exhibit fast um$onst

The Neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst and the work group fast um$onst invite you to the exhibition fast um$onst in the gallery of the NGBK Oranienstraße 25 in 10999 Berlin-Kreuzberg. fast um$onst combines 32 critical and ironical positions by artists who reflect on the current social and economical situation.

The red pencil rules in Berlin as in the rest of Germany. Everybody talks about empty government funds and the necessity of being self-reliant. Deregulation, rationalization, suspension of staff, unemployment, isolation and lack of solidarity are the markers of a state which pretends to be a corporate organization.

The image of the artist as the epitome of the creative, non-alienated worker becomes the state-licenced and state-supported ideal and realizes itself in the so-called ICH-AG (ME incorporated)

fast um$onst is an art exhibition for the economic inventory of some elements of globalized neo-liberalism and about strategies of muddling through (i.e. self-organized imaginative action) after the New Economy. We chose artists who talk about the service sector, but decline to accept its logic and look for an escape out of the perpetual mill of “working for not enough money” – even if it is just imaginary.

fast um$onst supports critical thought and improvisation in the fight against the cutbacks in the quality of everyday life. fast um$onst answers the coercion to be self-reliant with the delight of doing things yourself. Our main concerns include the democratization of and the participation in artistic processes.

This claim is realized by open workshops like the ATELIER POPULAIRE, silk screen printing with Gertrud Fischbacher (March 16 + 17) or the money song evening with DJ-EVERYBODY and VJ-L'ANGELO DORO on April 2nd, when everybody who brings his or her records with money-songs can be a DJ.

On the road – THE HITCHHIKING BOOKS (March 26), an evening with Kaaren Beckhof, is devoted to the forgotten cultural skill of hitchhiking. Everybody can chart their own travel routes on a map in the gallery.

The INSTITUTE FOR PRIMARY ENERGY asks for contributions for its next congress ‘Financing Strategies on the Fringes of Possibility’, that will take place 2005. (March 21 and April 2)

The Congress Coaching 2004 organized by CAPITAL TRAINING provides an opportunity to participate in an advanced training for media artists and get help for professional re-orientation and professionalization.

In January the open contest GOLDREGEN – GELDSEGEN asked the general public to participate in art. Three winners won a painting made according to their own submission by Astrid Küver, a well known Berlin artist. Their wishes and aspirations of wealth and luxury are materialized through the idealized value of an art work.

The SELBSTBEDIENUNGSZENTRALE (self-service agency) by Claudia Burbaum, Folke Köbberling and Martin Kaltwasser (opening hours Friday to Sunday 3-6:30 pm) puts a model of a free economy into practice, which opens up the possibility to exchange things without the constraint of getting something back or paying for it. It responds pragmatically to the changing economic conditions and calls on the interaction of artists and audience.


List of artists:

"Die Trampelbücher" (the hitchhiking diaries), Kaaren Beckhof; multi-media installation & presentation

"Re:represent" Blank & Jeron; installation

"Capital Training Congress Coaching 2004" organized by Ellen Nonnenmacher with Helene von Oldenburg, Claudia Reiche, Valie Djordjevic, Kerstin Weiberg, Verena Kuni; slide show & congress

"Eine neue Herausforderung bundesweit" (A new challenge nationwide) Angélica Chio, Rüdiger Stern; video

"L'angelo d'oro", Doro Etzler; video_foto_visuals/videoscratching

"Atelier populaire" with Gertrud Fischbacher;
serigraphy workshop

"Scheinwelten - Tütengeld" (Illusionary worlds – bag money) Tina-Marie Friedrich; paintings
"acts of pointless resistance" Sofia Hultén; video

"Alle Waren Reduziert" (All goods reduced/Everybody was reduced) Christine Kriegerowski; slide show

"Goldregen - Geldsegen" Astrid Küver; commissioned paintings

"Money Transfer - où sans argent tu ne manges pas" Barbara Loreck and guests; performance

"Institur für Primärenergie" Uli Ertl, Mirjam Junker, Barbara Loreck, Conrad Noack, Rut Waldeyer; info table

"The best things in life are free" Anton Rabe, Inger Schwarz; performance

"Selbstbedienungszentrale" Claudia Burbaum, Martin Kaltwasser, Folke Köbberling; interactive installation or - more simply: shop

"busking DX 386" Alexej Shulgin; installation

"Money-multiplier" Tiger Stangl; installation

"DJ-Everybody" Betty Stürmer; party & line-up lists

"Give me more" Claudia Tribin; installation


work group at NGBK:
Haytham el Wardany, Tina-Marie Friedrich, Christine Kriegerowski, Christoph Tempel, Claudia Tribin

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