Nicolas Grospierre, "Bank, box#2 B", 2009/2011, fotografia, 100 x 200 cm, photo courtesy uprzejmości BWA Warszawa
Nicolas Grospierre, a Swiss-born artist based in Poland, presents a vision of the vicissitudes of fortune through the symbolism of the bank vault
The gallery is the setting for a series of works based on an examination of capitalism through the visual arts. The empty vaults and safe deposit boxes in Grospierre's photographs represent the chaos and bankruptcy that has been wreaking havoc in global economic markets over the past decade.
As a graduate of the London School of Economics, Grospierre has an academic background and practical knowledge of economics. His work as an artist gave way to a natural merging of the two seemingly divergent realms. The bank became less of a concrete financial institution and more of a metaphor, particularly in a world where transactions are done in credit, through wireless transactions.
The exhibition is ultimately a photography exhibition combined with art objects, combined with elements of performance art - each visitor must buy a lottery ticket in order to enter. Some win and some lose according to the typical rules of chance.
Grospierre asks what is wealth? What is the nature of 'good' fortune? Is the gold standard valid or merely a relic of the past? Do we calculate our wealth in bonds? How much money do the 1% of the world actually hold in cash? How can we differentiate between the lies of a trickster like Madoff and a venture capitalist who makes an honest living?
He lets us into the vault and presents us with an alternative form of wealth - art. The contemporary art market is quite a viable one, as most dealers know quite well. However, the values of the market are constantly in flux, dependent on trends and opinions. And yet, for many people in the world, art is entirely worthless.
The artist is also playing cat and mouse with us. In order to enter the vault we have to buy a lottery ticket. This is yet another ironic gesture, a suggestion that wealth today is not a function or an effect of hard work anymore, but a result of simple chance. Wealth can not be planned and predicted, just as we are not able to predict stock quotes. Everything together creates a visually strong production, that also refers to the spirit of conceptualism. Grospierre shows us the way he wants to be taking now, not only as a photographer anymore, but as an artist that treats photography as one of his media. There are photographs and objects with a huge aesthetic value among the works of Grospierre. This time he gives us an object and a situation connected to it. The Bank is a photography installation, and at the same time a performance built around it.
The exhibition runs at BWA Warszawa between the 3rd of December, 2011 - 21st of January, 2012
BWA WARSZAWA
ul. Jakubowska 16/3
www.bwawarszawa.pl
Partners: National Culture Centre, French Cultural Institute in Warsaw, Nowy Teatr, Profilab