ABSTRACT
Regardless of the historical period, Fordism and post-Fordism, the correct diagnosis of the nature of capitalism today, or the nature of work itself, any criticism of theories of art and immaterial labor cannot deny that the forms of work in art have changed and multiplied substantially in the last century, and this has resulted in a substantial change in how work and life are related in art practice. This chapter addresses this relationship from two perspectives: first, the definition of work as “project,” and second, the question of skill. It starts by considering the substantial change in the forms of work in art in the last century, from the production of objects to the “biopolitics of the project,” following authors like Groys. The chapter proposes to qualify this transformation by situating it in relation to anthropological discussions of people, things, and time in art, in particular through the work of Gell and Ingold.
