Caveat is a collective research project reflecting and acting on the ecology of artistic practice. Convened in 2017 by the Brussels-based artists’ initiative Jubilee, the project title alludes to the legal principle caveat emptor (buyer beware) – signaling the research's ambition to raise awareness and co-create alternatives.
As such Caveat is a wake-up call to artists and art workers, as well as art institutions and producers to collectively re-think and respond to the nature of their work relationships. Not only to their socio-economical and legal context, but also to their cultural positions in a broad sense.
Caveat is artistic research with a focus on contracts as a tool for formalizing relations. The project attributes a central role to a large number of artists who are invited to do in-depth research through their art practices into the socio-economic and legal conditions of these practices.
It is important to mention that Caveat considers commons as social relations. 'Commoning,' the verb, underscores not the material wealth shared, but the sharing itself and the solidarity bonds produced in the process. Practices of commoning are not only about ideas of sharing, but will mostly focus on processes of negotiation. In this way the research into contracts that we developed in the first phase of the project, leading to a preference for relational rather than transactional contracts, is extended and can be opened up to a wider community.
On invitation of the LSTS, Caveat will present the specific research projects of two artist duo's engaged in the project, Patrick Bernier & Olive Martin and Vermeir & Heiremans. Allowing for the participants to get an insight in artist trajectories as backbone of the research project and opening a discussion on how Caveat project links to the ongoing exploration of the topic 'commons and the law'.
For more information on the L(S)STS meetings see here.