Living Labor is the telling title of a collection of essays, edited by Oslo-based curator Milena Hoegsberg. Considering the increasing subordination of life to work that coincides with the rise of a migratory, flexible, and underpaid labor force, the book offers critical responses and proposes viable and often artistic forms of refusal.

For this conversation on alternative labor strategies, Milena Hoegsberg is joined by artist Caroline Woolard and political economist Terra Lawson-Remer. Together, they discuss and evaluate various models of economic collective ownership. To what extent are cooperative models always under threat and tenuous? Are they scalable? If so, when and when not? Can models of resistance become widely applicable? When, why, and how could they have larger social effects, and what limitations or promises do they hold? Hoegsberg provides an introduction to a series of artistic projects engaging issues surrounding labor, commissioned for the exhibition Arbeidstid ("work-time"). A core question is: what is the potential of performativity in trying to imagine a future where work and the economic regime that underpin it might be resisted and reconfigured? Woolard follows with a presentation of her recent projects on compensation and cooperation that function as case studies for the discussion. Lawson-Remer acts as commentator, illuminating how cultural works sit within legal norms. 

The program is presented as part of the Vera List Center's current curatorial focus on alignment and how questions of purpose and usefulness can be linked to performance and work. It follows on the heels of two related conferences: Performing Economies, at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, and Living Labor: Marxism and Performance Studies, at New York University. Please refer to the VLC's Resource Guide and other PDFs below for further readings and a glossary by the speakers on Collective Ownership, Collaboration, the Commons, Cooperation, and Refusal. 

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