Participating artists:With Ann Richter, Vivien Sorrentino, Handina Murandu and Aditi Singh, hosted by Mia Hofner, reading by Frederik Müller and drag performance by Lili Alexander
Venue:Deutsches Literaturinstitut Leipzig
Wächterstr. 34
04107 Leipzig
Hourly rates below the minimum wage, insecure employment and overtime – even for designers, work in the literary industry is notoriously precarious. Jobs within the literary industry often lead to little financial profit. For this reason, it is crucial to look at the cultural and symbolic capital that is gained from them and the question of who profits from this precarious, often labeled as „volunteer“ work and in what way.
Designing literary magazines is tied to a promise of class privileges, such as the idea of individual development and self-fulfillment, visibility and status. However, the precarious working conditions make the cultural sector particularly difficult to access for people who are already affected by socio-economical disadvantages, especially when several forms of discrimination coincide. Who can afford to work creatively? Who has the choice to take the risk of precarity? And whose artistic development and self-fulfillment is wanted?
Belle Room and Edit invite designers of literary magazines to a conversation about how collaborative work between designers, editors, and authors could look like, taking into account the social positioning of the individuals in order to make the literary industry, and the cultural industry in general, more accessible.
