To me, exhibition openings are mostly a very anticlimactic affair. Beforehand, quite a bit of work goes into the presentation. There is a lot of back and forth between me and the people organizing the show. I have to travel there. Be on time. Think about what I might be going to talk about. Don’t…
Category: Trust me, I don’t understand contemporary art either
Peak frustration and the strange metrics of artistic success
You know what is strange? Let me tell you something. I can not make a living through my art. Most of the time, that is OK, and I get along doing some freelance work for companies that build exhibitions. Of course, I get paid for that. Hell, it is work I am doing. The strange…
Shitty Audiences
I was at a conference recently – about smartphone photography. There, quite frequently, people raised the question, if everybody nowadays must be considered an artist of some sort, since everybody takes pictures. This quickly veered off into the question of who should be considered an artist and what might be good – or maybe worthy…
Being complicit
I have some doubts about my own work. I am writing this in Berlin. The weather is shitty, but that is normal this time of the year. From my walk to the gym and the interactions I am having with friends and family I would assume that everything is fine. Not a single of my…
Money Money Money
Maybe I am naïve, but the image above is slightly disturbing to me. Of course, artist need to make a living (sometimes even through selling their art) and so do gallerists, agents and everyone else involved in the art world. As a whole art is quite removed from the needs and urges of society, that…
The Metrics of the Art World and why Art Schools resemble a Cult
When it comes to the importance of a contemporary artist, two different metrics seem most important. The first metric deals with financial success, this tries to take into account sales through the primary market (sales directly through the artist and through a gallery or agency), and through the secondary market (mostly sales through auction houses)….
Art Schools – A Ponzi Scheme
Of those people, who have attended art school, very few manage to make their living from selling their art afterwards and even fewer get rich. Everyone seems to have accepted that and even while I was attending art school, that was constantly something people were talking about. It is now ten years since I have…
Revolution as a Reference
Recently I went to an exhibition opening. There were some video projections, the content did not really matter. While holding a glass of wine, I came to talk to an elderly man. He mentioned to me that the videos did remind him of some Fluxus works, he had seen in one of the earlier Documenta…
The ghost of van Gogh’s ear and the wonders of being misunderstood
I was at a big event conference recently and during one talk there were two people on stage complaining about the fact that many of the issues they were addressing were taboo and therefore had little exposure in the media and in society. And yet, there they were. On stage, in a room with a…
Why is it easier to explain the Holocaust than a work by Joseph Beuys?
There is this group of Syrian refugees that I know, that are mostly part of an extended family. Since they are all – on very different skill levels – struggle somewhat to cope with the German language and culture, I take them to different museums from time to time. I find that this is a…