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.

Wealth of Nations Wealth of Nations Exhibition (6–14th June, Trg Slobode, Novi Sad)
Conference (7th and 8th June, SNP, kamerna scena)

Wealth of Nations is a part of the Cinema City festival and consists of an exhibition and a conference. 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 the past few months and it might, for a shorter or longer period, affect the stability of societies all over the planet. The topic of ‘Wealth of Nations’ this year will delve into the influences that the Economic and Financial sectors have on society and consequently, on cultural production.

The aim of both the exhibition and the conference ‘Wealth of Nations’ is to bring together Art, Theory, Social Sciences and Economics, Cultural Studies and Finance in order to discuss the phenomenon of money within different social and historical contexts and meanings. According to its definition money is : a) a measure of value b) a medium of exchange and c) a medium of capital accumulation. The fact is that money is never solely money as a measure of economic value. It is a measure of value that participates in the constitution, and the control and regulation of both the material and nonmaterial (irrational or imaginary) social body/subject and its relations. From such a position, money can be viewed as the basis of social power, as the main element or measure of value, or as a symbolic or numerical abstraction.

Selección de obras de Net art Artistas: Minerva Cuevas (México), Daniel García Andujar (España), Mario García Torres (México), Guillermo Gómez-Peña (México), David Hinojosa Admann (México), Antonio Mendoza (EEUU-Cuba), Ze dos Bois (Portugal), Rafael Marchetti (Argentina) y Raquel Renno (Brasil). Selección: Gustavo Romano por Gustavo Romano, 2006 Ciertos proyectos en la web pueden ser mejor apreciados si los entendemos no como obras cerradas, sino como intervenciones. Se trata por cierto de intervenciones en un nuevo espacio público, Internet, un espacio de intercambio, de reunión, ámbito de transacciones personales o comerciales. Pero como toda intervención en un espacio público, la acción debe camuflarse con el entorno y evitar que se perciba su carácter de proyecto artístico. Es que pareciera ser que en el mismo momento en que aparece la palabra arte, la intervención es desenmascarada y pierde toda peligrosidad. La ficción debe agazaparse, mimetizarse con la realidad para mantener su intensidad y poder subvertirla.

Laura G. De Rivera. La mercantilización de Internet y los abusos de poder están en la diana de los hacktivistas. La Red deja de ser sólo un medio de comunicación para convertirse en el campo y objetivo mismo de la contienda. Sus acciones reúnen a personas de todo el mundo a través de Internet. “Las redes ayudan a construir redes. Esto sucede rápidamente a través del correo electrónico, que es nuestro método principal de trabajo”. Así lo afirma Ricardo Domínguez, fundador del movimiento de Desobediencia Civil Electrónica y uno de los primeros hacktivistas de la historia, que saltó a Internet al calor del zapatismo digital a comienzos de 1998. “Con la nueva tecnología de redes colectivas, los militares y los estados no serán las únicas comunidades capaces de acceder a la distribución de la información. Los civiles también podrán”, añade. Para muchos, el hacktivismo es una forma de delincuencia encubierta que amenza el orden establecido. Para otros, se trata más bien de trasladar los medios de acción política desde la calle a Internet. Entre los primeros están, cómo no, el gobierno de EE UU, que tras el 11 de septiembre se sintió con más derecho a extremar las restricciones en la privacidad de las comunicaciones en el ciberespacio. Ya lo hacía antes con la sofisticada maquinaria de vigilancia absoluta Echelon que tiene capacidad para espiar todas nuestros comunicaciones comunicaciones electrónicas, estemos o no bajo su jurisdicción legal.

Hack Por: Laura G. De Rivera. La mercantilización de Internet y los abusos de poder están en la diana de los hacktivistas. La Red deja de ser sólo un medio de comunicación para convertirse en el campo y objetivo mismo de la contienda. Sus acciones  reúnen a personas de todo el mundo a través de Internet. “Las redes ayudan a construir redes. Esto sucede rápidamente a través del correo electrónico, que es nuestro método principal de trabajo”. Así lo afirma Ricardo Domínguez, fundador del movimiento de Desobediencia Civil Electrónica y uno de los primeros hacktivistas de la historia, que saltó a Internet al calor del zapatismo digital a comienzos de 1998. “Con la nueva tecnología de redes colectivas, los militares y los estados no serán las únicas comunidades capaces de acceder a la distribución de la información. Los civiles también podrán”, añade. Para muchos, el hacktivismo es una forma de delincuencia encubierta que amenza el orden establecido. Para otros, se trata más bien de trasladar los medios de acción política desde la calle a Internet. Entre los primeros están, cómo no, el gobierno de EE UU, que tras el 11 de septiembre se sintió con más derecho a extremar las restricciones en la privacidad de las comunicaciones en el ciberespacio. Ya lo hacía antes con la sofisticada maquinaria de vigilancia absoluta Echelon que tiene capacidad para espiar todas nuestros comunicaciones comunicaciones electrónicas, estemos o no bajo su jurisdicción legal.

by Inke Arns, Berlin, June 2000 <inke@snafu.de> written for Technologies to the People [d.i. Daniel Garcia Andujar], La sociedad informacional, catalogue, to be published in August 2000 [English / Spanish]

„I am not fond of manipulation, and I think you should not use it for political aims." (1) (Left-wing squatter in Berlin, April 2000) In 1996-1997 together with Ute Vorkoeper we organized and curated the international exhibition project discord. sabotage of realities (2) which took place in the Kunstverein and the Kunsthaus in Hamburg. The exhibition was part of the Hamburg Week of Visual Arts 1996, partly funded by the city's Cultural Office. Artists worldwide were invited to submit artistic concepts dealing with today's more and more un-peaceful political and social realities. The organizers received more than 500 concepts from 31 countries. The actual exibition discord was divided into six thematic zones focussing on control (security/insecurity), news services (disinformation), everyday (alienation), border politics (walking the tightrope), state machineries (law, discipline, repression), science fiction & economy (the administration of the future) and included an international selection of 34 artistic works most of which were premiered in the exhibition, and 26 additional artistic concepts from 18 countries.

Technologies To The People by Iris Dressler, «Technologies To The People» In 1996, Daniel García Andújar founded the concern «Technologies To The People,» which brought the «Street Access Machine» on the market the same year: a combination system made up of reading device, special credit card, and public online access, which allows the homeless and other fringe groups to enter the world of plastic money and E-commerce. The trademark-protected «Street Access Machine,» whose design announced the i-Mac Generation in 1996, is perfectly marketed with a corporate identity and comprehensive advertising campaign—flyers, posters, and merchandising materials. Nothing is missing except the corresponding product. Andújar is not concerned with virtual capital for all, but more so with naming the structures of exclusion so gladly denied during the course of the omnipresent cyber-euphoria.[...]

1996 Website, printed flyers, posters « [www.irational.org/tttp/*siteTTTP/] Presented with original posters » Products offered by Technologies To The People (TTTP), the company founded by Daniel G. Andújar, range from the Street Access Machine® over the Recovery Card® and Internet Street Access Machine®

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

Adults: $25
Children & Students free

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