A book launch of Vivan Storlund’s work: Widening horizons was held at the University of Malta on Monday 21 October 2019.
Storlund’s book focuses on Artists’ precarious labour. During her book launch, the author made a call to society to mine the wealth of creative thinkers by capturing their potential and ensuring that they can earn, at least, a basic income.
She lamented that in spite of the new platform economy, working life continues to be rigid and is still regulated around the idea of full-time, regular and continuous employment. She claimed that as a result, those artists who do not have such 'standard employment' can often face Kafka-like situations and end up being disciplined in multiple ways. She made a call for society to reverse this status and ensure a basic income for such workers, as a means to ensure that everybody can live a life as an active citizen.
The book launch was followed by a panel discussion. The speakers included Ms Florinda Camilleri – Pharmacist, Dance Artist & Co-Director of The Amber Spark; Dr Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone - Visiting Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Faculty of Arts; Mr Kevin Camilleri, Deputy Secretary General, General Workers Union; Mr George Cremona Director, Ministry for the Family, Children's Rights and Social Solidarity and Mr Josef Vella, Chief Executive Officer, UHM | Voice of the Workers.
The event was organised and moderated by Dr Anna Borg from the Centre for Labour Studies together with Dr David Zammit from the Department of Civil Law, Faculty of Laws.