“I have developed a love-hate relationship with my job”

Covid and the Arts

In the past year, Covid has not had the same impact on everyone. The impact has remained limited on quite some employees. Personally, I have written my articles on my home computer this year. Apart from the inconvenience for my family members, who have had to tolerate me a bit more often in ‘their’ living room, little has changed. Other employees have been temporarily unemployed for a shorter or longer period. Yet the cultural professionals are certainly among the group that has been affected the most. The cultural sector has been shut down for the best part of a year. After a temporary and limited resumption of their activities last summer, our cultural establishments have been eerily quiet.

Cultural creatives have hardly had any projects and assignments; there has been virtually no audience to entertain. And in many cases, no many has been paid into their bank account. As a freelance dancer, Wolf Govaerts used to switch from project to project. But this came to a sudden stop last year, just for a while at first, and then it seemed as if it would go on forever. Besides the financial loss, he has been unable to do what he likes best – dancing and putting on shows – for a year.

When we interviewed Wolf, he had just contracted Covid. “I have no idea where I caught it,” he says. “On the street? In a shop? Could be. The virus circulates very easily.” Except for a sore throat, he has no serious symptoms. “I have the British variant. The good news is that I will soon become immune, the doctor said.” He still sees things positively.

A false start

However, the past 12 months have been anything but easy. “At the end of 2019, I had settled in Brussels after living in Amsterdam for a few years. I was just expanding my network,” he explains. “Establishing contacts, doing auditions. I had also just recovered from a broken ankle I had sustained a few months earlier. Everything finally started to fall into place,” he adds. But it turned out to be a false start. “In February, we began rehearsing for a performance we would give on a tour of the Netherlands with the company OFF Projects. We were able to give only three performances. Then Covid came and everything ground to a halt.”
At first, Wolf thought it would all be over after a month or so. “I continued to be highly active in the first month. I shot short dance videos on a daily basis. With the colleagues from OFF Projects, we kept on organising warm-ups and exchanging creative ideas. But our enthusiasm waned after a while due to a lack of perspective. What was the point of continuing? There was no prospect of improvement. Nevertheless, I kept on being creative for some days. Yet I didn’t get anything done on other days. Without any prospects and structure, I was no longer on firm ground.”

New performance

Fortunately, he has occasionally found some work in the past few months. “We did some small Covid-friendly projects and in January we devised a new performance.
But it remains unclear when we will be able to put it on stage.” He hopes in November, but he is still in the dark. Nevertheless, they are doing everything they can to make it happen. “It is a very flexible performance, as small scale as possible in light of Covid. We have even divided the casts in order to have a solution in case someone falls ill with Covid and part of the cast has to quarantine.”

“I miss it so much … Already at the age of three I knew that this was what I wanted to do: perform on stage, dance, create shows … But Covid has made it even harder to keep going.” He feels uncertain about the future. “I have developed a love-hate relationship with my job. I would really like to continue, but I’m not sure I will be able to. There is no money coming in and I don’t know how long this will go on. Maybe I should start looking for another job. But I don’t want to, this is what I want to do. In addition, I sense little awareness about the situation in which many people, especially artists, find themselves. Can’t we do better than this?”

In February, we began rehearsing for a performance we would give on a tour of the Netherlands. We were able to give only three performances. Then Covid came and everything ground to a halt

Cultural professionals deserve better

Within ACV, Tijs Hostyn is responsible for the cultural sector. “Many cultural professionals will find it easy to identify with Wolf’s story. Those who depend on short contracts run into difficulties if there are no longer any job offers. If a government agency cuts subsidies or if an organisation goes through a rough patch, they are always the first victims. The coronavirus has once again made it clear how precarious their position is. As ACV, we are currently negotiating with the Flemish government about improving the income, support and job security for those who work in the cultural sector. Because they deserve better. Wolf’s story inspires us to not let go.”

FLANDERS EXCELS?!

ACV Puls contributed to the book ‘Vlaanderen excelleert?!’ (Flanders Excels?!) which was published by EPO earlier this year. The book paints a picture of the Flemish government’s policy and the opinion of the cultural sector on this topic. It contains contributions by well-known figures from the sector such as writer Tom Lanoye, visual artist Luc Tuymans, actor Michael Pas and many others. The book is available in bookshops.