metropolis m

I wanted to exhibit artworks from artists who react on the concept of capitalism by using the same terms and conditions. The exhibition To the Reader arises from the idea that capitalism is a social construction that defines our behaviour. The works arise from within these social constructions and therefore make us aware of these social relations and their complexity. The works follow certain routes within this capitalist system and how we as an individual take our role in this. It really addresses the individual, the reader.

I wanted to show something different, as looking at the art world one often sees works that try to objectify capitalism to give critique from a safe distance. This exhibition is about creating awareness. My intention is not to give solutions for the problems the system is having nowadays and I don’t want to tell people what they should think. I just want to make people aware of the contradictive world we are living in, and what this does with us as an individual.

The latest works of Marika Troili, for instance, are direct outgrowths from her part-time job at the privatised Swedish Postal Service. The new work she made for this exhibition arose from a residency in Utrecht where she compared the developments in the Swedish labour circumstances with the local developments at the Postal Service in Utrecht. Quotes from employees are engraved in wooden plates, one of the first forms of post. She shows the effect recent cuts have on the operating conditions of a company where efficiency now is the highest goal, no matter the consequences.

Paul Sullivan addresses the technical, legal and bureaucratic rules of immigration and also the emotions and desires that comes with it in Noodle Bar. An interesting project where a selected Korean family came to Liverpool to run a Noodle bar alongside the Static Gallery. The Noodle bar opened two weeks ago.

And Daniel Andujar has collected more than 250.000 documents in the period between the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 up until 9/11. In this archive he tries to give a chronological presentation of the complex and contradictive realities from the post capital world we are living in.

Well, I’m still figuring that out, but first of all it’s a reference to the poem by Charles Baudelaire. Especially the last sentence, which is a beautiful sentence: ‘You – hypocrite reader – my double – my brother! (The poem is roughly about the nothingness of man). Furthermore, the title refers to the individual; it’s a direct approach to the visitor.

No, not really and the themes are not that clearly put in the exhibition but they more or less came to the surface during this investigation, as a logical consequence. It was not like I thought of these themes beforehand and searched for works who could relate to these themes. They are important point of views from which one can look at capitalism and obviously they have a certain relationship with each other within the system.

I don’t think it goes as far as that. I think artists carry a heavy burden as a lot is expected from them. But they can certainly make us aware of everything that surrounds us, and more importantly they give us a different perspective. But for an alternative approach we need to be in politics.

Yes, indeed it’s a difficult theme, but I think a lot of works have some humour which makes it a bit lighter. For instance Capital Drawing Group, there is a lot of humour in these images.