Let’s be frank with each other, in the cultural food chain, “direct producers” have become completely irrelevant. What’s important is that cultural stuff happens, and that it is managed: Publishers are important, not writers; galleries and curators are important, not artists; literary festivals are important (events that prove something is happening), not the writers who participate [; academic conferences, symposia and colloquia are important, not the researchers, academics and critics who attend].
– Dubravka Ugresic, Europe in Sepia, op. cit., p. 224
