Finanz(ierung)System Kunsthandeln
ES GEHT ANS EINGEMACHTE
Conceptual Art and Permaculture by Doris Koch
08 / 10 / 26 until 26 / 28 / 11 / 26
Opening on Thursday, 8 October from 7.00 pm
Since 2008, Doris Koch has been working on an unusual work-in-progress entitled the ‘Art Trade Finance (Funding) System’ (FISKU). It reflects artistically on aspects of the global financial system, brings them to life and, at the same time, serves to finance her artistic work.
The FISKU comprises three elements: the securities or currency, the products (also known as ‘indicators’), and the production (represented here in the exhibition by the garden).
In the exhibition, on the back wall, there is a safe containing the brand-new sixth batch of Kochscheine. The new issue of these Kochscheine will commence on the opening day of the exhibition. They will be issued for the very first time. You can exchange one or more notes for euros. If you own Kochscheine, you are a shareholder in FISKU and have profit-sharing rights.
Cooking Vouchers are a medium of exchange like money; they are profit-sharing certificates like corresponding securities; but above all, they are art! They are objects of art trading: you can subscribe to and exchange them within the exhibition. The art trading activities of the shareholders determine the value of the Cooking Vouchers. This, in turn, is reflected in a dedicated performance index, KUPEX, analogous to the DAX …
Doris Koch lost her studio in Kreuzberg in 2022 and can no longer afford a workspace in Berlin. As a result, she ended up in an allotment in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. There, she began to explore permaculture and to create a forest garden. The concept of permaculture goes far beyond gardening and encompasses all areas of life. It is closely linked to the search for a new way of living that is based on 1. care for the Earth, 2. care for people, and 3. fair sharing and self-restraint.
The title of the exhibition, “It’s Getting Down to the Nitty-Grits”, refers in a double sense to the current individual and political situation. The situation is serious – on every level. We must devise concrete solutions; there is no longer any way around a systemic transformation of the way we live together and conduct our economic affairs, and that also means transforming the financial system: what does fair sharing and self-restraint mean? What does caring for people in our society look like? What can we do to keep the Earth habitable for future generations?
“It’s getting down to the nitty-gritty” is also the inspiration for the menu: in preserving food, four flavour profiles are distinguished: sweet, sour, salty and spicy. When growing plants in the garden, they have different functions which are combined in such a way that they support one another.
The artist Doris Koch has been working with participatory artistic practice in social contexts since 1991. The themes she has explored include the surplus of office space in Berlin (1996), the loss of orchard meadows (1998), peripheral areas (1999–2001), and gaps and absences in urban space (2003). She worked with 12 villages (2005–2007) and with drug dealers in a park (2005–2007). Her projects were situated less within the art world and more within their respective social contexts.
To kick things off, we’ll serve a selection from the menu.