Is a Framework for Collaboration Set up by Artists Simon
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Goldin+Senneby (since 2004) is a framework for collaboration set up by artists Simon Goldin and Jakob Senneby; exploring juridical, financial and spatial constructs through notions of the performative and the virtual. www.goldinsenneby.com STANDARD LENGTH OF A MIRACLE with Jonas Hassen Khemiri (author), Behnaz Aram (costume designer), LiLaRo (tailors), Mehrdad Arta (graphic designer), Zhala (musician), Moa Ott (carpenter), Samir Al-Nehlaoui (arborist) For the retrospective exhibition ’Standard Length of a Miracle’, Swedish author Jonas Hassen Khemiri wrote a meta-fictional response to Goldin+Senneby’s practice, which is read out loud by a gallery attendant every day at 14.12. In the short story Standard Length of a Miracle, the narrator changes his name to Anders Reu- terswärd, hoping to increase his chances of getting hired at a konsthall. At a brisk pace without any full stops or breathing space, the reader gets thrown into a stream of consciousness where all associations are equally important. The short story’s monologue is connected to the installation of an oak in the gallery space. The tree refers to the oak that occurs in Khemiri’s text and also to the surrealist Georges Bataille’s secret society Acépahle, which is said to have gathered around an oak tree in the late 1930s. Acéphale—Greek for head- less—has long been of interest to the artist duo and figures in their multi-year project Headless. The oak functions as a meeting place for discussions and seminars during the exhibition period, and, as the carpenter Moa Ott takes on the tree, new furniture is be produced around it. The clothing line Anders Reuterswärd, developed in collaboration with Behnaz Aram, fashion and costume designer, is another part of this production. The materials for the clothes originally come from garments left behind at dry cleaners. The clothing line is worn by the konsthall’s staff during the exhibition, as a new conceptual uniform, and is also available for sale in a clothing store. The clothes are inspired by Reuterswärd’s quest to leave his job at the dry cleaner in order to focus on an artistic career. Aram designed a new conceptual uniform by deconstructing and re-sewing the clothes. The clothes are accompanied by a new soundtrack composed by the musician Zhala, using sound recordings from dry cleaners. DOWNLOAD: ”Standardlängden av ett mirakel” novell av Jonas Hassen Khemiri (Svenska) ”Standard Length of a Miracle” short story by Jonas Hassen Khemiri (English) Performance view, Tensta konsthall, Stockholm 2016. Photo: Hanna Ukura Staff at Tensta konsthall in Anders Reuterswärd clothes, Stockholm 2016. Photo: Märta Thisner Anders Reuterswärd clotes for sale at A Day’s March, Stockholm 2016. Photo: Jean-Baptiste Beranger Installation view, Tensta konsthall, Stockholm 2016. Photo: Jean-Baptiste Beranger Title: Standard Length of a Miracle Medium: Oak tree seminar space / Clothing line Year: 2016 Exhibition history: 2016 Goldin+Senneby: Standard Length of a Miracle, Tensta konsthall, Stockholm (solo show) Selected Bibliography: Arndtzén, Mårten. ”Smart bokslut av Goldin+Senneby”, Sveriges Radio, 16 February 2016 Hagdahl, Nora. ”What is the standard length of a miracle?”, C-print, 2 April 2016 Hammarström, Camilla. ”Konst på entreprenad”, Aftonbladet, 19 February 2016 Madestrand, Bo. ”Goldin+Senneby: Standardlängden av ett mirakel”, Dagens Nyheter, 4 February 2016 Persman, Joanna. ”Goldin+Senneby - Lång väg till klent mirakel”, Svenska Dagbladet, 11 February 2016 Wikström, Josefin. ”Undersökning utan kritik”, Kunstkritikk, 23 March 2016 Wirtén, Per. ”Dagens kapitalism är en avancerad bluff ”, Expressen, 1 March 2016 THE NORDENSKIÖLD MODEL (2010 - ONGOING) MONEY WILL BE LIKE DROSS with Kunstgiesserei (material research), Daniel McClean (legal advisor), Johan Hjerpe (designer), Malin Nilsson (magician), Pamela Carter (playwright), Maria Lindal (musician), Eva Rexed, Joel Spira and Jakob Tamm (actors) “Off now, little paper, around the world, and destroy the tyranny of money, so that gold, silver and precious stones may one day cease to be the idols and tyrants of the world!” August Nordenskiöld, 1787. In the 1780’s the mineralogist and Swedenborgian August Nordenskiöld was employed by the Swedish king Gustav III to produce gold through secret alchemical experiments. The gold was intended to finance Sweden’s military and economic expansion, but Nordenskiöld, guided by a different agenda, wanted to produce so much gold that its value would be lost and the “tyranny of money” abolished. Although well known among alchemists and Swedenborgians of his times, the story of August Nordenskiöld remains lar- gely untold to this day. One of the few remaining artifacts from Nordenskiöld’s laboratory is a coal