uni'wissen 1-2013_ENG

ies professor conducts interviews with other representatives of the art scene and visits archives. In addition to the opportunities and advantages of life on the road, her research has exposed the enormous organizational and financial difficul ties artists are faced with: A sculptor who re ceives a monthlong grant in Priština, for instance, doesn’t just have to find a way to get there and a place to stay – he also has to orga nize the transport of his materials and tools and deal with questions concerning things like health insurance and taxes. And then there are the per sonal issues, says Lipphardt: “How do I cope with relationships and reach agreements with my partner? Who does the housekeeping and wa ters the plants if I’m always away from home? And what about my friends – who really even knows me if I’m never around?” The situation can become really difficult when children enter the picture: In addition to the gen eral strain a child can place on a relationship, artists often have more difficulties than people in other professions finding child care, because theaters and organizations that award art grants with residency requirements usually do not offer such benefits. “There are next to no opportuni ties for institutional integration for people with a mobile lifestyle,” says Lipphardt. Finally, depend ing on what kind of artistic work a person is engaged in, moving around all the time doesn’t just mean inspiration and excitement. The brief stays are often insufficient for planning daily life and finding contract work, and they leave little time to get to know the city and people outside of the art scene or to develop oneself further in an artistic sense. Keep on moving: Politics tends to associate mobility with progress. What consequences a life in transit has on the financial status, social life, and emotions of the artists has yet to be studied. Photos: Thomas Kunz Traveling is part of the daily lives of musicians, actors, and other artists – they like to see themselves as a mobile avant-garde. “Germany offers relatively few solutions for professional mi- lieus or social groups that are permanently mobile” 6

uni'wissen 1-2013_ENG

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