My Business Card

Facing a new round of applications, I decided to upgrade my professional appearance in order to be able and surf on the rough waves of crisis and competition. If you feel like giving your own CV a kick to set off, just follow the reference in the bottom line and you will discover a whole new universe of self-presentation. Enjoy!

Business Card
Name: Wind
Target Group: Interested Colleagues
Region: Berlin / Paris / London Elsewhere
Business Division: Global Culture Sphere
Job Title: Self-Entrepreneur
In the business since: 2004

My role

I work for Global Creative Ressources (GCR) covering predominantly public clients on special situations and event-driven festival opportunities. My area of expertise is risk taking, art production, performances, texts and counter strategies.

When I came to Berlin, I was placed in a former DDR apartment with just one other translocal team member. Thanks to our efforts and lots of good workflow, we have built the desk into a #1 European Relative Value operation. We have relationships with over 100 colleagues in the art world. The revenues speak for themselves and our team in Berlin has grown temporarily from two to three persons. I personally manage some of the most valuable network relationships.

My background

Before completing my Master, I worked at Theatre festivals on their structured production desk. After having finished my Master program in Dramaturgy & Comparative Literature Studies at LMU Munich (LMU), I decided to gear my studies towards a career in the interdisciplinary field of art and culture, with the hope of changing my career, as nobody provided me with the opportunity to put into practice all that I had learned during my Master program.

The Master program was extremely useful to the extent that it gave me the opportunity to take some exotic courses and help me build up a network that unfortunately got lost in competition. Certainly, had it been for the master program and the limited recruitment opportunities, it would have been difficult for me to make the shift from what was essentially a career in dramaturgy to art and performance.

Day to day challenges

Finding viable creative ideas is the biggest challenge I face in my job. It requires a great deal of information, ingenuity, and insight. Tapping into research, and drawing upon multiple resources are the keys to success in my business. The writing of concepts and applications is the easy part. Getting the full project and seeing the big context is where the challenge lies. Managing time is the second biggest challenge.

Community & Work Environment

From senior artists to junior members of the community, every one is a competitive player. The network is extremely intelligent, creative, open minded and hierarchical. There is always a buzz on the biennials and openings, the energy is electrifying, the pressure is high, yet I can confidently say it is one of the few truly "fun" jobs I have had in my life.

Training Program

A four week theory training program, and several long-term artist-in-residency programs were an excellent refresher course in the various aspects of art, theory & politics. The off-site team-building activities for participants provided a great forum to make connections and build networks in improvised conditions. One of the most rewarding parts of the programs was the opportunity to get connected with the art & theory world in Amsterdam, Istanbul, Sydney, and Stockholm. This allowed me to build relationships with the various critical colleagues who make up the translocal art projects.

Language skills
English, German, French, Portuguese, Finnish, and other European Dialects.

Corporate Culture

To understand the art culture, I would suggest that you visit websites and face book communities where you will read that our identity is based on five core values: Work focus; Creativity; Innovation; Performance and Trust. When I first joined the art world I heard the buzzwords but they didn't mean much to me. But having worked here for almost seven years now, I can really see how true they are. Almost all my colleagues live by these values and not by a stable income. I am surrounded by a group of unassuming, yet highly motivated players, driven by a hunger for success. The entire network is focused on achieving market dominance while being convinced that they are maintaining integrity at all times. I have found that self-management fosters and encourages entrepreneurship at all levels of the organization. Come out with an intelligent idea, even if it is not very likely that you will be given the resources for implementation.

Application & Interview Processes

My first-round applications for potential projects were directed to London, Tel Aviv, Helsinki, Aomori and other places hosting art-in-residency programs. The negative reactions were fairly informal, but we did not discuss anything, neither my career aspirations nor prior work experience. I decided to continue applying, however, as the art world in general demonstrates to me how committed everybody is to his or her own career. I found that my temporary employers were not traditional or elitist. To the contrary, the team I met at museums and festivals was down-to-earth and focused on building a formidable franchise. The quality and professionalism of the translocal art world really was a major deciding factor for joining it. I am curious about what the future will bring.

