Magdeburg
Exhibition fee. In this society, we should not have to ask whether, but why not.
(Norbert Pohlmann, Managing Director of forum gestaltung e.V., Magdeburg)
Since when have you been paying an exhibition fee?
Since the founding of the Kunstverein in 2005, we have regarded remuneration, insofar as it is not only meant in the direct monetary sense, as an important component of corresponding financing plans.
Do you / your company pay this exhibition fee from your own budget or from public or private funds, from subsidies?
From all this. As a non-institutionally funded association, we have to raise every euro we want to spend in advance.
What form does your exhibition remuneration take?
There are many different forms of cooperation. As I said, this is not just about monetary relationships. Our exhibitions are usually curated. We take care of transportation, assembly and dismantling and the design of the exhibition, if desired, without any input from the artists. The exhibitions are accompanied by publications, sometimes very extensive catalogs, of which the artists receive a large number of free copies…
Do you follow a certain pattern or is it always renegotiated or adapted?
It is different. There are also cases of direct remuneration. There are plans for “artists in residence”, a scholarship award with a stay at forum gestaltung. We are in the process of coordinating this with the city and state. Nevertheless, I see a “state-imposed” exhibition fee as problematic because it makes it difficult to work flexibly. In my opinion, exhibitors, museums, galleries and artists are also quite capable of acting responsibly and in accordance with the reality of life. This includes making joint demands on politicians and the administration. The entire debate on exhibition remuneration must also be accompanied by a discourse on the valuation of creative work in society as a whole.
Magdeburg, November 2021
Thank you!
Thanks to Norbert Pohlmann, Managing Director of forum gestaltung e.V. for the statement and the detailed interview! Further information: https://www.forum-gestaltung.de, address: forum gestaltung e.V., Brandenburger Str. 10, 39104 Magdeburg.
Thanks to Matthias Behne (lautwieleise.de) for the photos and the design!