ABOUT

Temporary Services is Brett Bloom, Salem Collo-Julin and Marc Fischer. We are based in Chicago and Copenhagen and have existed since 1998. We produce exhibitions, events, projects, social situations, and publications. The distinction between art practice and other creative human endeavors is irrelevant to us. We situate art within our lived experiences and seek interesting locations and diverse audiences for our ideas and work.

In Temporary Services, we generated a few criteria to help us further ask questions about what the work is actually doing in the world, in particular, how we can tell if a work is politically and socially engaged or an exercise in making art social that empowers only the artist. Here is what we started with:

1) Does the work empower more people than just the authors of the work?

2) Does the work foster egalitarian relationships, access to resources, a shift in thinking, or surpluses for a larger group of people?

3) Does the work abate competition, abusive power and class structures, or other barriers typically found in gallery and museum settings?

4) Does the work seek broader audiences than just those educated about and familiar with contemporary art?

5) Does the work trigger a collective imagination that can dream other possible worlds while understanding the current one with eyes wide open?

To read more about what we think we are up to, or to get in contact with us please visit our CONTACT page.