Goldin+Senneby Standard Length of a Miracle: a Guide sverigesradio.se

översätt Sharp 1 Standard Length of a Miracle was a mutating retrospective by Goldin+Senneby. Over the past ten years, the Stockholm-based artist duo has explored virtual worlds, offshore companies, withdrawal strategies, and subversive speculation. In a unique and subtle way, they combine artistic practice, financial theory, and perform- ative methods, which are sometimes borrowed from the world of magic. The retrospective was presented as installations and performances at Tensta konsthall as well as at other places not primarily associated with contemporary art. Stockholm School of Economics, the Third Swedish National Pension Fund, the Financial Supervisory Authority, the clothing store A Day’s March, Cirkus Cirkör, and the historical art museum Prince Eugen’s Waldemarsudde all served as stages for reactivations of Goldin+Senneby’s oeuvre from the past ten years. Introducing the artistic field to public institutions and commercial centers enabled a shift of perspective about where art takes place and who the audience is.

Economic and financial structures govern our lives increasingly. But, for most people, terms such as repo rates, tax havens, and derivatives are abstract and difficult to grasp. The artistic practice of Goldin+Senneby masters economic strategies and thus punctures the idea that this kind of knowledge is too complex to acquire. Instead of re- jecting the financial sector, the artist duo borrows market-inspired methods in order to infiltrate and illuminate the consequences of our late capitalist system and its neoliberal approach. The retrospective highlights the precarious labor market of our time, the increased commercialization of the art world, and the new all-time highs and stock market crashes within the financial economy.

Part of the exhibition was Goldin+ Senneby’s research project at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, which was presented through the magic show On a Long Enough Time Line The Survival Rate for Everyone Drops to Zero (2015) and the magic box Zero Magic (2016).

2 Tensta konsthall clothes are inspired by Reuterswärd’s quest to leave his job at the dry cleaner Standard Length of a Miracle (2016) in order to focus on an artistic career. With Jonas Hassen Khemiri (author), The artists have registered Anders Behnaz Aram (costume designer), Reuterswärd as a trademark at the LiLaRo (tailors), Mehrdad Arta Swedish Patent and Registration Office. (designer), Zhala (musician), Anna The clothes were accompanied by a new Heymowska (set designer), Moa soundtrack composed by the musician Ott (carpenter), Samir Al-Nehlaoui Zhala, using sound recordings from dry (arborist). cleaners.

On view at Tensta konsthall was a new The Third Swedish National production developed in collaboration Pension Fund with the writer Jonas Hassen Khemiri. Khemiri’s meta-fictional response to Money Will Be Like Dross (2012) was Goldin+Senneby’s practice was read out exhibited in the offices of the Third loud at the konsthall every day at 14.12. Swedish National Pension Fund. The In the short story Standard Length of a work consists of two parts: the Miracle, the narrator changes his name 18th century mineralogist August to the aristocratic-sounding Anders Nordenskiöld’s alchemical furnace and Reuterswärd, hoping to increase his a manual on how to produce a copy of chances of getting hired at a konsthall. the furnace today. Nordenskiöld was At a brisk pace without any full stops or temporarily hired by the Swedish breathing space, the reader gets thrown court in the late 18th century to create into a stream of consciousness where all gold for King Gustav III. However, associations are equally important. The Nordenskiöld’s hidden agenda was short story’s monologue is connected to to make the secret of gold-making the installation of an oak in the gallery publicly available and, in doing so, to space. undermine the entire monetary system. Is it possible to understand the pension The tree refers to the oak that occurs in fund’s active asset management of all Khemiri’s text and also to the surrealist our pensions as a contemporary attempt Georges Bataille’s secret society to “modernize” alchemy? Acépahle, which is said to have gathered around an oak tree in the late 1930s. Money Will Be Like Dross (2012) Acéphale—Greek for headless— has long been of interest to the artist duo An alchemical furnace from the Nordic and figures in their multi-year project Museum’s collections is one of few Headless. Khemiri’s short story was remaining artifacts from the alchemist published 10.1 in Sweden’s main daily and mineralogist August Nordenskiöld’s Dagens Nyheter and was available secret laboratory at Drottningholm in the book shop at Tensta konsthall. Palace from the 1780s. King Gustav The functioned as a meeting place for III established the laboratory in the discussions and seminars during the greatest secrecy and hired Nordenskiöld exhibition period, and, as the carpenter to produce gold in order to finance Moa Ott took on the tree, new furniture Sweden’s expanded military and war was produced around it. The clothing against Russia. But Nordenskiöld was line Anders Reuterswärd, developed driven by a different, utopian agenda. in collaboration with Behnaz Aram, He wanted to produce enough gold for fashion and costume designer, was on it to completely lose its fictitious value. view in the entrance. The materials This would abolish the “tyranny of for the clothes originally come from money” and thus make mankind more garments left behind at dry cleaners receptive to the spiritual world. As around Stockholm. The clothing line was devotee supporter of the scientist available for sale in the clothing store and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg, A Day’s March in the city center. The Nordenskiöld believed that the true

