Cancelled // BLOK: Political School for Artists & Platform for Working Conditions in Culture

[BLOK] is a curatorial collective which operates at the intersection of art, urban research and political activism. Their projects are designed and realised as platforms for collective work of artists, curators, researchers, political activists and anyone interested in the politics of space, production of commons, democratisation of culture and reflection of artistic practices from the perspective of their social and production conditions. Operating continuously since 2001 [BLOK] has designed and produced projects in public space, lectures, exhibitions, long-term research projects, publications, and has also taken part in public debate on the neoliberal transformation of public space and institutions, as well as the struggle for their democratisation. Since 2016, the collective has been running BAZA (eng. base), a venue for the production of contemporary art, education and activism.

Political School for Artists is an educational program developed by BLOK and most aimed at artists and cultural workers, but open to all interested in its content. It was started in 2016 and has continued thereafter on yearly basis. Program offers a basic knowledge and insights in the systemic critique of capitalism, in the history of its socialist alternative and a background for its rethinking nowadays, both with special emphasis on position and role of art and culture in it.

Platform for Working Conditions in Culture gathers 5 cultural NGOs from Zagreb that operate in different disciplines (BLOK, CDU, Atelieri Žitnjak, OOUR and Skribonauti) in a collective engagement to improve working conditions in the field of culture and analysis of cultural policies that affect them. The platform was developed from the initiative „Enough with the Cuts!“ that gathered wide number of artists and cultural workers in 2019 and raised the question of the devastation of publicly financed culture and poor working conditions in the field. The platform will advocate for preserving publicly funded culture and empowering cultural workers and artists for organizing together.