The con­cept of the resi­d­en­cy pro­ject revol­ves around the question(s): How can the cre­a­ti­ve entre­pre­neur sur­vi­ve in a world of exces­si­ve com­pe­ti­ti­on and under­paid labour? How does busi­ness ethics (neo­li­be­ral ethics in par­ti­cu­lar) rela­te to the figu­re of the artist/​designer? How does this chan­ge her habits or goals? How do artists res­pond to the­se challenges?

The exhi­bi­ti­on pro­ject ​“My Goals Are Bigger Than Yours” wants to ana­ly­se the con­se­quen­ces of neo­li­be­ral poli­cies on the indi­vi­du­als, and espe­ci­al­ly on the so-cal­l­ed ​“cre­a­ti­ves”, mea­ning the broad ran­ge of (most­ly) free­lan­ce wor­kers ope­ra­ting in the fields of art and design. While the com­pe­ti­ti­on in the art field beco­mes more and more fier­ce, with incre­a­sin­gly scar­ce resour­ces for the pro­du­cers, the ​“cre­a­ti­ves” find them­sel­ves in pre­ca­rious soci­al and eco­no­mic con­di­ti­ons. We, as artists and desig­ners, spend thou­sand of euros on our edu­ca­ti­on and pro­fes­si­o­nal devel­op­ment, stu­dy com­plex the­o­re­ti­cal issues and try to be enga­ged in ​“artis­tic research” — among other things — but at the same time our pre­ca­ri­ty see­ms more often than not to be brac­ke­ted and set asi­de — even though the con­di­ti­ons of our pro­duc­ti­on pret­ty much sha­pe our artis­tic Products.

“My Goals Are Bigger Than Yours” is a sur­vey of the­se con­di­ti­ons, whe­rein the artists appro­ach the afo­re­men­ti­o­ned issues from dif­fe­rent media and dif­fe­rent per­spec­ti­ves: humo­rous, iro­nic, serious, com­mit­ted, gro­tesque, frag­men­ta­ry and con­den­sed. The ques­ti­on then is: will you hire us?

Participating artists

Davide Ghelli Santuliana is a mul­ti­me­dia artist and researcher based in Amsterdam (NL). His prac­ti­ce spans across dif­fe­rent media, from moving-ima­ges, to text, to sound design. In his research he is most­ly inte­rested in ana­ly­zing the effects of semio­ca­pi­ta­lism on the indi­vi­du­als, in its soci­al, eco­no­mic and poli­ti­cal effects, but also the inter­sec­ti­on bet­ween semio­ca­pi­ta­lism and artis­tic pro­duc­ti­on. For this rea­son, he often employs dif­fe­rent approp­ri­a­ti­on stra­te­gies — from a direct remix of found ima­ges, to cita­ti­on and re-enac­te­ment of exis­ting motives. 

Valentino Russo is inte­rested in the reu­se and re-con­tex­tu­a­li­za­ti­on of ima­ges from onli­ne
sour­ces — some­ti­mes mixed with ori­gi­nal mate­ri­al. This pro­cess mir­rors the end­less recy­cle of cul­tu­re that takes pla­ce in our soci­al-media based soci­e­ty, a lands­ca­pe charac­te­ri­zed by the impos­si­bi­li­ty to dis­tin­guish bet­ween real and fake, true and fal­se, right and wrong.

Cathleen Owens is an artist and com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons con­sul­tant cur­rent­ly based in The Hague, NL. Her work, which usu­al­ly takes the form of per­for­ma­ti­ve instal­la­ti­ons, plays with the inter­sec­ti­on of self-pre­sen­ta­ti­on, per­so­nal bran­ding, and iden­ti­ty in an age whe­re we’re all living our best sel­ves onli­ne. Owens also ser­ves as co-foun­der and CEO of life­sty­le com­pa­ny Your Untapped Potential.

Arthur Cordier​’s prac­ti­ce tac­kles the aes­the­tics of bureau­cra­cy, entre­pre­neur­ship, and effi­ci­en­cy through rela­ti­o­nal, situ­a­ti­o­nal and con­tex­tu­al­ly spe­ci­fic works, often self-reflec­ting upon artis­tic prac­ti­ce and the entang­led eco­no­mies of art in a pro­duc­ti­on-dri­ven society.

Carmen Dusmet Carrasco is a video artist and grap­hic desig­ner based in The Hague. Beginning from per­so­nal expe­rien­ces, her prac­ti­ce focu­ses on how socio-eco­no­mic struc­tu­res affect indi­vi­du­al and col­lec­ti­ve iden­ti­ties. She under­stands her work as a con­tem­pla­ting lens of an uncer­tain futu­re; a tool to spe­cu­la­te and reflect on the unpre­dic­ta­bi­li­ty of labour, sur­vi­val, gro­wing up, ageing, chan­ge, and hope. Her work mani­fests through moving-ima­ge, text, and sound, gener­al­ly fol­lo­wing a col­la­bo­ra­ti­ve appro­ach. Her research is com­pli­men­ted by her grap­hic design prac­ti­ce, tea­ching, work­shops and co-run­ning Home Cinema, an onli­ne video broad­cast plat­form scree­ning and archi­ving moving ima­ge works by young and emer­ging artists that ans­wers to the ques­ti­on: what can we see together when we can­not see each other? Home Cinema is peri­o­di­cally acti­va­ted through col­la­bo­ra­ti­ons and open calls.