Sharp 3 jewels of life were God’s message of being controlled by unseen forces. The love and a society shouldering its social works Zero Magic (2016) and Banca responsibilities. Rotta (I Dispense, Divide, Assign, Keep, Hold) (2012) touch upon secret and Money Will Be Like Dross (2012) possibly manipulative strategies in the Manual With Kunstgiesserei (material world of finance. The invisible becomes research), Daniel McClean (legal visible through the magic box of props adviser), Johan Hjerpe (designer). in Zero Magic, while Banca Rotta (I Dispense, Divide, Assign, Keep, Hold) This manual provides the owner with tracks the history and etymology of the a license to reproduce an unlimited banking system. number of alchemical furnaces similar to the one that belonged to August Zero Magic (2016) Nordenskiöld. The manual is available With Malin Nilsson (magician), Théo in a numbered but unlimited edition. Bourgeron (sociologist of finance), Kevin For each edition sold, the price of Keener (patent attorney), Johan Hjerpe the manual increases, and hence it (designer), Moa Ott (carpenter)- becomes significantly more expensive to contribute to decreasing the uniqueness A magician creates illusions, making us of the work. It is precisely the notion of see things that don’t exist, that are the value of the unique art object that is not really happening. The word magic the gold mine of today’s increasingly originates from magush (Persian), commercialized art world. Money Will meaning “to be able” or “to have Be Like Dross plays with the mechanics power.” In Zero Magic, the magic trick that govern how value is created and takes place in the financial markets. changes over time. Goldin+Senneby have infiltrated a secretive hedge fund in the US and The Third Swedish National Pension recreated its short selling practices, i.e. Fund (AP3) is one of five so-called the practice of selling shares that one buffer funds within the Swedish national doesn’t own. They have, in collaboration pension system. AP3 has twin roles with the magician Malin Nilsson and in the pension system: serving as a finance sociologist Théo Bourgeron, buffer when inflows and outflows cause developed a magic trick for the financial imbalance and promoting the overall market that has the capacity to financial stability of the system. The AP influence the perception of a company’s funds are state-owned pension funds value and to profit from this. The magic with a government-appointed board of box contains the props and equipment directors. AP3 manages a diversified needed to perform these financial global portfolio of listed equities, fixed manipulations and also historical income assets, and alternative references to other controversial magic investments. tricks performed offstage, in real life.

Stockholm School of Economics Library Banca Rotta (I Dispense, Divide, Assign, Keep, Hold) (2012) The library of the Stockholm School With Anna Heymowska (set designer). of Economics featured two works by Goldin+Senneby that, not unlike the Banca Rotta is a money changer’s table curriculum of the school, explore from the 1600s that the artists have methods and mechanisms in the world had sawn in half. The word bank derives of finance. Just as contemporary art from the Old Italian word for these sometimes appears both abstract and tables, “banca” (comparable to bench difficult for those without experience in in English). When a money changer in the field, the world of economics can be Florence went bankrupt, his trading perceived by some as a secret terrain. table was destroyed—“banca” became Short- selling, hedge funds, and other “banca rotta,” broken bench. abstract terms often create a feeling of

