PRESS RELEASE 16.09.10 Autumn programme  at Spike Island Gallery One Wealth of Nations Curated by Institute for Flexible Cultures and Technologies – NAPON (Kristian Lukic, Gordana Nikolic) Preview: Friday 08 October, 6-9pm. Exhibition runs: 09 October to 28 November alongside Notes Part I, II & III, Charlie Tweed in Gallery Two. Gallery Opening Hours: Tuesday – Sunday 11am-5pm WEALTH OF NATIONS - Daniel Andújar (Spain), Michael Aschauer (Austria), Slavko Bogdanovic (Serbia), Luchezar Boyadjiev (Bulgaria), Heath Bunting (UK), Bureau of Inverse Technology (Melbourne, San Francisco, Berlin), Shu Lea Cheang (France/ USA), Derivart (Spain), Irational.org - Kayle Brandon (UK) & Heath Bunting (UK), IRWIN (Slovenia), Ola Pehrson (Sweden), Société Réaliste (France), Kate Rich (UK), Vladimir Todorović (Singapore / Serbia) Curators: Institute for Flexible Cultures and Technologies - NAPON (Kristian Lukic, Gordana Nikolic) Independent curators Kristian Lukic and Gordana Nikolic, who collaborate together under the banner of the ‘Institute for Flexible Cultures and Technologies – NAPON’, have been invited by Spike Island to re-stage their 2009 exhibition ‘Wealth of Nations’. ‘Wealth of Nations’ explores the influences that the economic and financial sectors have on society and consequently, on cultural production through a selection of works by international artists and collectives, some of whom have directly experienced the shift from socialist to liberal political and financial systems. The artists selected by the curators variously investigate the role of the market on the ‘true’ value of an artwork, illustrate stock exchange relations in choral form and parody the commoditisation of nature in new forms of currency. Others explore alternative economic systems from the social and cultural capital traded by artists to quasi-legal trading in real world identities and the historic moral propositions laid down in Islamic Banking.

Wealth of Nations

09 October - 28 November

Gallery One & Perimeter Gallery

The term "Wealth of Nations" is the title of the seminal book by the Scottish economist Adam Smith, in which he establishes and defends the basics of Liberal Economic Policy. Liberal Economics experienced its peak in the 1990s after the concept of Real Socialism had failed and the global free market had been established. This economy, however, has entered a period of deep crisis in past years and it affects the stability of societies. This syntax Wealth of Nations is used, on the one hand, as a theme for today’s state of liberal economy and, on the other hand, raises serious questions: What really constitutes value? Is it social interaction, beliefs and fears along with market indexes? To what extent is money nature or culture? Is money the equivalent of goods, labour, or is it self-referential? In this group exhibition of international artists and art collectives the notions of (material and immaterial) value, money and debt within today's society, as well as social practices reaching for alternative models of economy are explored.

a

Tue ‒ Thu: 09am ‒ 07pm
Fri ‒ Mon: 09am ‒ 05pm

Adults: $25
Children & Students free

673 12 Constitution Lane Massillon
781-562-9355, 781-727-6090