burning alchemy furnace, kept in the storage of the collection of the Nordiska Museet in Stockholm. In the on-going project The Nordenskiöld Model, the Swedish artist duo Goldin+Senneby con- nects August Nordenskiöld’s theories to contemporary finance and to the systems of value production in art. The first part of Money Will Be Like Dross took place at CRYSTAL in January 2012, where an exhibi- tion was staged in the gallery to ensure a loan of the original Nordenskiöld alchemy furnace from the Nordiska Museet. In the seclusion of the locked gallery, the furnace was secretly scanned by Swiss foundry Kunstgiesserei, producing a detailed instruction for making replicas of the furnace. The gallery exhibition opened with a magic show at the 18th Century opera, Drottningholms Slottsteater, with its original interi- ors from the days when Nordenskiöld himself lived and worked in the palace. The magic continues in part two of Money Will Be Like Dross, where collectors are offered a license to produce an unlimited number of replicas of the alchemy furnace to be signed by Goldin+Senneby for the remainder of their lifetime. The signed replica of the furnace becomes an original artwork by Goldin+Senneby. The replica instruction will increase in price for each edition sold, and the instruction is a signed and numbered original artwork in itself. Katarina Sjögren, Crystal Alchemy furnace of August Nordenskiöld (1754-1792), Crystal, Stockholm 2012. Photo: Alexander Benz Performance view, Drottningholms Slottsteater, Stockholm 2012. Photo: Lina Bjerneld Production still, Kunstgiesserie at Crystal, Stockholm 2012. Installation view, Replica instruction manual, Lisson Gallery, London 2013. Installation view, Furnace replica, Arts and Crafts museum, Bergen 2013. Title: Money Will Be Like Dross Medium: Magic act / Replica instruction manual / Furnace replica Year: 2012 Edition (replica instruction manual): Unlimited, with price increase for each edition sold Exhibition history: 2012 Money Will Be Like Dross, Crystal & Drottningholms Slottsteater, Stockholm (solo show) 2012 ’Frieze Frame’, Frieze NY, Represented by Crystal, Stockholm 2012 Material Information, Arts & Crafts Museum, Bergen 2012 Artissima, Torino, Represented by Crystal, Stockholm 2013 The Magic of the State, Lisson Gallery, London 2013 Things Behind The Sun, NON, Istanbul 2013 Art Turning Left, curated by Francesco Manacorda, Tate Liverpool 2014 Art and Alchemy, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf 2015 Imaginary Accord, IMA, Brisbane 2016 Standard Lenght of a Miracle, Tensta konsthall c/o Tredje AP-fonden, Stockholm Selected Bibliography: Assheuer, Thomas. “Fauler Zauber? Von wegen!”, Die Zeit, April 10, 2014 Burke, Gregory. “Predictions: Art and the Future”, Art & Australia, Vol 49 No 4 Winter 2012 Jankowicz, Mia. “Review: The Magic of the State”, Frieze, No 156 Summer 2013 Persman, Joanna. “Besökarna blir aktörer i en gåtfull konstvärld”, Svenska Dagbladet, Feb 2, 2012 Ringborg, Theodor. “Critic’s Pick, Stockholm”, Artforum.com, January 2012 Rubin,Birgitta. “Pengar blir slagg”, Dagens Nyheter, Jan 16, 2012 THE DISCREET CHARM with Pamela Carter (playwright), Ismail Ertürk (cultural economist), Anna Heymowska (set designer), Hamadi Khemiri (actor) The title of this work alludes to Buñuel’s surrealist film from 1972 (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie), which parodies the spectacle and self-appointed entitlement of the bourgeoisie. The piece, however, con- cerns the discreet charm of the banking system, or rather, the infrastructures that are created in relation to capital and finance. Using a scale model of the kind frequently used as demonstration material in theatres between the director and actors, or between production teams and investors, an economist – who may pos- sibly be an actor – explains various financial strategies and instruments. The relationship between drama, model, stage and reality is constantly negotiated with the viewer. The perspective shifts between the gallery space we are sitting in, a model of the same space, and the films’s representation of this space. The work is part of a series of projects by Goldin+Senneby, using performance and theatre to explore the geography and methods of the financial market. Kim Einarsson Curator PREVIEW LINK (inside model view, Witte de With version): http://vimeo.com/114849502 Password: metafinance Performance view, Witte de With, Rotterdam, 2011. Photo: Kirsten de Graaf Performance view, Göteborg International Biennial of Contemporary Art, 2011. Photo: Dorota Lukianska Performance view, Generali Foundation, Vienna, 2012. Photo: Wolfgang Thaler Installation view, Steirischer herbst, Graz, 2013. Title: The Discreet Charm Medium: Model box presentation Year: 2011 Edition: Unique editions produced for Witte de With, Göteborg International Biennial