4 Stockholm School of Economics offers The back of the backdrop displays reputable education programs within the second part of the installation: a finance and economics. The library map of the Marly Forest outside Paris functions as the school’s main source of where the surrealist Georges Bataille’s information and as a meeting point for secret society Acéphale met in 1937 students, researchers, and staff. to commemorate the murder of Louis XVI. Acéphale appropriated the form Financial Supervisory Authority of a fascist cell but with the aim of creating an anti-fascist mythology. The lobby of the Financial Supervisory Some years after the meetings in Marly Authority provided the setting for one of Forest, Georges Bataille published La Goldin+Senneby’s installations, which, Part Maudite (The Accursed Share) like the work of this state authority, (1949) in which he argues that all human tracks the hidden strategies and shady societies are characterized by waste. businesses of the financial world. When an economic structure is no longer able to use its accumulation for The Decapitation of Money (2010) growth, the surplus has to be used in With Angus Cameron (economic a non-productive way, otherwise the geographer), Anna Heymowska (set entire system will collapse. However, designer), KD (fictional author), Kerwin for Bataille, waste is not necessarily a Rolland (sound designer), Johan Hjerpe bad thing. On the contrary, much of his (graphic designer), Alexandre Guirkinger writing shows a fascination with man’s (photographer). self-destruction. It’s only when you sacrifice a piece of yourself and indulge The Decapitation of Money (2010) in others, taking part in movements like is a spatial installation in two parts: Acéphale, religious rituals, or erotic the first one is a reconstruction of pleasures, that glimpses of true ecstasy the lobby at the Russian-owned bank can be perceived. BCEN (EUROBANK), now known as VTB Bank. Behind a physical table and The Decapitation of Money connects two comfortable leather armchairs is Acéphale’s mysterious meetings in a backdrop with an extension of the the Marly Forest with the introduction room, including more furniture and of the euro dollar. Goldin+Senneby an unmanned reception desk. During suggest that Bataille’s secret society the first years of the Cold War, Soviet might have something in common with banks started to deposit US dollars in strategies for withdrawal employed by BCEN, with its headquarter in Paris. The offshore companies. Is the void into Soviet State was concerned that the which offshore companies’ money US would freeze their dollar reserves, “disappears” part of the excessive but, through BCEN and a loophole luxury consumption that Bataille in French law, the Soviets managed predicted in La Part Maudite? to create a new currency: the “Euro dollar,” named after the telex address The Decapitation of Money is part of of the bank “eurobank.” Eurodollars Goldin+Senneby’s multi-year project are dollars outside the control of the Headless. Headless is also a meta Federal Reserve. They thus break the novel in which the British author historical connection between money John Barlow is commissioned by the and the sovereign state, something characters Goldin+Senneby to trace the Goldin+Senneby’s spokesperson Angus mysterious offshore company Headless Cameron refers to as a “decapitation Ltd. Over the years, Headless has also of money.” Money is beginning to manifested itself in the form of lectures, flow beyond the control of states and conferences, and exhibitions. Headless territorial boundaries. Money creates its as a theme can be said to allude both to own territory: the “offshore.” the company bearing this name and to the secret society Acéphale— Greek for headless—which serves as an uncanny

Sharp 5 backdrop for the project’s narrative. the company’s ambition to offer clothes Headless can also be read as an image that help you get through the day in of the mindless society: a body without style. a brain. Prince Eugen’s Waldemarsudde The Financial Supervisory Authority is an authority that monitors the Three works presented at the financial market in order to make historical art museum Prince Eugen’s sure that all companies obey national Waldemarsudde revolve around and international regulations. It also landscapes, their representation and coordinates the supervision of measures ownership status. A3 The Plot (2015), against money laundering and aims to Not Approved (2011), and After strengthen the consumer’s rights on the Microsoft (2007) thus enter into financial market. dialogue with the older landscape paintings also on view at the museum. A Day’s March A3 The Plot (2015) Anders Reuterswärd (2016) With Pamela Carter (playwright), Johan With Jonas Hassen Khemiri (author), Hjerpe (designer), Moa Ott (carpenter), Behnaz Aram (costume designer), Natali Hallberg (scenic painter). LiLaRo (tailors), Mehrdad Arta (designer), Zhala (musician). A3 The Plot is a 1:10 scale stage model visualizing a tiny piece of real estate in The clothing line Anders Reuterswärd Kent that Goldin+Senneby acquired. was for sale in the store A Day’s Accompanying the model are the artists’ March at Kungsgatan 3 in Stockholm. title deed and a script written by Pamela The clothing line was developed in Carter. Carter’s text is a dramatization collaboration with fashion and costume of the land area’s changing ownership designer Behnaz Aram and is based from Roman times to today. If the work on Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s short story of art is sold, the ownership of the real Standard Length of a Miracle. The short estate will also be transferred, adding story throws the reader into a voluble another scene to the drama. A public stream of consciousness in which the table read of the script will be held narrator changes his name to Anders on 14.4, 18:00 with the actor Hamadi Reuterswärd, hoping to leave his job at Khemiri. the dry cleaner and make an artistic career. Aram let herself be inspired by Not Approved (2011) this striving motion and Reuterswärd’s With the County Administrative Board desire to re-create himself. The material of Skåne, Stockholm, and Värmland. for the clothes originally came from forgotten garments gathered at dry These landscape photographs were cleaners around Stockholm. Aram taken by Swedish bureaucrats. The work designed a new conceptual uniform by departs from a reform implemented by deconstructing and re-sewing the the EU in 2003. The reform decoupled clothes. agricultural subsidies from production, which changed the role of the farmer A Day’s March is a Swedish menswear from someone who produces food to label specializing in classic cuts and someone who provides open landscape. quality shirts at lower prices, achieved The images in the series were taken in by selling solely in its own stores and order to make an aesthetic assessment online. The collection also includes of the quality of the landscapes provided T-shirts made of organic cotton and by the farmers. The photographs show a crocheted silk ties in different colors. selection of landscapes that fail to meet A Day’s March is an old military term the aesthetic standards of EU funding. referring to how far an army could move during one single day and thus reflects

