Curator and prolific conversationalist Hans Ulrich Obrist will be appearing in New Delhi on Saturday to light the torch of his Marathon series for the first time on Indian soil. The public event appears alongside the Indian Art Summit in what could be seen as a bid to go beyond the more money centred conversations inspired by previous Indian Art Fair events.  Appearing as an alternative to the materialism of the fair, the Marathon is being billed as ‘a spirited interrogation’ that follows a uniquely ‘encyclopedic – philosophical model, based on a very emphatically understood concept of the conversation as a fruitful/successful exchange of ideas and exemplified in the form of the interview.’

Next to a list of internationally acclaimed artists, including Subodh Gupta and Bharti Kher (to mention just two who I have seen in UK exhibition spaces), is a list of leading social, political and educational thinkers including Vandana Shiva, whose significant part in the global Eco-Feminist movement is perhaps particularly relevant to the CCA’s own recent exhibition strand. The idea is very much: Interview as Artform.  Details of the event and a great window into experimental art practice in India can be found at: http://www.khojworkshop.org/project/khoj_marathon_hans_ulrich_obrist_series_public_conversations and interviews of the KHOJ Marathon will be published by the Foundation for Contemporary Art (FICA). The question is, for those who can’t be there in person, (interested artists struggling with VAT rises on recession hit Scottish soil?), do the spirited results have a material form? Are they interviews for sale or free to download?

“One more notch on the belt” I tell myself, faced with a decision between a cake or a biscuit.

Every time I go back to visit the family in North East Derbyshire for Christmas the number of friend’s I also used to catch up with dwindles considerably. At the end of 2010 there were two of us – and between us we got talking about the others. One in particular, who ended up making it to Oxford to study law, was also absent and probably having Christmas in her flat next to Borough Market in London. One of the first cases she worked on was making a decision as to whether Jaffa Cakes were either cakes or biscuits. If they were biscuits they were taxed and if they were cakes they were not. It’s a strange thing to look back on as we enter 2011 with tighter belts facing the VAT increase to 20%.

It’s interesting to consider the particular affects this increase has on artists: materials, equipment, transport and Internet (admin) costs… One salvation is our sustenance (other than art of course) – food, which is not subject to VAT. I guess we could all start eating cakes instead of biscuits but the question is will we begin to acclimatise throughout the following year? And how?

In their article Is the VAT increase regressive? The BBC debates as to whether this new 20% number is progressive (as it avoid rises in national insurance and income tax) or indeed regressive as it “hits the poorest hardest”. Here it is also pertinent to add that working artists and visual artist freelancers could well be some of the lowest paid in the UK: but as far as they’re concerned, being ever the resourceful, is the VAT rise ‘regressive’ or ‘progressive’ in terms of art production?

One thing that comes to mind is that different materials and processes will take hold of art practice to avoid inevitable cost increases – so will we see a more invigorated take on the artistic approach?