The Trade Fair in Leipzig was then the most important site of trade between the East and the West, and so these photographs in particular mark an economic schizophrenia that had two sets of ties: socialist ones, in terms of its production, and capitalist ones, in terms of its presentation. They included ties to the countries of the former Non-Socialist economic region (NSW), such as the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), Sweden, and France, and socialist countries, such as Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, as well as young nations that since the mid-1970s had been involved in revolutionary struggles for liberation, such as Angola, Mozambique, and Ethiopia. From that starting point, Double Bound Economies moves toward contemporary artistic and spatial positions, historical and theoretical analyses, and the production of a video project. The various forms of practice, both in terms of reading the archive and of the sometimes independent actions of the artists, raises the following core question: What forms of articulation are available to us to grasp the contradictions of the mutual involvements of socialism and capitalism in the form of design and visual production and to make them useful for current problems? Double Bound Economies is centered on collective practice as a method of bringing things up-to-date, both in relation to the presentation of the archive and in the approach to a curatorial method. Artists, theorists, scholars, and former participants were invited to view, comment on, or select from the archive. This collective work method resulted in a polyphonic dramatization of the archive while also reporting on a nonlinear approach to the history of a vanished state. Furthermore, it allows the development of a visual vocabulary for an economic schizophrenia along a visual reflection on the problems and potencies of a former socialist project in Europe. Double Bound Economies is developed and produced by group Produzieren (Estelle Blaschke, Armin Linke, and Doreen Mende). It consists of a travelling exhibition (architecture: Kuehn Malvezzi), a publication (design: Werkplaats Typografie, Arnhem; publisher: spector books, Leipzig) and a website that will make the archive accessible to the public for the long term.
Contributors
Reinhard Mende, b. 1930, photographer (D); Bettina Allamoda, b. 1964, artist (D); Tekle Belete, b. 1928, photographer (ET); Peter Herbert Beyer, b. 1933, Designer (D); Fabian Bechtle, b. 1980, artist (D); Estelle Blaschke, b. 1976, photohistorian (D); Hans-Otto Bräutigam, b. 1931, Diplomat (D); KP Brehmer, 1938-1997, artist (D); Haile Gabriel Dagne, b. 1941 (ET); Paola de Martin, b. 1965, design historian (CH); Harun Farocki, b. 1944, artist (D); Mark Fisher, b. 1968, theorist (UK); Laure Giletti, b. 1986, graphic designer (F); The Otolith Group, artists, theorists (UK); Sven Johne, b. 1976, artist (D); Matthias Judt, b. 1962, economic historian (D); Kiluanji Kia Henda, b. 1978, artist (AO); Helgard Hirschfeld, b. 1949, archivist (D); Armin Linke, b. 1966, artist (IT/D); Valeria Malito, b. 1984, design student (IT) and Katja Saar, b. 1984, design student (D); Kuehn Malvezzi, architects (D, IT); Katrin Mayer, b. 1974, artist (D); Doreen Mende, b. 1976, curator/theorist (D); Allan Sekula, b. 1951, artist/theorist (USA) and Noël Burch, b. 1932, critic/filmmaker (USA); Kerstin Stakemeier, b. 1975, art historian (D); Philip Ursprung, b. 1963, art historian (CH); Thomas Weski, b. 1953, curator (D); Malte Wandel, b. 1982, artist (D); Christopher Williams, b. 1956, artist (USA, D).
Venues
HALLE 14 Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig May 6 to July 1, 2012 Halle14.org Centre de la photographie Genève 11 October – 25 November, 2012 centrephotogeneve.ch Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta) ETH Zurich 11 April – 23 May, 2013 gta.arch.ethz.ch Thomas Fischer Gallery, Berlin Summer 2013 galeriethomasfischer.de The project was funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation).