The Value of Nothing

In the aftermath of the global economic crisis, there are a number of increasingly urgent questions: how can we come to a different interpretation of the concept of value in addition to the usual financial and economic criteria? What are the other forms of economic exchange?

“The Value of Nothing” presents artists who add value to the current debate on value and economy.

They reveal value in places the mainstream market passes by, like Jeanne van Heeswijk’s project in Rotterdam’s Afrikaanderwijk district; or show how trade in a global economy also means a non-monetary cultural exchange, as in Meschac Gaba’s artistic exchange bureau. In their installations, Remco Torenbosch and Iratxe Jaio + Klaas van Gorkum explore the philosophical notions of distribution and (artistic) production, while Antonia Hirsch presents these as an active, informal network.

Topics such as economic inequality and quantification of value are explored in new projects by Helmut Smits, who controversially classifies youngsters for a football game, Paolo Cirio, who has made a tax avoidance website, and Jonas Lund’s analogue algorithm that maps the value of the exhibition itself. Bill Balaskas, Claire Fontaine, and Priscila Fernandes show the inevitable effects of capitalism and consumerism, and Jonas Staal reveals the relationship between recession and construction of the world’s largest buildings.

Gil & Moti, Roel Roscam Abbing, Kym Ward, Oblique International, and Weronika Zielinska each temporarily join a company in Rotterdam. They develop proposals for radically different ways of addressing topics such as hospitality, the notion of work or the politics behind the infrastructure of the Internet.
For the public program, curator and writer Nat Muller has organised Breaking the Bank, a two-part event in which, with academics, journalists, and other experts, she explores how art, value, and the global economy are interrelated. In a research project, Erasmus University College students discuss and explore the exhibition’s topics.

until 24 October 2014
The Value of Nothing
curated by Jesse van Oosten and Michel van Dartel
TENT Rotterdam
Witte de Withstraat 50, Rotterdam