More than any other generation before, we are hyper-aware of the brutal tactics of the capitalist systemin which we live. Yet we are obsessed with work and with being productive. We constantly express ournon conformity to the system, yet we feel the need to keep advertising our lives on social media. Wepay for services, and yet we are happy to do them ourselves. We are trapped in a loop in which wesimultaneously denounce and endorse the system.
Sadly for us, it looks like for the time being there is no easy way out. But even when the answer to thecentral question of this exhibition (how can we measure the value of our work?) is an impossible one, itis a question worth asking over and over again. And this is the thread that knits the exhibition together.The works of seven artists (TBC Barbara Foulkes (AR), Anne-Laure Franchette (FR), Patricio Gil (AR),Adrian Melis (CU), TBC Dominique Sievers (CH), Nora Schiedt (CH), and Igor Vidor (BR)) and twomusicians (Dalia Donadio (CH) and partner) will pose this same question in many different ways:
What does it mean to measure the value of work? And how does the value of work change, dependingon the geography and the economic system?
Which kind of work is more valuable?
How can we measure the value of our own labor (immaterial, affective or physical) if we don’t evenknow who we are really working for?
How do the tools we use for work determine the value of it? To what extent have we merged withthem?
What is the value of our free time? Of our bodies?
Do we actually have time off (work), or is our work as consumers to enjoy and have fun?
Why is giving birth referred to as “labor”, but the care work that women perform is not recognised orremunerated by any economic system? (Even though it sustains and allows the functioning of the verysystem)
What is the value of the knowledge that we inherit or that we share? And is there a measure for thevalue of legacy?
If we think of value as not being monetary, are we endorsing or denouncing capitalism? (Think of astudent who works for free in exchange of experience and skills)
Maybe we can think of ways of not doing/not working? Or of not having to measure the value?
Many open questions, many paradoxes.
Capitalism is a system that benefits from the masses, but wants us separated. Maybe there we can finda clue? What brings us together? The impossible measure is maybe not only the one that measures thevalue of our work, but the value of what can be achieved when we come together.
Article: https://es.artealdia.com/Galerias/THE-IMPOSSIBLE-MEASURE-CIERRE-ESPECIAL