Bettina Wind

This text is dedicated to my translocal colleagues struggling with applications and concepts at the moment; I also want to thank Mr. Kanak, whose generous gesture to publish his job description on the website of Deutsche Bank helped me to give my professional appearance a completely new tune.

Hey lady, you, lady

Hey lady, you, lady, don’t just walk away, cause I have this need to tell you why I’m all alone today.

By that time you have already entered the castle with a mysterious woman dressed in white who walks in her sleep up the stairs and stares out of the window while telling you a story, her story. From the first listening it seems a line of memories, carrying her back to Georgia and California and anywhere she could run. But as soon as she speaks of the preacher man she made love with in the sun, you realize that there is something entirely different going on. The woman tries to calm you down with clichés about Greek yachts and nights in Monte Carlo, and the music does its part to make her voice and the whole scenario even more kitschy, but still it happens again: the woman confesses to you that she has seen some things that a woman ain’t supposed to see (in a cover version sung by a Korean female duo one of the singers fakes disapprobation at that part). She has seen something you ain’t supposed to see. Something she wants to tell you about because she can see so much of you living in her eyes. You have entered her fantasy by listening to her too long. Be careful with what it will do to you.

Charlene D’Angelo married twice. As a consequence, her name changed to Duncan and then to Oliver. Charlene Duncan tried to land a hit in the US in 1976 called “I’ve never been to me”. One line about “unborn children” was misunderstood as a feminist pro-abortion statement, which did not really help to make the song popular at that time. Some other singers tried after her to turn it into a success, such as Nancy Wilson and Randy Crawford, but it was Charlene Oliver, by then living in the UK, who made the song become a “one-hit wonder” in 1982. “I’ve never been to me” made it into the charts and Charlene into TV-shows. After that she continued her work in a sweets shop in Ilford, where she is supposed to work still now, if she has not retired yet.

So far, so sweet.

Or, as Charlene would put it: I took the sweet life, I never knew I'd be bitter from the sweet.

Be careful, this is another trap she prepares for you, because now comes a line that is usually cut out - for obvious reasons as you will see - of the Japanese cover version “Love is All” sung at marriage ceremonies. Here it goes:
I've spent my life exploring the subtle whoring that costs too much to be free.

We’re not listening to Charlene anymore (in fact, the original version was written for a male voice, as the front singer of the group “The Temptation”, who performed their version of the song in 1982, proves on You Tube).
We’re now listening to Priscilla, future queen of the desert, moving her lips accordingly to Charlene’s words, trying to defend her show against the drunken dangerous men molesting her on stage.

We’re not in the big castle anymore, following a little private guided tour: we’re on stage, exposed to the audience’s clutches and touches, trying to make it through the night without losing the line. Trying to move between spaces along this line, which is really a line of D and not of C, always and already in the middle – but of what?

We lost the point here, the origin, though the story I am telling you already raised some doubts about a point of origin: was it a crazy idea of a crazy composer? A male voice supposed to address a female audience? A Korean pop star raising an eyebrow in fake disapproval about her partner’s confession? Was it Priscilla’s fantasy that took hold of Charlene, drawing her deeply into exploring the subtle whoring, or was it Charlene in her sweets shop, who tries assure you that the sweet will make you bitter (but why selling sweets then)?

Forget about the truth. Forget about memory. Start fantasizing with me. Don’t believe my lies that you are the true woman holding that little baby. Try to misunderstand me when I sing of the man you fought with this morning. Do it like Valentina Hassan and think of the man you fucked with this morning and the one you will make love with tonight.

Follow me into the desert of a becoming, it starts just behind the castle.

Please lady.
Please. Lady.

Don’t just walk away. Listen to me again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrIqsFSjqso&feature=related