here - almost makes me miss that one hot day we had. 

Well done on that email to █████████. I will send the invite to Dana shortly.

Thursday would be a good day to meet for me. Is there a time that could work for you?

And finally, I’ve attached my invoice - merci!

L x

dear Lauren, 

Thursday at 1:30 is perfect. 

Looking forward,

Lauren