When I was still in Spain, before I started studying design
in Germany –which I changed for visual arts after the third year of study– I
was studying and dancing flamenco. During my study in Germany, shortly in Italy
and then in the Netherlands, I continued dancing flamenco and, at the same
time, developed a practice teaching it, the final years mostly earning my
living from giving flamenco classes, workshops and performances. In the year
2000, I think it was, I gave the last workshops, and that was in Iceland. In
Germany and Netherlands, I also worked with various groups of musicians and,
together, we gave performances in all sorts of contexts, from respected podiums
down to the local pizzeria. I also worked as illustrator for various commissions,
taught Spanish in a language school and designed scenery for dance and theater.
Ólafur had been working a.o
as a performer and mainly as set designer for stage and street-theater before
entering the master. The first year and a half after graduating from the MFA
program he worked for IKEA, as part of the "all-round-group" since he
couldn´t imagine being stuck in one of their departments all the time, he also
coached for two seasons a women/lesbian, football club - Diva 88. Later on
he worked in an alternative culture centre/café/bookshop and installing shows
in museums.
About 3 years after Ólafur and myself graduated
together, we had started living directly from our work as artists, having been
able to develop and manifest more our practice and expand our network. From
2003 onwards, we began to give workshops in academies and master programmes,
and were exhibiting in and outside Europe. Those projects and exhibitions were
financed from out of different places/countries by art and cultural institutions,
art residencies, grants, and universities, while some were financed by
ourselves and/or other artists, and in some others
was hardly any money involved and everything was done for no money. The
Netherlands where we are based has a good and professional public funding infrastructure for supporting contemporary
art projects and artists, especially when they are starting their carriers. In
2004, we also joined Het Wilde Weten, in Rotterdam, an artist-run studio
building, with an artist-in-residence programme, project space and a busy
schedule of public events, providing space for other
artists and thinkers in which to present their work and/or stay in residency
for a working period. HWW had been founded in 1992, but was re-inventing
itself at the time we joined. We became active
in programming and running the foundation and its activities, until our
departure last year (2009). None of the HWW
members received payment for running the place and program.
Between 2005 and 2008, we worked with a gallery in Amsterdam. In 2008, we
started working with a Spanish gallery and in 2009 with two other galleries,
one German and the other Italian. In 2006, we went through a difficult economic
period and again we had to take up work aside
to help our practice going. Since overcoming that
period we have been managing to make a living from our art practice –
art project productions, exhibition fees, grants, prices, sales, teachings and
lecturing and publications. All these different aspects have contributed to our
sustainability and to our art practice as a whole, some giving small returns or
nothing, while others are more profitable. There are different types of
exchange possible, all contributing to our sustainability and our art practice
as a whole. From the outset, because of the type of artistic work that we do, and our ideas concerning art and economy, it has been important for us to work on creating a
network of economic support based on not one, but different resources.
21.04.2010
