Amateurism (2008-2012)

The amateurism project started based on field research from 40 interviews that I conducted in Korea in 2009. The project aimed at examining a distinctive shift in the notion of who and what is an “amateur” in the field of modern cultural production. Since 2008, using methods of field work, artistic practices and teaching, I have been thinking about the existing ambiguities around the notion of amateur and trying to understand its function in the new realities of the 21st century. Former boundaries between “professional” and “amateurish” were no longer easily to be pinned down, due to the e/affects of neo-liberal economy, the emergence of new forms of labour, the wide adoption of digital mobile networks and alternative forms of modernity in a set of new historical perspectives. The result were two large exhibitions, consisting of fifteen international artists with the companied programs: one was called Labour of Love, Revisited, at Arko Art Museum, Seoul, Korea (2011), another Amateurism!, at Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany (2012). As an extension of the concept, my paper on amateurism is included in the publication Dumb-Type Reader (2017), collecting fifteen contributions from the field of performance studies.