The general shift from manufacturing to services as a source of employment has effected also the field of visual art, changing the labour market for curators. Their position in the division of labour has become closer to the one of artists, in the sense becoming much more unstable, flexible, and exploited.

This issue of On Curating brings together contributions from theorists, artists and activists concerned with the new conditions of labour under present day capitalism. Editors Zoran Erić and Stevan Vuković have gathered contributions, which include theoretical analyses around the issue of precarious labour, as well as reflections on the use value in analysing the present position of labour within institutional contexts in contemporary visual arts.

The motives for assembling these texts were to contextualize working conditions in the field of curating contemporary art and culture – to foster self-reflection for curators – and to provide a link between curatorial studies, sociological and economical studies on the real impacts of creative industries.

With texts by Andrew Ross, Anthony Davies, Adrienne Goehler, Carrotworkers’ Collective, Rosalind Gill and Andy Pratt, Freee art collective, Pascal Gielen, Marc James Léger and Angela McRobbie.