Stadt, Wert, Fluss (Berlin Take)
16.09.2023 –
23.09.2023
Eiko Grimberg, Luise Marchand, Michael Schmid
Haus1 | Waterloo Ufer 1 | Berlin
Opening | 16 September | 6 pm
Opening hours | 17 September | 13:00-18:00 and by appointment: info@k-strich.de
The focus is on the exhibition venue itself, the former outhouse at Hallesches Tor, now Haus1, opposite the America Memorial Library. 10,000 people change trains there every day, the area is the last seam between the dead gentrified Friedrichstraße and the raw Kreuzberg. Condominium blocks are put in front of social housing blocks, the last (utility) supermarket closes and three hipster restaurants open. The 1000 tourists are always greeted by a large community of drug addicts. In this environment, the works of the artists:inside will be on display - inside, but also outside the pavilion. The house has a terrace that is clearly visible from the other side of the river, and it will be used for performances. Luise Marchand had already stuck up posters around the gallery streets for Gallery Weekend 2021. The posters showed snails dragging their slimy bodies over banknotes. From the outer façade of the pavilion, one of these snails looks across the river, mirrored by the golden sheen of a credit card.
The photographic works exhibited here are about money. Money is not, however, by any means essential. Money is merely the means of expression or appearance of a social relationship. Value is the mediating third party between commodity and labour time. Value is abstract and needs a manifestation. It finds this in money. The value relation disguises itself in notes and coins. Money can be hoarded, it can be stolen, it can be handled ostentatiously or coyly. How do you take it in your hand? What do you keep it in? In what units do you carry it around with you? There is an irrational moment in every disguise. Money has its fetish character. Money is anal or oral. One holds it or devours it. In principle, the economic, social relationship does not need notes or coins. It can also manifest itself in accounts and numbers. Material money is deeply atavistic. Luise Marchand's snails are not the only ones who cuddle it and think about it with their slime. In Eiko Grimberg's photographs we see it passing through hands, moving between fingers and palms. The posture of the hands reveals their attitude to money. Michael Schmid found his money on the streets of Los Angeles. His coins resemble a child's fantasy of money. He has collected the tinted and discarded glasses and turned them into luminous treasures as photograms.