Wer ist die Kunst?

In 2004, in collaboration with Kerber Verlag, Kunstverein Hildesheim began its series of thematic readers on fundamental questions in contemporary art with Wo ist die Kunst? Zur Geographie von Schnittstellen (Where is art? The geography of interfaces). The series continued with the second reader Wann ist die Kunst? Prozess, Moment, Gültigkeit (When is art? Process, moment, validity), and now the third volume asks the question Wer ist die Kunst? Funktion und Selbstverständnis (Who is art? Function and self-image). This reader focuses on people; on the visible and necessary human resources of the art system. What roles will it play; and on what levels does (inter-)action or even manipulation take place? Who makes use of power and in what way? Who makes decisions about definitions and the allocations of meanings? And, in the final analysis: who needs whom? Or is it all actually possible without using communication and consensus?