Since its inception in 2007, HAMACA was born under the mandate of the community of artists –through the now defunct Association of Visual Artists of Catalonia (AAVC). The objective was to contribute to the professionalization of contemporary audiovisual practices through fair remuneration and the stimulation of an economic flow for the authors.

→ Read the letter For Love and Honor that Hollis Frampton wrote, as early as 1973, to Donald Richie, then film curator of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Behind all the videos that you can consult in the archive there are hours of dedication, technical equipment, sometimes materials are produced, travel is required, teams of different specializations participate and are hired... Sometimes these productions are financed by grants or commissions; sometimes they are made as an investment from which costs are expected to be recovered through the exhibition and distribution of the resulting films. For the authors and professionals who develop these works as a job, any dedication of their time entails a cost. For the cultural professionals who devise and coordinate programs in which to show these works, all the time they spend thinking about and organizing these activities is a cost. HAMACA works to value all the tasks, visible and invisible, that need to be done for experimental audiovisual to be produced and shown to the public, and to defend a fair remuneration consistent with the dedication they require.

→ To this end, one of its fundamental tools is FEES.

In the Catalan context, the current Assembly Platform of Artists from Catalonia (PAAC) does excellent sector work in this area. Some of the actions we have carried out to raise awareness and defend good practices in cultural work have been under its umbrella or in collaboration with it. Also, in alliance with other organisations and administrations, HAMACA has participated in projects that think and propose improvements to the public administration and institutions to improve the conditions of youth work.

While talking about money is a taboo, the working context of culture remains precarious and, as a consequence, mistrust, reactivity or conflict are frequent. Defending the need to make the economic conditions of commissions explicit –which is based on the assumption that work is remunerated– together with their associated tasks and times is still very much a minefield. For this reason, HAMACA tries to develop its work by understanding the cultural sector as an ecosystem of people with variable emotional states and lives beyond work, claiming to humanise the various roles involved in projects, seeking to make communications kinder, to accept the erratic, deal with conflict and assume oneself in a continuous learning tension.