MONEY ETC. - Isa Rosenberger and Kristina Leko

The phenomenon of money is as old as civilization itself and studying its nature and history drifts between two extremes: the liberal theory of economy which perceives money as a neutral means and sees its development from commodity to currency as a spontaneous process, as opposed to the conception of money as a complex system of social and political relations.

The exhibition Money etc. is the result of collaboration of two multimedia artists, Isa Rosenberger and Kristina Leko. The work of both artists is characterized by collaboration with different social groups and individuals. They are interested in the personal experiences, stories, competences and knowledge, points of view – and the ways they mix with the historical and political situation. In order to thematize the relations, intertwinings, points of view, perspectives, projections and prejudices between the (former) East and (former) West, in their joint Zagreb project they decide on the topic of banking, in light of the transitional process from a once socialistic into a capitalistic society. The domination of Austrian banks in Croatia and the effects on both Croatian and Austrian society, as the example of the so-called transitional processes in post-socialis tic countries, is the starting point of their artistic research. On the other side of economic considerations, on the productive basis of art as a 'specific stage of images', they try to find an art form for this complex and politically charged question. While searching for images which could represent the abstract and immaterial economic-political interlocking and the negative spirals, in her work Danse Macabre, Rehearsal (based on the ballet by Kurt Jooss 'The Green Table') Isa Rosenberger adopts the motive of the dance Death, as a kind of morbid waltz, an image of destructive flows, turns and intertwinings: a dark motive that is intermitted with the aesthetic dimension of the dance. The work Danse Macabre, Rehearsal should be interpreted as a homage to the ballet of the German choreographer Kurt Joossa “The Green Table” that was first performed in 1932 in Paris. In this expressionistic piece conceived as a danse macabre in eight images, Joos translated the classical motive of late medieval art into his contemporary setting and linked it to motives that reflect his experiences from the times of the Weimar Republic, the first fascistic tendencies, the economic crisis, etc. Isa Rosenberger translates this first political ballet into contemporariness, but also into a proper genre and she interweaves it with (her own) experiences and perspectives on the actual political and economic conditions. In the video, two narrative levels are connected with the motive of a spiral or circulation: on the one hand, the circulation of capital and profit of Austrian banks, on the other the spirals of the dance. The part of the documentation, the interviews she carried out in Zagreb in front of the building of the Croatian National Bank in June, 2009 goes beyond of the video itself. These “chorus” voices can be read on the pamphlets that can be found in front of the projection.

In the performance How People Live II which was performed in Park Maksimir, Kristina Leko reads excerpts from Rudolf Bicanic’s book from 1936 by with the same title, a pioneering work of anthological value from the field of rural sociology. The artist made the first performance under this title in 2008 in Park Tikveš in Baranja; this time she chose excerpts that refer to banking and the farmers’ running into debt. Bicanic wrote the book during the great agrarian crisis of the 1930’s, when, with the sudden arrival of capitalism to the countryside and the collapse of cooperative farms, the problems regarding farmers’ running into debt culminate. Rural population became dependant on money. The misconception that the rural population is closed in the natural economy where it can survive without trade and market is disabused. Bicanic is not blinded by old illusions and is well aware that the traditional way of life is not an alternative to the capitalistic social project. Insofar he stresses the political impotence of the rural population and argues that they should be introduced to the basics and laws of economy and finance, while his contemporaries accuse Western capitalism and individualism having disastrous effects on the countryside.

(from the text by Vesna Vukovic) curated by: Vesna Vukovic

MONEY ETC.
Isa Rosenberger and Kristina Leko
Kurator: Vesna Vukovic