6 After Microsoft (2007) and ideals are reflected through an image of a landscape? After Microsoft revisits the site of Windows XP’s default computer Cirkus Cirkör wallpaper Bliss, a green hill with blue sky and clouds that is the most On a Long Enough Time Line the distributed image ever. The original Survival Rate for Everyone Drops photo was taken by the National to Zero (2015) Geographic photographer Charles With Malin Nilsson (magician) and O’Rear, who sold it to the picture agency Théo Bourgeron (sociologist of finance). Corbis. From there it was picked up by Microsoft, which was attracted to the The magician Malin Nilsson performed a image’s bright green and blue colors. magic show at Cirkus Cirkör in dialogue O’Rear claims that the photo was never with the work Zero Magic, on view in digitally manipulated. The intense the library at the Stockholm School of green color was due to the fact that the Economics. On a Long Enough Time vines which usually cover the hill had Line the Survival Rate for Everyone been temporarily replaced by grass Drops to Zero (2015) invited the because of a phylloxera invasion. When audience to participate in a financial Goldin+Senneby returned to the hill in magic trick. The tickets for the show Sonoma Valley, California, the vineyards also functioned as an investment in a were back, and a gray cloud covered the “short selling campaign,” i.e., the selling drab vines. The production of After of borrowed shares against a listed Microsoft coincided with the phasing out company. The show made the audience of Windows XP and the Bliss image. The aware of the implications of the financial work is presented in the form of a still position they have bought in to. The image with a 3 minute voice-over. speculation/trick was also placed Prince Eugen’s Waldemarsudde was in a historical context, among other originally the private home of Prince illusionists who used their methods for Eugen (1865–1947) and is today one political purposes off stage, so-called of the most visited art museums in “conspiracy magic”. Sweden. A selection of Prince Eugen’s own art is on view year round, as The 20-year jubilee Cirkus Cirkör is the are works from the collections and largest circus company in the Nordic temporary exhibitions of both historical area. The name Cirkus Cirkör is a play and contemporary art. on the French words “Cirque” and “Coeur,” circus and heart. Cirkör LAB The exhibition Ljusets magi – (Laboratory of Artistic Brilliance) is a Friluftsmåleri från sent 1800-tal platform for national and international (The Magic of Light – Plen Air Painting circus performers and companies, as from the late 1800s) (13.2–28.8 well as for artists working within other 2016) provides an exciting context areas. Through Cirkör LAB, Circus for the landscape-based work of Cirkör aims to create a space for cross- Goldin+Senneby. This connection raises artistic meetings with circus at the core. urgent questions regarding the mythical aspects of nationalism and nature as well as nature images as branding tools. There may be significant differences between the outdoor oil paintings from the 1800s and Microsoft’s wallpaper Bliss (1996), but in the open air landscapes, beneath clear blue skies, obvious points of contact emerge. What beliefs about French or Swedish nature and the US company are conveyed through these images? Which dreams

Sharp 7 The Royal Institute of Art Staff at Tensta konsthall PhD (2010–2016) Fahyma Alnablsi, host Maja Andreasson, assistent The Royal Institute of Art creates Emily Fahlén, mediator conditions for artistic investigations Ulrika Flink, assisting curator with experimental methods. 2010-16, Asrin Haidari, communication and press Goldin+Senneby held a practice-based Maria Lind, director PhD position at the Department of Fine Hedvig Wiezell, producer Arts—the first doctoral position of Carolina Oscarsson, intern its kind at the school. In their work, Aleksei Borisionok, intern Goldin+Senneby consistently use artistic methods in order to renegotiate Hosts academic protocols. One example is the Hamdi Farah requirement of singular authorship, Rado Ištok which is something completely absent Carl-Oskar Linné for Goldin+Senneby. For their 25% Ylva Westerlund seminar, they hired the management consultant Aliceson Robinson (former Technical staff McKinzey & Co.) to compile an interim Johan Wahlgren report based on interviews with fifteen Carl-Oskar Linné collaborators that the duo worked with during the previous year (but not the artists themselves). Nor is the dissertation a dissertation in the traditional sense. The disputation took place in Muralen at the Royal Institute of Art. Manuel Borja-Villel, director of Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid acted as opponent.

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